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BRAC, one of the world’s largest development organizations, has been instrumental in delivering a diverse portfolio of services across microfinance, ultra-poor graduation, health, education, urban development, and livelihood training. Over the years, these interventions have generated a vast repository of historical program data, representing an invaluable opportunity to understand how women beneficiaries engage with BRAC’s services over time and how external ecosystem factors enable their access to capital.
To harness this potential, LightCastle Partners partnered with BRAC to undertake a project titled “Making Use of Longitudinal Data from BRAC Services to Map User Journeys and Generate Lessons on Ecosystem Enablers for Capital.” The initiative’s overarching goal was to deepen BRAC’s understanding of the pathways women undertake to escape poverty, reinforce the services that positively influence their economic mobility, and identify data infrastructure gaps that limit longitudinal analysis.
By leveraging longitudinal data, the project aimed to generate insights to enhance beneficiaries’ access to tailored services, promoting economic empowerment through refined, data-driven interventions. Ultimately, the initiative sought to catalyze sustainable socio-economic advancement, empowering women to overcome the poverty cycle and achieve lasting improvements in their lives.
LightCastle Partners adopted a three-phase mixed-method approach to assess BRAC’s data landscape, analyze capital journeys, and surface opportunities for systemic strengthening.
a. Reviewed multiple years of program data across financial and social interventions to evaluate the availability, quality, and interoperability of key identifiers.
b. Mapped the structure and documentation practices of BRAC’s MIS systems to understand integration potential.
a. Conducted extensive interviews and focus group discussions with program managers, field officers, and women beneficiaries.
b. Undertook branch visits across diverse geographies including urban, rural and climate-vulnerable regions to capture operational realities, digitization practices, and beneficiary experiences.
a. Analyzed selected program datasets to trace financial behaviors and program progression.
b. Identified structural gaps and opportunities to strengthen pathways that support women’s economic mobility.
The study identified both foundational data infrastructure challenges and strategic opportunities to advance longitudinal analysis within BRAC’s ecosystem.
Strengthening the data backbone through standardized protocols, interoperable systems, and improved beneficiary traceability can unlock a more integrated understanding of user journeys. A phased, evidence-driven approach to system integration starting with priority program clusters can enable BRAC to generate deeper insights, design more targeted interventions, and strengthen its position as a leader in data-driven development.
This collaboration reflects LightCastle’s broader mission to support organizations in leveraging data for systemic change, bridging evidence and action to drive inclusive, sustainable impact at scale.
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