Families scoring 30 points or less are considered living below the poverty line in Sri Lanka, whereas families scoring 20 points or less are considered in the bottom half of those living below the poverty line. Female high school graduates from the community are selected as loan officers and trained to do assessments. Community-based loan committees serve as a final verification of the assessments. Women eligible for the Sadat Pension Scheme and receive social security from the Ministry of Social Affairs Priority for loans is given to those who meet more than three items of the above criteria. The International Rescue Committee's SEAD program in the Ivory Coast works primarily with Liberian refugees in the Ivory Coast.
Staff carry out baseline surveys and document findings before any assistance is provided.
The loan staff observe for themselves, as well as interview participants and their neighbors, concerning several items differentiated by the titles very poor, not so poor, non poor. Their tool provides a scoring system between 25 and 100, with the higher scores indicating greater poverty. People are eligible for a loan from LAPO if they score 50 points or above, as their economic situation would correspond similarly with people living below Nigeria's official poverty line. LAPO staff have indicated that people scoring 70 points or above would have economic situations that correspond similarly with the Summit's target group, the bottom half of the population living below the Nigerian poverty line. The questions take five minutes to complete per client.