Beyond Good Intentions Monday November

Morning Session 2, 2009

Using poverty tools for decision-making and improving product/ 9am - 12:30pm
program design
*** last updated 10.26.09 ***
Objective
Participants will obtain new ideas for and share experience in poverty assessment for
various practical purposes including, but not limited to, determining a program or
organization’s poverty outreach. They will share experiences in interpreting poverty data for
decision-making and improving product/program design. At the end of the session,
participants will have a better understanding of the usefulness and the challenges
associated with using different tools to assess poverty (PPI, PAT, and other tools developed
by organizations themselves) for their own organizations and programs.

Pre-Conference Preparation
It is expected that all participants be at least somewhat familiar with the Poverty
Assessment Tools (PATs), the Progress out of Poverty Index (PPI), the FINCA Client
Assessment Tool (FCAT) and the Food Security Survey (FSS). On the SEEP Poverty
Outreach Working Group webpage, you will find background information on each of these
tools as well as links to more in-depth information. If you are not already familiar with
these tools, please allow yourself 20 minutes or more to review these materials prior to the
start of the morning session.

In addition, please come prepared to answer the following questions:

• Does your organization strive to reach the ‘very poor’?
• What tools or methods have you used to assess poverty? Or, how do you know or
think you know that we are in fact reaching the ‘very poor’?
• If you have used tools to assess poverty in the past, what conclusions have you
drawn from the results?
• If you have used tools to assess poverty in the past, how have you used results and
data in your decision-making process? Have you created and/or altered product,
program or service design as a result of what you’ve learned?

Agenda
Part A (9.00 – 10.30)

9.00 – 9.30 Introductions and overview of poverty measurement tools

9.30 – 10.30 Presentation of three case studies

Break (10.30 – 11.00)

Part B (11.00 – 12.30)

11.00 – 11.30 Small group discussions

11.30 – 12.00 Small groups report back to plenary

12.00 – 12.30 Lessons learned

Facilitators
Jan Maes, Facilitator, Poverty Outreach Working Group
Margaret Richards, The IRIS Center

Presenters
Bobbi Gray, Freedom from Hunger
Jo Sanson, Trickle Up
Alexi Taylor-Grosman, FINCA International