Differential Impact of a Poverty Alleviation Program Targeting the Ultrapoor in the Philippines

Poverty alleviation programs typically target households below a certain threshold and provide the same intervention. International Care Ministries is a non-governmental organization in the Philippines that provides an educational training program called Transform targeting the ultrapoor. Using data collected from preand post-Transform, we estimated a multivariable logistic regression to analyze the differential impact of Transform on the income of the participants. The program appeared to be successful in increasing the income of the poorest thereby helping alleviate persisting inequalities. The analyses showed that baseline income, highest educational attainment of the participant, and geographically type of residence affect the outcome of the intervention. The results demonstrated that thresholds are important in identifying a target population, but programs can be more successful when interventions are designed for a certain profile of people living below these thresholds.