With a population of 11 million people, Burundi has been beset by greater volatility in recent years due to climate shocks as well as an evershifting socio-economic and political environment. Burundians are facing a myriad of challenges, from land scarcity and rapid population growth to poor agricultural practices and increasing food and nutrition insecurity.

Despite relative stability and progress since the end of the 15-year civil war in 2005, poverty and undernutrition rates across Burundi remain high. Stunting among children under the age of five is at 57.5%, with wasting at 6.1% and underweight at 29.1%. In the 2014 Global Hunger Index report (latest available data), Burundi had the worst score of all of the countries in the report and was considered to be in the ‘extremely alarming’ category.

A staggering 81% of Burundians are classified as poor, with 50% living in severe poverty. The mortality rate in children under the age of five is 82 per 1,000 live births. The health system is under severe pressure, with public health care expenditure accounting for just 2.89% of GDP in 2011. Only 44% of the population had health coverage in 2010.

Since April 2015, Burundi has been undergoing a period of socio-political instability and insecurity, resulting in increasing humanitarian needs and a drastic reduction in foreign bilateral aid. Against this backdrop, the already fragile economy of the country is experiencing a significant downturn. Between April 2015 and July 2016 over 274,000 Burundians fled the country, mainly to neighbouring states such as Tanzania, Rwanda, Uganda and the Democratic Republic of Congo, and a growing number of people have been internally displaced.

Despite these challenges, Burundi has enormous potential, including fertile land, a moderate climate and opportunities for increased trade with its numerous neighbouring countries (based on its mineral wealth, comparative advantage in the agricultural sector and geographical location).

The Terintambwe ‘Take a Step Forward’ programme, which is based on Concern’s Graduation Model, is an integrated and sequenced support package designed (i) to facilitate improved returns on new and existing assets, (ii) to address inequality, and (iii) to reduce risk and vulnerability (these are the three dimensions of how Concern understands extreme poverty).

Concern’s Graduation Model is an adaptation of the approach first developed and championed by BRAC in Bangladesh and subsequently piloted in eight other countries by the Consultative Group to Assist the Poor (CGAP) and the Ford Foundation. Support for the programme is usually provided over a period of two to three years and has five key components:

1. Comprehensive targeting to ensure that extremely poor households are included as programme participants
2. Consumption/income support in the form of a regular cash transfer to help participants meet their basic needs while they work to expand and diversify their livelihood strategies
3. Provision of skills training and regular coaching, focusing on human capital and providing access to practical training as well as routine coaching and mentoring visits
4. Facilitating access to savings facilities (and credit where feasible)
5. An asset or capital transfer to start new or expand existing economic activities and help participants to establish themselves as small businesses or seek more formal employment

Terintambwe uses a graduation approach which has been tailored to the contextual realities and the needs of the population in Burundi. It targets the extremely poor with labour capacity and aims to create and capitalise on opportunities to create sustainable pathways out of poverty and increase people’s ability to cope with unforeseeable situations and volatility in the longer term.

Concern works to help people living in extreme poverty bring about major improvements to their lives.

The way in which Concern understands extreme poverty informs where and how Concern works as an organisation. This is a concept echoed in its commitment in Agenda 2030 to ‘leave no-one behind’. Concern has been operational in Burundi since 1997. In that time, it has worked in the areas of community-based health, including child survival, agriculture, nutrition, education and livelihood development.

Most recently, Concern – with the support of the Irish Government – has been working with communities in Cibitoke and Kirundo provinces through the Terintambwe ‘Take a Step Forward’ programme, which is based on Concern’s Graduation Model.

A relatively small network of INGOs is present in the country and supports the Government and local communities in the socio-economic development of Burundi. Concern’s Alliance2015 partner and co-author of the GHI, Welthungerhilfe (WHH), has been working in Burundi since 2001. Starting with various emergency interventions, it gradually shifted its focus onto development work with national NGO partners. In the past, WHH has focused on sustainable agriculture, natural resource protection, peace and reconciliation, WASH and adaption to climate change.

In 2015, Concern Burundi reached 91,000 people directly. Terintambwe participants engage in the five steps of graduation, receiving the equivalent of approximately EUR 13.00 in cash per month for 14 months via mobile phone cash transfers. Cash transfers are used to help ensure people have enough to eat at all times. Over this same period, participants receive coaching through home visits, including training that addresses hygiene, domestic relations, family planning, HIV and AIDS, literacy and business skills.

Encouraged to take part in Savings and Internal Lending Community (SILC) groups, participants regularly save part of their income in order to improve their ability to cope with shocks and plan for future events. An asset transfer (grant) of approximately EUR 82.00 is provided, which is intended to be invested in income-generating activities (IGAs). Participants choose their IGAs based on a market study in each programme area. Common activities include vegetable trading, banana juice making, animal rearing and farming.

Concern collaborated with the UK-based Institute of Development Studies (IDS) to collect evidence on the impact of the programme. By comparing baseline (2012) and end-line (2015) data from programme participants and non-participants, three types of interrelated and complementary impact were identified: material, behavioural and social.

