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| Volume 3, Issue 2: October 2005 | ||||
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In This Issue Workshop Session: Depth of Outreach: The New U.S. Law Requiring Cost-Effective Measurement Tools Workshop Session: Ownership and Governance in Microfinance Register now for the Global Microcredit Summit 2006 Archived Issues
Vol 3 Iss 2 October '05 E-News Information |
Workshop Session: Depth of Outreach: The New U.S. Law Requiring Cost-Effective Measurement ToolsOn June 17, 2003 U.S. President George W. Bush signed into law a microenterprise bill that will expand the outreach of microfinance to the very poor. The new law requires, among other things, that half of all microenterprise development resources from the United States be used to benefit the very poor defined as those starting on less than $1 a day or those living in the bottom half below their nation's poverty line. USAID has commissioned the IRIS Center at the University of Maryland to undertake a process to develop accurate yet cost-effective poverty measurement tools in response to this new law. A team of researchers began by testing over 700 basic indicators against the more rigorous Living Standards Measurement Study (LSMS), the more costly tool used by the World Bank and others to determine $1 a day poverty, to see which of the low-cost indicators correlate most closely with the more rigorous tool. In this first phase, the accuracy phase, the researchers identified several groups of 5, 10 and 15 indicators that have an acceptable accuracy rate. The accuracy phase of testing will be followed later this year by a practicality phase during which microfinance practitioners will apply the selected tools. These practitioners will provide information about a variety of criteria including the cost-effectiveness of the tools. More information on the project including the list of practitioners who will participate in the practicality phase is available at www.povertytools.org.  A workshop discussion on the topic of Depth of Outreach: The New U.S. Law Requiring Cost-Effective Measurement Tools. The session was facilitated by Anton Simanowitz of ImpAct. Discussants were Joanne Carter of RESULTS, Stacey Young of USAID, and Chris Dunford of Freedom From Hunger. Remarks by Anton Simanowitz Remarks by Joanne Carter Remarks by Stacey Young Remarks by Chris Dunford |