Unbound: Evaluations Across 16 Countries Reveal Family-led Development Supports Lasting Progress

Approaching its 45th anniversary, Unbound highlights findings showing how families drive change in women's empowerment, education and well-being.

KANSAS CITY, Kan., Aug. 11, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- After more than a decade of evaluations across Africa, Asia and Latin America, international development organization Unbound has identified a consistent driver of lasting progress for families experiencing poverty: Sustainable change is strongest when individuals and communities identify their own priorities and lead their development.

Released as Unbound approaches its 45th anniversary in November and as the global community continues working toward the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, the findings draw on more than 13 years of evaluations across 16 countries, spanning women's empowerment, education, elder support, leadership development, community engagement and goal setting.

"For nearly 45 years, we've learned that transformative change doesn't happen when solutions are delivered to communities, but when families are trusted to define their own goals and then supported as they pursue them," Ashley Hufft, president and CEO of Unbound, said.

WOMEN'S EMPOWERMENT ACCELERATES FAMILY WELL-BEING
In 2025, Unbound surveyed 2,329 women across Guatemala, Peru (Lima), Colombia (Cali), Uganda (Kampala), Kenya (Nairobi) and the Philippines (Legazpi), comparing Unbound participants to women on the organization's waiting list for support and adjusting for observable differences such as age, education and marital status. Unbound learned that women participating in the organization's programs report greater confidence, more leadership opportunities, greater financial inclusion, and are more likely to attend trainings and build new skills from budgeting and entrepreneurship to communication and conflict resolution.

Evaluations found that 70% of women participating in Unbound programs in Guatemala had a bank account registered in their name, compared to 24% of women with children on the organization's sponsorship waiting list. In Nairobi, 60% of sponsored women accessed credit in the previous year, compared to 34% of women on the waiting list.

Mothers groups — community-based support groups of 15-30 parents or guardians with sponsored children in Unbound — are the primary way families connect and participate in the organization's programs. In Kampala, women participating in these self-help groups were 21 percentage points more likely to hold leadership positions than their non-participating counterparts.

The findings highlight the strengths of Unbound's Agents of Change platform, an initiative in which groups of parents of Unbound sponsored children, often the mothers, identify a community problem they'd like to solve, craft a proposal for access to a small grant and then work together to execute an improvement project. Examples include installing a handwashing station at a school, adding streetlights on a dark road, renovating a playground in disrepair and building a bus shelter to protect from the sun and rain.

The organization has expanded the initiative through MEGA Agents of Change, which are more complex community projects requiring greater support (for example, improving a large section of road infrastructure), Agents of Change Plus (which supports medium-scale and longer-term community initiatives) and Agents of Change Kids (which introduces leadership and community problem-solving skills to younger participants with guidance from adults).

A 2025 evaluation surveying mothers group participants found that 74% feel they are involved in community decisions and make their community a better place to live, and 35% have held a leadership position in their community since joining Unbound.

Participant Story: Verónica Turns a Fall into Community Action
Verónica, a mother of four in Ecuador, knew firsthand how dangerous an unpaved pathway leading to her community's school had become. While pregnant and dropping off her child, she slipped and fell on the muddy entrance.

Rather than accept the condition as unavoidable, Verónica brought the issue to the local mothers group she led through Unbound. Together, the women identified improving access to the school as a community priority and applied for an Agents of Change grant.

With $500 in funding and the collective effort of families and neighbors, the group paved the school's main entrance. Now students, teachers and parents use a safer, cleaner pathway.

For Verónica, the project delivered more than new infrastructure. It strengthened her confidence as a leader and showed her what a community can accomplish when residents organize around a shared goal.

"I learned to lead — that's the word," Verónica said. "It gave me a unique experience. I did something that, even working alone, I might never have achieved. Sometimes authorities do nothing, but we mothers, 'simple mothers,' as people might say, achieved it."

EDUCATION CREATES OPPORTUNITY
Since 2019, Unbound has conducted 19 local-level evaluations of its scholarship program, including quantitative surveys, qualitative interviews, focus groups and archival data reviews aimed at assessing the impact on academic performance, leadership development, community engagement and personal growth.

In Santa Ana, El Salvador, 82% of students met academic criteria, and in La Paz, Bolivia, 88% felt the scholarship helped them complete their studies. In Honduras, 66% reported being "very satisfied" with their academic progress, and in Cartagena, Colombia, 92% of Unbound scholarship students showed high academic performance.

