International Development written question – answered at on 28 February 2011.
Robert Syms
Chair, Regulatory Reform Committee, Chair, Regulatory Reform Committee
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development what measures his Department uses to evaluate the effect of its support to microfinance programmes on the movement of microfinance clients out of poverty.
Stephen O'Brien
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for International Development
Poverty alleviation is at the heart of all financial sector development programmes supported by the Department for International Development (DFID). Indicators such as income, assets, consumption, employment and business growth are used to measure the movement of microfinance clients out of poverty. All programmes are reviewed annually to track progress against these indicators, and on completion, to evaluate their development impact.
External data are also used to validate the progress or impact of financial sector development programmes on reducing poverty. For example, the DFID-supported FinMark Trust's tracks changes in the income, savings, debt and expenditure of low-income consumers in Southern Africa in its quarterly Consumer Financial Vulnerability Index. DFID has also commissioned a systematic review of the impact of microcredit on poor people; the results of which will be used to inform our future interventions in this area.
Yes0 people think so
No0 people think not
Would you like to ask a question like this yourself? Use our Freedom of Information site.
Secretary of State was originally the title given to the two officials who conducted the Royal Correspondence under Elizabeth I. Now it is the title held by some of the more important Government Ministers, for example the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs.
