Poverty-oriented financial service programmes: room for improvement?

Providing financial services to people beyond the reach of existing suppliers may be worthwhile, but is difficult. A key determinant of the effectiveness of programmes that attempt to do so is their ability to learn from past performance. While the "subsidy dependence index' represents a useful advance in monitoring programme costs, less progress has been made in improving methodologies for monitoring programme impact. The article identifies ways in which these needs can be met through qualitative methods of enquiry, particularly participative wealth ranking. -Author