Supporting No Lean Season

No Lean Season, a late-stage program in the Beta incubation portfolio, provides small loans to poor, rural households for seasonal labor migration. Based on multiple rounds of rigorous research showing positive effects on migration and household consumption and income, the program was delivered and tested at scale for the first time in 2017. Results showed that the 2017 program did not have the desired impact on inducing migration, and consequently did not increase income and consumption. In this post, we dive deep into these results and explain how they are shaping the path forward for No Lean Season.

Testing of No Lean Season, an innovative intervention with the potential to improve millions of lives in low and middle income countries, is expanding to Indonesia. 

Today the world celebrates International Day of Charity, declared by the UN General Assembly in 2012. The UN’s agenda on sustainable development calls for the eradication of global poverty and the Sustainable Development Goals provide a framework by which institutions, organizations, and individuals can give charitably for the betterment of our world. To honor your giving, we want to show why we value your contribution today and every other day.

No Lean Season, a program of nonprofit organization Evidence Action, today announced major support from the Global Innovation Fund. The Global Innovation Fund (GIF) is a London-headquartered investor in social innovations that aim to improve the lives and opportunities of millions of people in the developing world.  The total investment from GIF for the next two years is $2,571,210. The funds will be used to support the rigorous testing and expansion of No Lean Season in Bangladesh and Indonesia.

Press Release: No Lean Season, a program of nonprofit organization Evidence Action that reduces seasonal poverty and hunger through small cash transfers for bus tickets, announces backing by Y Combinator and the launch of an ambitious drive to combat seasonal poverty.

The first cohort of “No Lean Season” participants in northern Bangladesh are on their way. More than 4,500 rural workers are traveling temporarily to nearby areas with higher wages and greater labor opportunities to support their family during the lean season. A few thousand more are expected to join the ranks before the end of the lean season around mid-December in Rangpur, the target area for the initial roll-out of the program. Here is an update. 

Press Release: 

Evidence Action, a global development organization focused on scaling rigorously-evaluated programs, and RDRS Bangladesh, a leading development organization in northern Bangladesh, today announced a four-year partnership.  

The partnership will field-test and promote ‘No Lean Season,’ an innovative anti-poverty intervention aimed at reducing seasonal income insecurity in poor rural communities. No Lean Season will reach 310,000 low-income households in Northern Bangladesh in the next four years.

Evidence Action Beta is currently pressure testing several evidence-based interventions to determine whether they are suitable for scale-up. One of these projects is ‘No Lean Season’ – a project to test seasonal income support for the very poorest in Bangladesh during seasonal famine. Part of pressure-testing ‘No Lean Season’ for the potential to scale up to many more people is to understand whether there would be unintended consequences of the intervention. Here is an update on our work.