Asset Transfer Program

The Asset Transfer Project aims to evaluate the effectiveness of asset and cash transfers, hence providing policy recommendations towards designing the best social safety net which can improve incomes of the ultra-poor.

More than 40 million people live below the national poverty line in Pakistan. Ten million of them reside in the rural southern districts of Punjab. The asset transfer program is being implemented by National Rural Support Program (NRSP) and Farmer Development Organization (FDO) in four districts of Southern Punjab namely; Bahawalpur, Muzaffargarh, Lodhran, and Bahawalnagar. Theoretical research has shown that asset-transfer programmes coupled with complementary training, significantly and permanently raise the economic well-being of ultra-poor households through their engagement in basic entrepreneurship. There is also evidence that UCTs foster entrepreneurial activity. Using randomised control trials, this research is among the first to compare these kinds of asset transfer programmes to UCTs in the local context of Pakistan.