A Credible Tool

In 2005 when the PPI was launched, Grameen Foundation set out to prove the concept. They closely observed the first organizations to adopt the tool so that they could understand its accuracy and feasibility. Today, demand and acclaim for the PPI validates our belief that the concept is proven.

But don’t take our word for it. The following publications, written by third parties without Grameen Foundation or IPA’s influence, detail the ways in which the PPI can benefit development practitioners.

  • Testing the PPI in the COSA Platform
    The Committee on Sustainability Assessment (COSA), a global consortium that researches and promotes science-based impact assessment tools for agricultural producers, tested the PPI and found that it was highly correlated with net income from crops and food security. The results provided COSA with confidence to incorporate the PPI into its impact assessment framework. 
  • Using the PPI in Agricultural Value Chains
    Published in 2014 by the Sustainable Food Laboratory, this report details Unilever's use of the PPI to measure poverty of smallholder producers in three of their supply chains in late 2013. 
     
  • The PPI: A Detailed Analysis of MFI Implementation
    Published in 2014 and commissioned by the Multilateral Investment Fund (MIF) of the Inter-American Development Bank, this report examines the benefits and challenges related to implementing the PPI in the microfinance industry. 
  • The COSA Measuring Sustainability Report
    This January 2014 report by the Committee on Sustainable Assessment (COSA) describes a common set of practical indicators and metrics it has tested in collaboration with many organizations and experts, including the PPI.
  • The New Microfinance Handbook: A Financial Market System Perspective
    Published in 2013 by the World Bank, this report highlights the PPI as one of multiple poverty measurement tools available to microfinance practitioners. The report finds that when measuring absolute poverty, the PPI and the Poverty Assessment Tool (PAT) are most accurate, but of these the PPI has the advantage of allowing for targeting, while the PAT does not.
  • Measuring Socio-Economic Impact: A Guide for Business
    Published in 2013 by the World Business Council on Sustainable Development (WBCSD), the report profiles the PPI along with other recommended socio-economic measurement tools that can be used by the sustainable business community.
  • Making Microfinance Work: Managing Product Diversification
    Published in 2011 by the International Labour Organization, this report highlights the PPI as a poverty measurement tool that microfinance institutions can use to segment clients by poverty status, track changes in poverty over time, and target poor clients.
  • New Pathways out of Poverty
    Published in 2011, this book by Sam Daley-Harris and Anna Awimbo seeks to guide microfinance practitioners towards better social performance, and it cites the PPI as a practical poverty measurement tool for microfinance practitioners to use in their assessments of important factors, such as poverty outreach.