The Microfinance, Small and Medium Enterprises sector in Haiti is a critical component of the country’s economic development. In 2000, the United States Congress passed the Microenterprise for Self-Reliance Act, which requires that half of all USAID funding for the microenterprise sector must reach the very poor. The US government amended this legislation in 2003 to define “very poor” as those living on less than $1/day or those living in the bottom 50% below their own country’s poverty line.
To assess the poverty level of beneficiaries of USAID microenterprise funding, the agency developed and certified poverty assessment tools (PATs) for various countries, including Haiti. The Haiti MSME PAT is a household survey containing nine questions that determine whether respondents meet the definition of very poor. The survey focuses on variables such as household size, housing construction materials, level of education, assets, and receipt of remittances from abroad.
The PAT team translated the survey into Haitian Creole and back-translated it into English to ensure accuracy. Copies of both versions are provided in Annex A. The survey was implemented in February 2008, and the result was a poverty percentage figure of 30.98%, indicating that 30.98% of all respondents/program beneficiaries live below the poverty line.
The implementation of the PAT in Haiti involved selecting a sample of 420 respondents from the client base of 15 microfinance institutions and 19 caisses populaires. The team used a cluster sampling method, first clustering branches by geographic location and then randomly selecting districts from all ten departments. The team then randomly selected clients or client groups from the active client lists from these branches.
The data gathered during the interviewing process was entered into EPI Info, a program designed by the Center for Disease Control, which analyzed the inputted data and generated the poverty percentage figure. The implementation team learned several key lessons during the process, including the importance of getting client information early on, getting buy-in and cooperation from partner institutions, and selecting a sample larger than needed to account for incomplete or inaccurate surveys.
The Haiti MSME PAT is a critical tool for assessing the poverty level of beneficiaries of USAID microenterprise funding in Haiti. The survey provides an aggregate number of people living above or below the poverty line, which is essential for measuring the impact of microfinance services and enterprise development services on the lives of clients or beneficiaries. The implementation of the PAT in Haiti highlights the importance of using a random sampling method to ensure statistical significance and the need for dedicated resources to support the implementation process.