The task of the Bangladesh Expert Panel is to use microcredit research and national level
poverty research to estimate the number of microcredit clients in Bangladesh who were
living below US$1 a day at the time of their first loan and who have crossed that
threshold, between 1990 and 2007. As noted in the Terms of Reference, the Microcredit
Summit (MCS) is not seeking to establish causality between microcredit and poverty
alleviation.
With the above perspective, the Lead Researcher is expected to review existing data,
conduct additional independent research (using secondary data) based on the
recommendations received at the first in-person meeting and draft a paper on the results
and report findings back to the entire panel and advisors at the second in-person meeting.
It is further expected that the Expert Panel will submit to the Microcredit Summit
Campaign a paper outlining the panel’s research and estimation of the number of clients
in Bangladesh who moved above the US$1 a day threshold (1990-2007).