Seasonal Poverty: The Biggest Development Problem You Have Never Heard Of by Evidence Action

No Lean Season: A Ticket Out of Seasonal Poverty

What is No Lean Season?

No Lean Season reduces the negative effects of seasonality on the poorest in rural agricultural areas by enabling labor mobility that increases incomes.  It is a new program that we are testing in Evidence Action Beta’s portfolio, based on rigorous experimental evidence.

We give a travel subsidy of A$30 to very poor rural laborers so they can send a family member to a nearby city to find a job during the period between planting and harvesting. This is the time in rural areas when there are no jobs, no income, and when families miss meals. This seasonal poverty affects 600 million people around the world.

With a temporary job during this ‘lean season,’ households are are able to put an additional meal on the table for every member of the family each and every day. That’s 500 additional meals during the lean season.

Read more about Seasonal Poverty and No Lean Season:

–on Evidence Action’s website here

–in Innovations for Poverty Action‘s paper here.

–in Policy Options Politiques’ article Seasonal Hunger, Deprivation Are Under the Radar (Dec. 23, 2016)

Updates in these Evidence Action blogs:

—An Update on No Lean Season’s First Cohort: Migration Has Begun (Dec. 10, 2016)

–Give Well’s “Why we’re considering “No Lean Season” as a 2017 top charity” (Feb. 3 $ March 14, 2017)

—Y Combinator-Back Non-Profit Startup “No Lean Season” Takes Aim at Seasonal Poverty (March 20, 2017)

—“No Lean Season” Announces Major Grant from Global Innovation Fund (March 23, 2017)

Learn more about Evidence Action on The Life You Can Save’s website here and donate here.