A Simple Poverty Scorecard for Tanzania

This study uses Tanzania’s 2007 Household Budget Survey to construct an easy-to-use scorecard that estimates the likelihood that a household has expenditure below a given poverty line. The scorecard uses ten simple indicators that field workers can quickly collect and verify. Poverty scores can be computed on paper in the field in five to ten minutes. The scorecard’s accuracy and precision are reported for a range of poverty lines. The poverty scorecard is a practical way for pro-poor programs in Tanzania to estimate poverty rates, track changes in poverty rates over time, and target services.

[Author's abstract]