The BASIS Assets and Market Access CRSP has selected new long-term research projects
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BASIS is co-sponsoring an upcoming event on Designing Pro-Poor Rewards for Ecosystem Services programs
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BASIS Assets and Market Access CRSP has a new pilot project on the use of biometrics for microfinance in Malawi
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"Rural Prosperity through Innovative Research"

Pathways from rural poverty are not the same for all people, in all places. For some, it requires relaxation of the financial market constraints that prevent them from accessing the assets and complementary resources needed to realize returns to labor and skills. For others, it requires a labor-intensive pattern of agricultural growth that raises wages for unskilled workers. But whatever the pathway, elimination of chronic poverty requires mechanisms to manage the risk, vulnerability and other constraints that undercut the nutritional, health and educational investments needed to bolster the human capital of the next generation and break the inequitable intergenerational transmission of poverty.

BASIS is dedicated to the kind of creative research that can change the terms of the debate and significantly impact development policy and programming. BASIS focuses on:

• The dynamics of rural and agricultural economies, and the constraints that make it difficult for some households to participate effectively in growth and get ahead economically over time;
• Emerging ideas about interventions and programs that can be expected to relax those constraints;
• Tools for designing, testing and implementing interventions such that their impact can be credibly evaluated and their full development impact realized; and,
• Effective outreach and communication of research results to the development policy and programming community.