FAQs About PPI's Transition for Users
On July 15, 2016, the Progress out of Poverty Index® (PPI®), moved from Grameen Foundation as its organizational ‘home’ to Innovations for Poverty Action (IPA) and will now be governed by the Steering Members that make up the new PPI Alliance. This page addresses questions that PPI Users may have regarding this change and how it might impact them.
Will I still be able to access the PPI for free?
Yes. Access to scorecards, related documentation, and learning materials on the PPI website will not change. A primary objective of the PPI’s new business model is to maintain the PPI as a public good, thus freely accessible to any organization interested in measuring household-level poverty.
Who can I contact with questions about the PPI? Will that change?
The PPI will continue to maintain its Help Desk, although the email address for that will be changing. Regardless, clicking on the ‘Help’ button at the right side of every PPI website page will get you there.
How and when will specific country PPIs get updated?
The members of the PPI Alliance will prioritize the PPIs to be updated or newly developed. We aim to update 10 to 12 PPIs per year, subject to data availability. The pipeline of scorecards that are in process or planned for updating is maintained on the PPI website - www.progressoutofpoverty.org/ppis-development. We have not yet determined which countries will be updated in 2016-2017.
Why is Grameen Foundation spinning off the PPI?
Having incubated and grown the PPI over the past 10 years to reach nearly 500 organizational users around the globe, Grameen Foundation saw the need for broader industry ownership of the PPI in order to further scale the tool. This need included a more robust funding and governance model, as well as an organizational ‘home’ that could support the use of the tool across a wider range of development sectors and integrate it into more research and M&E initiatives. Grameen Foundation is excited about the potential for the PPI under IPA’s oversight, and will remain actively involved as a member of PPI’s Steering Committee.
How is the PPI being funded?
The new PPI Alliance is comprised of PPI user ‘members’ who pay an annual membership fee, as well as a Foundational Partner and an Anchor Funder.
What is the PPI Alliance?
The PPI Alliance is a core group of PPI users who rely on the PPI and are willing and able to pay an annual fee to ensure the tool remains up-to-date and accurate.
What is the PPI Steering Committee?
The Steering Committee is comprised of PPI Alliance members paying $25,000 annually. This group will meet quarterly and work with the PPI team at IPA to inform prioritization of scorecard development, product innovation and service offerings.
What is the goal of the PPI Alliance?
The new model will provide for the PPI:
- Long-term stability, relevance, and accuracy of the tool
- Better integration with other social performance and impact measurement initiatives and frameworks, and at faster scale
- Broader input, transparency and greater responsiveness to users
- Growth and adoption across the international development community, bringing consistency and best practices to poverty measurement.
What will IPA do with funding from the PPI Alliance?
- Update the PPI quickly when new data becomes available, with every PPI being updated within a 5-year period
- Create new PPIs to increase global reach, increasing the total number of countries covered to approximately 70
- Facilitate implementation support, and coordinate existing technical assistance providers
- Scale the breadth and depth of usage via PPI outreach
What are the benefits to PPI users of the new model?
- The PPI remains a public good
- The PPI is updated regularly and quickly upon receipt of country-level data, and new PPIs are built where needed
- The PPI is governed by and for its members and wider user network
- The PPI team explores a wide range of user products and services to meet the user community’s needs
- The PPI team develops communities of learning and best practice for implementation and performance management
- Centralized scorecard development provides high quality and consistency, while allowing for decentralized implementation support through vetted service providers
- Awareness and adoption of the PPI continues to spread across geographies, sectors and management platforms
Who are the initial members of the new PPI Alliance?
- The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (also Anchor Funder)
- Cisco Foundation (also Foundational Partner)
- Catholic Relief Services (Steering Member)
- DFID Impact Programme (Steering Member)
- Grameen Foundation (Steering Member)
- IFC (Steering Member)
- Opportunity International (Steering Member)
- World Vision / Vision Fund International (Steering Member)
- Acumen (Basic Member)
- Grameen Credit Agricole Foundation (Basic Member)
- Marie Stopes International (Basic Member)
What are the responsibilities and benefits to organizations in the PPI Alliance?
The responsibilities of PPI Alliance steering committee members include:
- Attending quarterly and annual meetings to review PPI development pipeline and provide input on plans for development of PPI products and services; and to review PPI strategy, execution and results;
- Assisting in building regional support for PPI development (i.e. data acquisition, field testing, and introductions to, and facilitation of, service provider partnerships); and
- Assisting in the promotion of PPI, including providing content for user case studies and support with ongoing membership development.
The benefits for these members include assurance that the PPI will remain updated and that development will evolve along with their organizational priorities, and additional training and user support for their organization’s use of the PPI.
If you are interested in learning more about the responsibilities and benefits of PPI membership, please contact us at ppi@poverty-action.org.
If my organization can’t afford the $25,000 per year membership, are there other options to be involved in the PPI Alliance?
Yes. There are a limited number of basic or ‘pay what you can’ memberships available. Please contact Director Elliott Collins at ppi@poverty-action.org for more information on this.
Will IPA offer any additional services related to the PPI?
Yes, the suite of services related to the PPI will be developed and improved as the initiative moves forward. These will be announced over time via the PPI website and newsletter.
Will IPA collect and aggregate PPI data from users for benchmarking and research purposes?
This is something that will be considered in the future. If you have a specific interest in this and would like to contribute your own PPI data, please let us know.
What is the best way to stay updated about developments with the PPI?
The best way to stay updated about the PPI is to subscribe to the PPI newsletter. When you create an account on the PPI website, you are automatically subscribed to the PPI newsletter (unless you opt out). If you already have a PPI website account, but don’t get the newsletter, please update your email preferences (and any other profile information) in your account settings on the website.
