The Poverty Assessment Tool (PAT) was developed for CGAP by the International Food Policy Research Institute. The multi-dimensional Poverty Index constructed by the tool is targeted at donors and investors who require a standardized, globally applicable set of poverty indicators to make poverty-focused funding decisions and to compare MFIs across regions and countries. Although it is more complex and costly than the simpler client-targeting tools used by MFIs (such as means testing, the Housing Index, Participatory Wealth Ranking, Rapid Appraisals, and Participatory Appraisals), and less comprehensive (and therefore less costly) than the World Bank's Household Expenditure Survey, the PAT nonetheless yields rigorous data that can also be used to rank large populations, determine the poorest inhabitants of large geographical regions, and make valid comparisons across regions and countries.