Group versus Individual Coaching for Rural Social Protection Programs: Evidence from Uganda, Philippines, and Bangladesh

The Human Subjects Committee for Innovations for Poverty Action provided oversight for the Uganda and the Philippines sites, “ADB Graduation of the Ultra Poor Pilot,” protocol #14304 and “Uganda Graduation Pilot” #14649. The Uganda National Council for Science and Technology also provided oversight for the Uganda site, “Evaluation of the Graduation to Resilience Program in Ramwanja Refugee Settlement and Kamwenge District” #SS 4684. The Oxford Economic Department’s Research Ethics Committee (DREC) provided oversight for the Bangladesh site, “Experimental assessment of varying coaching intensity in the “ultra-poor graduation” model in Bangladesh”, ECONCIA21-22-12. The Philippines site was pre-registered at the AEA RCT Registry as “Ultra Poor Graduation Pilot in Philippines,” #AEARCTR-0004658 (Beam et al., 2020), the Uganda site as “Randomized Impact Evaluation of a Graduation Program on Livelihoods in Refugee and Host Communities in Uganda,” #AEARCTR-0004080 (Brune et al., 2024), and the Bangladesh site as “The role of coaching within bundled ultra-poor graduation programs: Experimental evidence from Bangladesh” #AEARCTR-0009618 (Das et al., 2022). Funding provided by the Asian Development Bank, the USAID Bureau of Humanitarian Assistance Technical and Operational Performance Support (TOPS) Uganda Graduation Randomized Control Trial Associate Award, and the ERINN Program under the Wellspring Philanthropic Fund. We are thankful for excellent research assistance and support from Nathalie Basto Aguirre, Marie Therese David, Maria Isabel Fernandez, Jorge Franco, Nathan Haddon, Manushi Kumar, Allan Lalisan, and Monserrat Lara; for the support of DOLE leadership and staff, including Ahmma Charisma Lobrin-Satumba and Assistant Secretary Alex Avila; for the support of BRAC USA, specifically Marlowe Popes, Dristy Shrestha, and Lauren Whitehead; for the support of AVSI, specifically Jackie Aldrette, Rita Larok, Massimo Zucca. We are very grateful to Christopher Adam, Raphael Bradenbrink, Dennis Egger, David Evans, Douglas Gollin, Vatsal Khandelwal, Pramila Krishnan, Muhammad Meki, Sandra Sequeira, and Verena Wiedemann, as well as participants at the IPA/GPRL Annual Researcher Gathering, the Oxford CSAE Conference, the CREB ADE Conference, the LUMS Pathways to Development Conference, the NOVAfrica Conference on Economic Development, and The Ohio State University, for helpful comments and discussions. Any errors are the authors'. The views expressed herein are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Bureau of Economic Research.