Getting Started with the PPI

Getting started with the PPI can feel a bit daunting. It’s best to ask yourself how you intend to use the data that you’ll collect from PPI surveys. Making this determination right at the start will help you focus on actionable insights as you analyze the data. Below, under "How Do You Want to Use the PPI?" find four ways you can use the PPI, including links to webpages with more information.

Country-specific PPIs can be downloaded from this website at no cost. First, sign in or create an account. By creating an account, you will be able to participate in the online discussion forum, receive important PPI updates, and access all of your downloads in one place.

Next, visit our PPI by Country page to download the PPI for your country of interest. To date, PPIs have been created for 60 countries (including an Expert-Based Poverty Scorecard for China). To view a list of PPIs in development, click here. 

Each country page contains several documents available for download (log-in required), including a design memo with a detailed technical description of the PPI design and construction. Each country also has a scorecard (either within the design memo or as a separate document) listing the country-specific set of PPI indicators and corresponding lookup tables used to generate poverty likelihoods and rates.

Organizations that decide to use the PPI usually make a small, up-front investment in training before they integrate the tool into their operations. The training period teaches the organization how to accurately sample its client base if it will not conduct a census, how to administer the survey properly, why survey questions should not be altered, how to use results to calculate poverty outreach, and other important principles. The PPI provides instructional and online resources for users:

  • Our Learning Materials explain how to properly undergo the stages of the PPI implementation cycle, including how to abide by the Standards of Use.
  • Our Case Studies illustrate how various organizations, with different business models, have used PPI data to assess performance and make informed decisions.
  • This blog post shares nine tips to improve your PPI use.

Still have questions? Search the PPI community forum, read our Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs), or contact us.

 

How Do You Want to Use the PPI?

 

1. Measure Poverty Outreach

Do you want to understand the poverty levels of a group of households that you’re working with? If so, is that for reporting back to management and stakeholders? Do you also want to benchmark your organization’s poverty outreach against national and regional poverty rates?

Learn how to use the PPI to measure your poverty outreach here.

2. Improve Social Performance

Will you use the PPI to segment your market by poverty level or create customer profiles? Will you use the data to improve how you target clients, or make strategic decisions or product design changes in order to reach poorer clients?

Learn how to use the PPI to improve your social performance here.

3. Track Changes in Poverty Rates

Do you want to be able to assess changes in poverty rates of customer groups over time?

Learn how to use the PPI to track changes in poverty rates here.

4. Not Sure Yet

If you’re not sure yet, but want to learn more, click here.