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. Liberia and Senegal are the next countries scheduled for tool development. An updated tool for Ghana will also be available.

NEW: In March 2010, we started creating User Guides for each country for which there is a PAT. Guides will be linked from the country's name in the table below as .pdf files. The guide for Guatemala is now available.

NEW: As of January 2010, all changes to PAT Surveys and Templates will be recorded in the PAT Changelog.

Tools and Data Entry Templates (Last Updated January 2010)

Each country's Poverty Assessment Tool consists of a Survey and a Data Entry Template. To download these files, right-click on the link and select "Save Target As." After saving to your hard drive, the Template file must be "unzipped" (decompressed) and then opened ONLY from within the Epi Info program, which can be downloaded free of charge from the CDC website. The Survey can be opened with Microsoft Excel.

The performance of each country tool in predicting extreme poverty can be found in the document, “Accuracy Results for Poverty Assessment Tool Countries.”

* We are in the process of developing User Guides for each country for which there is a PAT. As these guides are completed, they will be linked from the country's name in the table above as .pdf files.

** These three 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.

*** The international poverty line of “$1/day” is technically $1.08 per day per capita at 1993 Purchasing Power Parity (PPP) exchange rates and prices. For Cambodia, Malawi and Nepal, the PAT has been updated to accompany a recalculated international poverty line (to $1.25 per day at 2005 PPP) that reflects new, improved estimates of PPP by the World Bank.

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.

Additional country tools for FY 2009 reporting will be added to this page through September 30, 2009, so please check back here to see which countries are added for FY2009 reporting requirements.

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, 2009 for FY2009 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 (PAThelp@iris.umd.edu). 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. The data processing is done with 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!