Adapting the graduation approach for scale in government livelihood programs in the Philippines

The Graduation Approach (GA) helps households exit extreme poverty by providing a bundle of support, including productive assets, skills training, coaching, and mentoring. Evidence shows GA increases income, consumption, and assets for ultra-poor households. IPA has supported its adaptation and scale across diverse settings, focusing on improving cost-effectiveness, expanding reach, and positioning the model for government adoption. Building on this work, IPA and BRAC are partnering with the Philippine Government to integrate GA into existing livelihood programs led by the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) and the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE). This project will strengthen government capacity to monitor, evaluate, and refine GA delivery, while testing scalable adaptations such as variations in coaching and livelihood support. Coaching has emerged as a key component for successful and cost-effective implementation. This grant will support the piloting of adapted coaching models and other innovations to ensure GA meets local needs while scaling effectively. This partnership builds on a prior evaluation of a GA pilot in the Philippines, which found strong impacts on consumption, food security, and asset accumulation. It also showed that group coaching, which is 30% cheaper than individual coaching, delivered similar results, highlighting opportunities for cost-efficient scale-up.