IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/b/wbk/wbpubs/15065.html
   My bibliography  Save this book

Microfinance Poverty Assessment Tool

Author

Listed:
  • Carla Henry
  • Manohar Sharma
  • Cecile Lapenu
  • Manfred Zeller

Abstract

Currently, no rigorous tool exists to measure the poverty level of microfinance institution (MFI) clients. In order to gain more transparency on the depth of poverty outreach, CGAP collaborated with the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) to design and test a simple, low-cost operational tool to measure the poverty level of MFI clients relative to nonclients. This tool is a companion piece to the CGAP Appraisal Format; donors should not use the poverty assessment tool without also conducting a larger institutional appraisal. The concept of poverty is complex and strongly influenced by local cultural and socioeconomic conditions. The poverty assessment approach presented in this manual supports a flexible definition of poverty that can be adapted to fit local perceptions and conditions of poverty. The tool is intended neither as a means to target new clients nor to assess the impact of microfinance services on the lives of existing clients. It may provide a useful means to verify-both for the donor and the MFI-the extent to which an existing strategy results in poor clients joining the MFI. The tool assesses the poverty levels of MFI clients compared to nonclients within the operational area of an MFI. Using available data or expert opinion, the tool also relates local poverty levels to poverty measured at larger regional and national levels.

Suggested Citation

  • Carla Henry & Manohar Sharma & Cecile Lapenu & Manfred Zeller, 2003. "Microfinance Poverty Assessment Tool," World Bank Publications - Books, The World Bank Group, number 15065, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:wbk:wbpubs:15065
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://openknowledge.worldbank.org/bitstream/handle/10986/15065/275870PAPER0Mi1e0poverty0assessment.pdf?sequence=1
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:wbk:wbpubs:15065. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Tal Ayalon (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/dvewbus.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.