News & Events 2010

7 December 2010 - Suspension of Reporting Requirement

We have been informed by USAID/Washington that the USAID Poverty Assessment Tool reporting requirement has been suspended for FY2010 reporting. USAID-supported collection of PAT data has been challenged as inconsistent with the provisions of the Paperwork Reduction Act (PRA) of 1995. The Act requires prior OMB approval for such data collection. USAID has begun the process of applying for this OMB approval, but does not expect this approval to occur before the 2010 MRR period has ended. USAID will release an official statement with more details in the future.

All of the tools, data entry templates, user guides, the online course and other resources continue to be available at this website. As always, please email PAThelp@iris.umd.edu if you have any questions about any aspect of PAT implementation and reporting.

Training Agenda Announced

The Agenda for IRIS' 'Training of Trainers' in USAID Poverty Assessment Tools is now available: AGENDA (73KB, .doc). The training will be held April 6-9 in Washington, DC. See below for details.

User Guide available for Guatemala

IRIS has developed its first country-specific User Guide for PAT interviewers; this guide supports the Guatemala PAT. This and future guides provide tool-specific information that will help with question interpretation and survey delivery and can be used during interviewer training and in the field.

E-mail Address Changes

The IRIS Center has changed its email extension. All emails, including the PAT Help Desk, now use the suffix @iris.umd.edu (instead of iris.econ.umd.edu). Please update your records accordingly.

Training - April 2010

USAID and the IRIS Center at the University of Maryland have scheduled a 4-day Poverty Assessment Tool (PAT) 'Training of Trainers' workshop for April 6-9, 2010 in Washington, DC. The interactive training will take place in Greely Hall at the AED building at 1875 Connecticut Ave, NW. Other PAT Regional Trainings will be scheduled based on demand, and details will be made available here.

Intended Audience: This training is primarily for those USAID implementing partner organizations who need to implement a PAT in order to meet USAID's Microenterprise reporting requirements. Each qualifying organization may send 1-2 people who, upon successful completion of the training course, will be equipped to train others to implement the USAID poverty tools (either in your own organization/network, or to on-train others). Representatives from other organizations are welcome to attend if space permits.

Capacity for Trainings: Organizations implementing USAID-funded programs in countries with a certified tool will be given priority over those who are not yet required to implement a PAT. If additional seats are available, they will be made available to other organizations interested in learning how to implement a poverty assessment tool. If the demand exceeds capacity for any of the PAT Trainings, organizations may be limited to only one participant instead of two.

Experience/Background for Participants: All participants should have experience in training and quantitative survey implementation, and preferably in impact or poverty assessment. It is also preferable that at least one participant from each organization in attendance has experience with sampling and statistical analysis.

Cost: There is no cost to attend the training or for the training materials provided. However, participants are responsible for their own travel, lodging, and food costs. Coffee breaks and lunch will be provided daily. Sponsors: This training is funded by USAID as part of the FIELD-LWA funding mechanism managed by AED, and is provided by The IRIS Center at the University of Maryland.

Registration: To register, please send the following information to the
IRIS-USAID Poverty Tools Help Desk at: pathelp@iris.umd.edu

1. Name of participant:
2. Experience in training, quantitative surveys, statistics, and/or impact/poverty assessment:
3. Organization:
4. Country and Name of Project for each USAID-funded ME project managed by your organization:
5. Contact Information for participant:

You will be notified as soon as possible as to your acceptance for this training.

To be informed as plans for new training sessions take shape, subscribe to the PAT listserv or visit this website.

IRIS has been working with USAID to develop an e-learning portal to disseminate interactive PAT implementation training via the Internet. The e-learning course is available here.