NUBL is the largest non-government NGO in Nepal. As of December 2000 it had an outreach of around 35,000 clients. All of its clients are women and a majority of them (61%) are agricultural households.

Mission: NUBL’s aim is to reach the poorer individuals in the poorer regions of Nepal. It intends to provide credit to individuals below the poverty line and to engender financial discipline among them through regular loan repayment and regular savings.

Targeting Tool: NUBL targets the poor actively because it believes that without aggressive targeting the poor cannot be reached. Its focus is on women in poor regions. The initial identification of poor households is done through the housing index. Then clients’ eligibility criterion is determined by a Household Survey Form, which weighs factors such as land assets, income level, employment situation, etc.

Results of the Poverty Assessment of Clients: The figure below shows the poverty level of clients relative to the population they are in (non-clients). The population (non-clients) is divided into three equal terciles — the poorest third, the less poor, and the better off. 44% of NUBL clients were ranked in the poorest poverty tercile, compared to 33% of the general population. Within the middle tercile registering less-poor households, NUBL clients made up 40.5% and in the better off tercile, 15.5% of NUBL sampled households were recorded.

These results indicate that the poorest groups are strongly represented and that less poor households are underrepresented among NUBL’s clients. This is not only consistent with NUBL’s explicit aim to serve the poor, especially rural poor women, but also indicates considerable success in its targeting practices.

Percentage of clients within the three poverty groups

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