Measure Poverty Outreach
An organization’s “poverty outreach” represents how well it is reaching the poor. The PPI is designed to be simple and data can be collected easily via pen and paper. Data can also be collected via the numerous automated or mobile-based data collection tools that have become available in recent years.
Once a PPI survey has been completed for a household, the poverty likelihood of that household can be calculated by summing the score [between 0 and 100] and using the Look-Up Table to convert the score to a poverty likelihood [%] related to a poverty line [e.g., national poverty line or $1.90/day]. Once individual household poverty likelihoods have been calculated, organizations can average these poverty likelihoods for the group of clients surveyed to determine the poverty rate of their portfolio, or the percentage of their clients who live below a specific poverty line. This is the organization’s “poverty outreach.”
Watch this video to learn how to calculate individual household poverty likelihoods and the average poverty rate of a group of households.
Organizations can use PPI data to measure other aspects of poverty outreach beyond the poverty rate of their portfolio alone. For example, organizations can understand the scale of their poverty outreach relative to the magnitude of poverty in an area that they serve. Learn more about this here.
If you’re looking for a simple solution to calculate poverty rates and conduct basic analysis, be sure to download our Excel-based Simple Data Intake Tool. This tool automatically calculates the poverty likelihoods for up to ten poverty lines for each beneficiary. It also offers organizations the flexibility to easily add and remove fields and incorporates simple analysis.
Once you have measured your poverty outreach, you can also compare it with national or regional poverty rates to assess your performance. The PPI Design Documentation for each country provides national and regional poverty rates which users can use to benchmark their poverty outreach. These are compiled for all countries in the Poverty Rates by Country Reference Sheet, located on the Materials on Data Management and Analysis page of our website. Be sure to read our Guide to Benchmarking Poverty Data with the PPI for advice before you start.
Related Content
- Marie Stopes - This case study describes how Marie Stopes International analyzes the effectiveness of its outreach programs across countries where it operates, by comparing the proportion of its poor clients with the proportion of the poor in each country's national population.
- Pride MDI - This case study explains what Pride MDI, a Uganda-based MFI, learned about its poverty outreach as it moved from piloting the PPI to eventually integrating the tool into its core banking system and across all of its branches.
- e-warehouse - This blog describes how Grameen Foundation and Farm Concern International used the PPI to validate that they were indeed reaching the poor through their e-warehouse program. The program provides farmers with access to agronomic information, training on post-harvest handling of crops, and access to loans against their harvested crops.
- Rags2Riches - This case study explains how an eco-ethical fashion company in the Philippines uses poverty data in pursuit of its social goals.
