What are PATs?

USAID Poverty Assessment Tools (PATs) are free, easy to use tools for assessing poverty levels of any group of people. Development practitioners use PATs to assess their success at reaching out to poor and very poor people, to compare poverty levels of those who are engaged in different practice areas, or track changes in poverty level over time. Each PAT survey consists of 10-25 questions. Results - the percent of the target population living above and below a given national or international poverty line - can be analyzed in our custom data entry & analysis templates or within your own analysis software.

This site is intended to inform and help organizations (in any development sector) as they apply the Poverty Assessment Tools. All USAID-certified poverty asessment tools and accompanying support materials (implementation manual, country user guides, online on-demand training and videos) are freely available as is individualized help via the PAT Help Desk (helpdesk@povertytools.org).

Status of PATs & PAT Project

(Updated 03/2018) In 2012, the PAT project stopped creating new PATs and updating existing tools using newer source data sets. All 37 PATs remain available for use and support materials have been and continue to be updated in line with emerging knowledge in the field. In addition, guidance on determining whether a given PAT is appropriate for use is now available (link coming soon). This guidance includes advice on choosing between PATs and other similar tools or using multiple tools.

Microenterprise Results Reporting

In all countries with a Poverty Assessment Tool, USAID partners implementing microenterprise activities* must measure the share of their beneficiaries who are very poor using a PAT or Poverty Prevalence Index (PPI). In some circumstances, other tools or means of calculating poverty prevalence may be used. All partners must report the results to USAID through the Microenterprise Results Reporting (MRR) system. Resources to support partners in meeting these requiremnets include:

• FAQs on who has to report to MRR and how to do so
• Videos on using PATs and other tools to improve programs and outcomes for beneficiaries
• Guidance on assesing the appropriateness of PATs or other tools for meeting your objectives and/ or complying with the reporting requiremnet (coming soon)

* With certain exceptions (discussed in the FAQs), this requirement applies to all implementing partners that spent at least $100,000 in USAID funding during the current fiscal year to support microenterprise development activities.