Developing Poverty Assessment Tools - BDS Notes

This paper discusses some of the issues surrounding poverty assessment and Business Development Services (BDS). The issues include:

• Description of various BDS models;
• The meaning of Participation in BDS programs;
• Current BDS data collection methods for impact assessment, including information on time of collection, frequency of collection and technology requirements.

The paper describes different BDS models and makes the following recommendations for challenges faced by them:

• Allocate funds for outside survey firms to assess indirect participants and indirect beneficiaries;
• When providers are tasked with data collection, ensure that this is within the scope of their activities;
• Make certain that simple tools are available.

The paper then discusses the challenges of identifying participants and assessing poverty, and recommends the following steps to overcome challenges of participation:

• At the outset of the BDS, practitioners, along with donors, should define the level of outreach that will be assessed (including outreach to indirect beneficiaries);
• The range of BDS programs should be modelled, guidelines for defining participation in different types of programs should be defined and these should be discussed with the BDS practitioner community.

The paper also discusses:

• Results from the BDS assessment of impact methods;
• The evaluation of Chemonics Peru PRA program as offering anecdotal evidence on poverty impacts;
• The concerns of BDS providers regarding costs and problems in collecting household data;
• Recommendations for data collection.