A Simple Poverty Scorecard for Bolivia

Mark Schreiner

Center for Social Development, Washington University in Saint Louis

(October 2006)

How poor are participants in development projects in Bolivia? This research uses a national survey to construct an easy-to-use, objective scorecard that estimates the likelihood that a person has expenditure below the national poverty line. The scorecard uses 10 simple indicators that field workers can quickly collect and easily verify. Poverty scores can be computed on paper in the field in real time. With 90-percent confidence, a household’s estimated poverty likelihood is accurate within +/–9 percentage points, and a group’s estimated overall poverty rate is accurate within +/–1.3 percentage points. The poverty scorecard can help programs to target services, track changes in poverty over time, and report on poverty rates.