On 18 and 19 March 2024, CLEAR/J-PAL South Asia conducted a custom training workshop in Patna, Bihar (India) titled ‘Foundations of Monitoring and Evaluation.’ Over 50 officers from the Government of Bihar’s Rural Livelihoods Promotion Society (JEEViKA) attended the workshop. 

These officers work on the Satat Jeevikoparjan Yojana (SJY) programme in Bihar, a scale-up of the Graduation approach – a livelihoods program designed to lift ultra-poor households out of poverty. The Graduation approach seeks to provide ultra-poor women with a "big push" of consumption support, productive assets, banking services, and mentoring support—and has lifted millions out of extreme poverty in 50 countries all over the world

The Government of Bihar and JEEViKA are on track to take SJY to 200,000 households, to reach approximately 10 lakh people, in 2024. J-PAL South Asia performs extensive on-ground research and process monitoring to ensure SJY’s effective delivery across the state. 

This training aimed to build the capacity of State and District JEEViKA staff on key M&E principles, understanding evidence, process monitoring, and data analysis/visualisation. CLEAR/J-PAL South Asia research, policy, and training staff conducted various sessions tailored to the needs of the officers, using examples from the ongoing project through various lectures, case studies, and group activities. 

Dr Jyoti Prasad Mukhopadhya, a co-principle investigator on the ongoing evaluation of the SJY program, co-delivered lectures on process monitoring and measurement to the officers present.

Learn more about the Graduation Approach in our video. For more information on the SJY Program and our work with JEEViKA and Bandhan-Konnagar, read Satat Jeevikoparjan Yojana: Ending Ultra Poverty at Scale, a playbook developed for government and civil society organizations working towards ending extreme poverty.