Evaluations highlighted growth in leadership, empathy and social responsibility. In Santa Ana, 97% of scholarship recipients said community service (a key component of the scholarship program) helped prepare them for professional life. In Zamboanga, Philippines, 80% of scholarship students performed service aligned with their skills and interests, enhancing career readiness.

As a result, Unbound has refined its scholarship model to encourage service projects designed by students and targeted on their career goals.

Education is also a key piece of Unbound's sponsorship program. Sponsorship program alumni consistently identify education as the most enduring benefit, while strong leadership skills, hope and community engagement also continue long after participation ends.

GOAL SETTING HELPS FAMILIES MOVE BEYOND POVERTY
In 2020, Unbound began using the Poverty Stoplight, a multidimensional poverty measurement tool and coaching methodology developed by Fundación Paraguaya, to help families design and manage their own paths out of poverty. Families assess their strengths and deprivations across six dimensions and set goals in indicators such as housing, income, health and education. Using a green, yellow and red ranking system in which green indicates "no poverty" and red indicates "extreme poverty," the Poverty Stoplight gives families and the staff working with them the understanding of areas that require the most focus for improvement in order to end their poverty. 

A 2025 evaluation confirmed that families found the Poverty Stoplight a useful tool to guide their paths out of poverty and key to setting goals, planning, prioritization, decision-making and identifying success.

Specifically, Unbound learned that nearly half of participating families have surpassed the 60% green threshold and over 60% have fewer than 10% red indicators. This research has informed Unbound's strategic priorities for 2026, including expanding Poverty Stoplight data analysis and access.

TARGETED SUPPORT PROVIDES WELL-BEING FOR PEOPLE OF ALL AGES
Evaluations of elder programming found participants experienced less loneliness, stronger social connections, improved food security and greater access to healthcare. Sixty-six percent of elders participating in Unbound programs reported receiving all needed medical care, compared to only 40% of those not in Unbound, and only 20% of sponsored elders delayed the purchase of necessary medical treatment or equipment. The clear, positive outcomes for elders in Unbound programs were a driver for including an increase in scale and scope of elder sponsorship in the organization's 2030 strategic plan.

Participant Story: Rafael Improves His Health While Supporting Others
Rafael, an older adult in the Philippines, balances many responsibilities. He operates a small convenience store, cares for his wife, who has been bedridden since suffering a stroke six years ago, and serves as leader of his local Unbound elder support group. He also advocates for fellow seniors in his community, helping them connect with local resources and assistance.

When Unbound partnered with Chronic Care International (CCI), a Nebraska-based nonprofit transforming diabetes care in the developing world, to provide medical guidance and support for older adults living with diabetes, Rafael joined the pilot program. After three months of regular checkups and treatment, Rafael's blood sugar stabilized.

"I am one of the first batch of elderly who experienced the treatment of CCI," Rafael said. "After three months of check-up and medication, according to our doctor, my blood sugar was able to be stabilized. I don't have any maintenance medicines now; I just keep my diet strictly and keep my body active during the day."

LOOKING AHEAD:
The insights gathered from the field provide a roadmap for how Unbound will continue to innovate, adapt and deepen its support for families working toward lasting economic stability.

"These evaluation findings shine a light on what families have shown us for decades and what our founders believed in from day one," Hufft said. "When people have the resources, relationships and conviction to shape their own futures, the impact is real and can extend far beyond one generation."

Unbound's founders — visionaries who saw the wisdom in participant-led development — believed in listening to and learning from the families who are part of the program.

In a 2012 report entitled, "A Call to Gentle, Balanced Leadership," the late Bob Hentzen, an Unbound co-founder known for his belief in and heart for the world's vulnerable and marginalized people, said, "We must become and always remain the learner and the humble companion on the long and frequently dangerous walk out of poverty. In this way, our beloved sponsored families come to realize that they, not us, are the primary agents of their own growth."

ABOUT UNBOUND
Unbound is an international nonprofit founded in 1981 that delivers more than $100 million in personalized support annually for families living in poverty in Africa, Asia and Latin America. Supporting families and communities on their self-directed paths out of poverty, Unbound utilizes a decentralized approach to provide access to resources, support and decision-making that upholds human dignity. Unbound leans into its core values of respect, authenticity, innovation and optimism to offer a practical way for supporters to make a personal and direct impact as partners in our global community. To learn more, please visit www.Unbound.org. 

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