The “Bab Amal” program is the localized version of the Targeting the Ultra Poor Program (TUP), which was created to target the poorest families. TUP was established by BRAC, and has proven successful in more than 50 countries with different contexts. Sawiris Foundation adopted the program in 2018, where we cooperated with partners from relevant ministries, civil society organizations, research centers, and grant-making organizations to plan for the program, which targets extreme poverty in Egypt. The program has been implemented in the poorest villages in Assiut and Sohag.

The program follows an integrated approach to graduate households out of extreme poverty in 18 months, and consists of four main pillars, which are:

1. Providing social protection:

• Providing financial consumption support to families during the first eight months of the program.
• Maintaining accessibility to basic services such as healthcare, education, sanitation, rehabilitation of homes, and issuing national ID cards.

2. Strengthening livelihoods and generating income:

• Providing families with animal and commercial assets, along with veterinarian services, animal feed, technical training, and follow-up on asset profitability.

3. Achieving financial inclusion:

• Training on financial literacy.
• Linking families with governmental and non-governmental services.
• Forming Village Saving and Loan Associations (VSLAs).

4. Social empowerment:

• Visiting families every two weeks to follow up on progress.
• Training families on life skills.
• Establishing village solidarity committees to support the poorest families.
• Providing psychological support during home visits.
• Establishing village solidarity committees and training them on the “Graduation from Ultra Poverty” program.
• Holding meetings every two months between village solidarity committees and families.

The program’s initial results for the first phase showed that 83% of families enjoy accessibility to basic services and maintain sustainable conditions that would lead to graduation from poverty. Although these are very promising results, we are awaiting the results of the final impact evaluation conducted by J-PAL. In the second phase of Bab Amal (which is ongoing), the program is seeking to maintain the same percentage and to guarantee that at least 80% of the targeted families are on a sustainable pathway out of poverty.