Additionally, programme evaluations highlighted the positive knock-on effect that this had on the wider community through behavioural changes and positive outcomes for communities as a whole. End-line data collection took place two years after participants received the monthly cash transfer component, thereby indicating that many of the outcomes of the programme have been sustained over time.

1. Material Impact

The material impact includes improved living conditions, better household sanitation facilities, diversification of sources of revenue and access to a wider range of small and large household assets. More than 50% of the programme’s participants had made improvements to the roofs of their houses by the end of the programme.

In comparison, only 10% of non-participants were recorded to have done the same. There was a seven-fold increase in the value of household assets (e.g. kitchen utensils, furniture, bedding, bicycles, mobile phones and radios) for participants between the baseline and endline surveys compared to a three-fold increase for nonparticipants.

Using an index that calculates the total value of assets owned (including household assets, farming assets and livestock), a substantial improvement was measured, with participants doubling their asset ownership in comparison to non-participants. Another impact was that participants changed their primary occupation. Where 68% of Terintambwe participants had previously relied on casual labour, this figure had decreased to 12.9% at the end of the programme.

Reliance on casual labour as a primary occupation is regarded as an indicator of vulnerability. This was therefore a positive change. Programme participants also diversified their sources of revenue, with 17.8% involved in IGAs as their primary occupation and 40% as their secondary occupation. By contrast, non-participants recorded only a marginal involvement in IGAs and continued to be highly reliant on casual labour. A closer look at the programme results identifies slow and fast movers through the programme due to a number of enabling and constraining factors. This includes household characteristics such as the initial level of deprivation, domestic relations or the level of entrepreneurship, and external factors such as the viability of business choices. While slow movers may start by investing in household assets, the fast movers quickly set up IGAs and earn profit from activities.

2. Behavioural Impact including Food and Nutrition Security

There was a significant reduction in the number of months per year in which participants reported going hungry, namely from a six-month hunger gap at baseline to one-and-a-half months at end-line. Non-participants continued to record a hunger gap of more than six months per year at end-line. Furthermore, 81% of adult participants in the programme were eating only one meal per day at baseline; at end-line, this percentage had fallen to 8%. By providing regular coaching, the programme also increased knowledge about nutrition and promoted improved food consumption and dietary diversity.

For the participants in the programme, household dietary diversity (calculated based on how many food groups a household is able to access per day) more than doubled between the baseline and end-line, namely from 2.3 food groups per day to 5.1. Meanwhile, dietary diversity increased to just 3.1 for non-participants over the same period. Child nutrition also doubled from 1.7 food groups per day to 3.4 per day for participants (an increase of 100%). By contrast, the increase was only 50% for non-participants.

There were improvements in school attendance, a decline in the proportion of children working outside the home, an increase in the number of visits to health centres, an exponential rise in the number of households saving regularly (45 times more at end-line compared to baseline for participants against an increase of just 5 times for non-participants), and improved hygiene practices such as washing hands at critical times.

All participants received health insurance cards at the start of the programme, which made formal health care more affordable. They also reported that prescribed medication was more accessible than before, most likely because they could use part of their income to cover these costs. In total, 56% of participants attended health facilities at baseline compared to 94% at end-line. The increase among non-participants was much lower (from 53% to 68%).

The behavioural impact was not limited to participants in the programme alone. Non-participants also replicated certain programme activities, such as building kitchen gardens, latrines, tippy taps, utensil stands and establishing savings groups.

3. Social Impact

Social impact can be more difficult to measure for a number of reasons, including the fact that it goes beyond community groups and the existence of interpersonal bonds and depends significantly on the quality of these bonds. Terintambwe registered a positive impact on social capital, as reflected in the engagement of participants in community group activities (school management, community health, disaster risk reduction, women’s committees and cooperatives) and attendance at and contribution to social events (weddings and other ceremonies).

Quantitative results show an increase in group membership. Where at first 72.7% of participants were involved in community groups, this figure increased to more than 95.4%. By contrast, non-participants recorded almost no increased participation whatsoever. Qualitative studies suggest that as a result of the programme, participants gained selfconfidence and a sense of respect in the community. At household level, results suggest that joint decision-making within the household improved.

Men ceded control in certain areas (women’s income in particular) where previously they made the decisions. Improvements in social capital benefitted both participants and the wider community as a whole.

By supporting programme participants in stabilising their food consumption level, reinforcing good practices in terms of nutrition, education and domestic relations and enabling households to implement their own income-generating activities, graduation is offering a faster way to reach zero hunger.

Through the programme, Concern targets the extremely poor and addresses the underlying determinants of extreme poverty, such as inequality, risk and vulnerability and a lack of and/or low return on assets. Graduation creates and capitalises on opportunities to create sustainable pathways out of poverty even in complex circumstances.

