Cost-effective targeting: two tools to identify the poor

This manual presents methods by which the poor and the poorest can be identified so that they can be reached by the services of microfinance institutions - and so that the non-poor can be excluded from them. Whilst poverty targeting has long been regarded as difficult and costly, the authors argue that these methods, developed through field experience, are practical and cost-effective. The CASHPOR (Credit and Savings for the Hard-Core Poor) Network has developed a House Index that is adapted to the house styles of all countries in Asia where the Network programmes are operating. The Small Enterprise Foundation (SEF) has taken the methodology of Participatory Wealth Ranking and developed it to become an effective and cost effective means of identifying the poor. The manual gives practical details of these two methods for use by microfinance practitioners and others.