Targeting the Poorest in Microfinance: Poverty Outreach of BDP Ultra Poor Programme

Despite the general consensus that microfinance does not reach the poorest; recent evidence suggests that nearly 15% of microfinance clients in Bangladesh are among the poorest. It is from the realization that even within the existing microfinance membership of BRAC, there is a significant percentage of the poorest; the CFPR-TUP programme has included a special focus on this segment of the poor what it calls the ‘BDP ultra poor’. So, BDP ultra poor are those struggling members of existing village organization (VO) or very poor households in a village who with some additional support can more fully participate and benefit from microfinance services. This study attempts to assess the targeting effectiveness of the BDP ultra poor programme by measuring relative poverty of BDP ultra poor.To improve targeting effectiveness of BDP ultra poor package further, the focus will have to be on the poorest households outside the VOs most of whom have never participated in any microfinance programmes and possessed extremely low poverty score. [CFPR-TUP Working Paper Series No. 13]