Jan Maes's Page

Hi everybody,

The global meeting in Paris has come to an end, but I hope the discussions on this site and within the Poverty Outreach Working Group will continue. A lot of lessons are being learned by the Graduation Program pilots, and most of them are of great value for any type of intervention that aims to strengthen the economc potential of the ultra poor. At the same time, I hope that some among you have valuable lessons to share from your own attempts at linking very…

Another extremely interesting meeting here in Paris. The entire day was devoted on sharing the accumulated knowledge on the lives of the ultra poor and the changes that are already being seen after participating in graduation programs in a wide variety of context.

Just as a reminder, the CGAP Ford Graduation Program is a BRAC inspired model that uses a combination of social safety nets (cash transfers), livelihoods and savings to reach the ultra poor and "graduate" them out…

After two intense days of learning and knowledge exchange among Graduation Program Pilot participants and researchers, the public part of the meeting (which I am attending) started out by a panel discussion on different approaches to reach the poorest. I learned a lot and will soon make the conference materials available, but here are some interesting snippets from some of the panelists.

Syed Hashemi discussed the graduation program, which is now being piloted by 9…

Dear all,

I will be attending the Global Meeting on Reaching the Poorest for the next three days in Paris. This meeting is organized by CGAP and the Ford Foundation, to share knowledge and exchange learning with participants in their "graduation program". At the end of today, I will summarize important findings and hopefully involve you in a continuing dialouge. Meanwhile learn here about this…