The first of the three Pro-Poor Principles – Purposeful Outreach to People Living in Conditions of Poverty – forms a good foundation for any pro-poor mission. The indicators in this section of Truelift Assessment focus on effective outreach to people living in poverty, and how this compares with the overall client base. Special attention is directed to the poverty gap, defined by the difference between the incidence of poverty in the country (or region) and the incidence of poverty in the MFI’s new client base.
Regional variation, as well as limited time and resources, can make effective poverty outreach quite challenging and costly. On the other hand, without achieving significant poverty outreach, a poverty-focused mission can be rendered significantly less effective. Truelift Assessment looks at every aspect of conducting poverty outreach in assessing Purposeful Outreach to People Living in Poverty. Truelift attempts to account for every step in pursuit of a sustainable pro-poor outreach model, from the mission and outreach strategy, to measurement and data quality, to reporting and decision-making, and of course to client level results.
Concerning poverty assessment, Truelift recognizes any tool used to measure the poverty of clients. Given regional variations in assessing poverty levels, Truelift defines specific reference points country by country, also accounting for sub-national differences in context. Click here to read more about our process of Defining Poverty.
Below are more specific explanations of the four dimensions and standards of Purposeful Outreach to People Living in Poverty. You can view the specifics of all three Pro-Poor Principles in our Pro-Poor Principles chart here.
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Categories |
Essential Practices |
| Intent and Strategy | Intent and systems to offer services to people who are poor by comparison to relevant poverty lines in different regions (corresponding approximately to the bottom 40% in middle income countries) |
| Measurement, Data Quality, and Analysis | Poverty measurement of at least a representative sample of clients upon entry, using data collection methods and checks that generate robust data with appropriate analysis |
| Results Achieved | Poverty Gap is positive: Percentages of entering clients below selected poverty lines is higher than the percentages for the national or regional population |
| Use of Findings | Poverty outreach results are used to monitor outreach goals and affect operational and strategic decisions regarding geographic expansion, delivery channels and product development |
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