USAID Poverty Assessment Tools

The Poverty Tools listed below have been certified (approved) by USAID. These tools are now part of the public domain and may be downloaded and implemented by anyone. Additional tools for other countries will be made available as they are completed and certified by USAID.

Click here to view the summary of the tool status updates.

Tools and Data Entry Templates (Last Updated September 2011)

Each country's Poverty Assessment Tool consists of a Survey and a Data Entry Template. The Survey can be opened with Microsoft Excel. Data Entry Templates must be "unzipped" (decompressed) and then opened ONLY from within their respective software: Epi Info or CSPro (see links for more information). Both software packages can be downloaded for free.

Click on a country's name below to download its PAT Survey and Data Entry Template, and User Guide. Information regarding the poverty lines against which results are measured, tool development and accuracy, and source documentation is also available.

Asia

Europe and Eurasia

Latin America and the Caribbean

Middle East and North Africa

Sub-Saharan Africa

* These tools were developed by USAID in consultation with the Grameen Foundation. All other tools were developed by USAID through a contract with the IRIS Center at the University of Maryland.

Who must Report?

All USAID implementing partners who (1) work in a country with a certified Poverty Assessment Tool, and (2) receive USAID funding during the current fiscal year to support microenterprise development activities in that country, must use that certified tool to measure the share of their clients who are very poor and report the results to USAID through the Microenterprise Results Reporting (MRR) system.

Organizations that are required to implement a PAT will be informed of that requirement directly by USAID-Washington or the USAID Mission that is providing the funding. If you are not informed by USAID that you need to report, then you are not required to do so for that fiscal year.

If USAID informs you that you must apply the survey tool and you believe that your organization should receive a waiver, you can request one directly from the USAID Mission that is funding you, or USAID-Washington if you are receiving funding directly from them. If you receive a written waiver from USAID, then you are exempt from the reporting requirement for that year only.

When Should the Tool be Applied and the Results Reported?

It is preferred that implementing partners apply the Poverty Assessment Tools (PATs) by the end of the Fiscal Year in which the funds were received – that is, by the end of September. However, tool implementation should be completed by the end of the calendar year (December 31, 2010 for FY2010 reporting). Feel free to write to the PAT Helpdesk to request an extension if you need more time. Poverty results, along with a copy of the survey used in the field and the database containing all the responses (in compressed format) are to be sent to the PAT Helpdesk (helpdesk@povertytools.org). The poverty figure should also be submitted along with regular reporting to MRR in February/March of the following year.

Data Processing

Each survey tool comes with a data entry template to be used to process the data collected from the client interviews.

All PAT Data Entry Templates are currently being updated to be analysed in the CSPro software package. Click here for more information on CSPro.

Until all the PATs are updated, some will use a statistical program called Epi Info (see link below). Once the program is downloaded (free of charge), installed, and opened, then the data entry template can be "unzipped" (decompressed), opened from within the Epi Info software, and then used for data entry and analysis. To download the Epi Info statistical program (based in MS Access .mdb format), click here. * If you have an earlier version of Epi Info, you should be sure to update it to the most recent version available on the website!