Extreme poor households have very limited opportunities to increase their incomes and rely on poorly paid employment and very low productivity activities. In this context, new Income Generating Activities (IGAs) – the productive use of an asset for income generation – give the opportunity for higher incomes, greater dignity, and a strengthened ability to cope with shocks.

However, often IGAs do not yield the expected improvement in income. This can be for many reasons – it could stem from weaknesses in project design, failures in implementation, failures by the beneficiary to make full use of the asset, or changes in the external environment (market prices for example). Common problems include: - Low prices received from selling of products - Marketing problems - Inappropriate in the context - Beneficiaries not reinvesting in assets (IGA not sustainable) But many problems that are encountered are not inevitable and can be avoided if careful planning and analysis is done before the design and/or implementation.