It increases the ability of programme participants to cope with shocks and volatility in the longer term. One Terintambwe participant, Béatrice Kankera, from Kirundo province in the northeast of the country, shared her experience of the programme with the Concern team:

Graduating from Extreme Poverty

Béatrice Kankera, a Terintambwe participant, is a widow and has two daughters, Aline and Nabelle. The Concern team met her back in 2012 when her house collapsed during a storm. Selected for Terintambwe, she received a monthly cash transfer and regular coaching throughout the programme. She was also encouraged to become a member of a Savings and Internal Lending Community (SILC) group, which she did. The team visited her again in July 2016 to evaluate the impact of the graduation programme on her life.

In 2012, Béatrice was in an extremely vulnerable situation. She almost had to remove her children from school as she did not have enough to feed them. Back then, she and her children could only eat cassava, potatoes and beans. When she was ill, she did not have the means to go to the health centre or pay for medicine. Béatrice did not own any land, and could not afford to rent land for cultivation. Her only option was to find casual labour in other people’s fields. She was not able to read or write and would exclude herself from social gatherings because she felt that she was too poor.

When asked to share her impressions about the Terintambwe programme, she says that Concern helped her extensively and that she no longer goes to sleep without eating. The most important aspect was the support she received from Concern to start an income-generating activity, and the money she was able to use to rebuild her house. Although she did have to stop this activity for a while because she was not making enough profit, she restarted it again recently thanks to her membership in the SILC group. She received BIF 37,500 (EUR 20.40) as a result of her savings contributions. With these funds and the training she received, she was able to continue her banana juice making business and also start selling avocados. Béatrice is an active member of a SILC group and continues to attend SILC meetings even if she has no money to save.

Although she does not remember every aspect of the coaching, she does recall the hygiene and HIV and AIDS sessions. She feels that the coaching on matters of hygiene was extremely useful. Béatrice currently receives a dividend every month of BIF 12,000 (EUR 6.50) from the banana juice business and BIF 16,500 (EUR 9.00) from selling avocados. With this money she is able to rent land in order to farm crops. Before the programme, she states that she was only able to sell her skills as a labourer. Even if she does not yet own a large piece of land (she has two acres on which she grows bananas), she can now rent it. Even today, however, her food security can come under threat. Between April and October (the lean season), she does not have much to eat. However, she considers the situation to be much different than before, as she is nevertheless able to eat and provide her children with enough sustenance.

Generally speaking, Béatrice and her two girls eat twice a day. Sometimes they are even able to eat three times. She is thankful, because farmers in Burundi generally only eat twice. Her regular meal now consists of rice and beans and sometimes bananas. She also has vegetables when they are in season, as she has a kitchen garden. She adds salt and palm oil to her food whereas she did not before. Her two children are attending school, and her eldest daughter (15 years old) is about to finish primary school.

Today, Béatrice says she can attend social events with others and is even called on to give advice to households when conflict arises. When she has the means to do so, Béatrice aspires to buy land for herself and her children and dreams of growing beans, cassava and bananas.

There is a growing body of evidence – not only from Burundi but from Concern and other graduation programmes (Rwanda, Haiti, Bangladesh and Zambia) – which shows that graduation approaches can lift people out of extreme poverty and hunger in a sustainable way. Graduation programmes are multi-faceted. Like many other programmes, the graduation approach requires political will, predictable funding, coordination, an in-depth understanding of the context and careful implementation in order to ensure that the whole is greater than the sum of its individual parts.

Researchers from institutions such as IDS and CGAP are furthering the case by identifying those aspects of the programme which are integral to its effectiveness in specific contexts and demonstrating the impact of the programme.

Government institutions in Burundi, including the Ministry of Education, Ministry of Health, Ministry of National Solidarity and Ministry of Gender are key partners in terms of service delivery to the community. The Burundian government has been highly supportive of the programme and is using Concern’s Graduation Model as the basis for the development of its National Social Protection Strategy. Community-led approaches and sound partnerships continue to be vital for effective implementation. Thus far, strong implementing partners have included Biraturaba, Forum for African Women Educationalists, Burundi Business Incubator, Emuso (literacy partner) and the Burundi Red Cross.

Similar key support from national authorities canalso be observed in Rwanda, where the Concern graduation programme is closely linked to the National Social Protection Strategy (VUP2020). Meanwhile, research in Zambia has focused on the effects of training and coaching and found that business skills and conservation agriculture practices can be sustained. The provision of training in specific skills builds people’s confidence as well as their ability to generate income and knowledge. As a result, these effects continue well into the longer term.

There are still areas that require further research, such as proving the impact of the combined graduation package on children’s nutrition as a means of assessing whether the inter-generational cycle of poverty has been broken. Finding better ways to measure social capital is also essential. As we continue to learn more and acquire evidence, the clear message is that graduation can help us reach zero hunger faster. It can tackle the multidimensional aspects of poverty, ranging from inequality and lack of assets to risk and vulnerability. For the growing number of people in Burundi affected by food insecurity and for individuals such as Béatrice who could be at risk of falling back into poverty and hunger, this approach – along with the evidence and lessons learned in relation to it – merits attention and support at both national and international level.