Ultra Poverty

What is Ultra Poverty?

Ultra poverty is an inability to meet even the barest of basic needs. The ultra poor are typically food insecure, have few or no assets, lack education, and suffer from poor health.

The vast majority of ultra-poor households are headed by women. Ultra-poor women tend to be the victims of social exclusion and lack self-confidence or opportunities to build the skills and resilience necessary to plan their own futures.

Often chronic and intergenerational, ultra poverty creates a trap that is incredibly difficult for women and their families to escape. Traditional microfinance institutions do not reach out to the ultra poor due to the very high level of accompaniment required to help them ascend from ultra poverty.

Alleviating Ultra Poverty

Fonkoze is committed to serving Haiti’s ultra poor. Through our Chemen Lavi Miyò (CLM) program, we are working to demonstrate that extreme poverty in Haiti can be eliminated.

CLM was first piloted in 2007 to serve Haiti’s ultra poor. Based on the Graduation Model created by BRAC in Bangladesh, the program is one of ten pilots conducted in partnership with CGAP and the Ford Foundation to combat ultra poverty. Fonkoze uses an intensive process to identify Haiti’s poorest women.

CLM case managers begin by involving the local community in a process known as Participatory Wealth Ranking (PWR). During the process, community members map out every local household and rank the households according to five wealth categories. Using the PWR results, case managers interview prospective members using two key tools, the Poverty Probability Index (PPI) and the Fonkoze Poverty Scorecard.

Using these effective targeting methods, Fonkoze has empowered over 8,600 of Haiti’s poorest women and their families, enabling them to emerge from ultra poverty with hope for their future. Learn more about CLM.

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