Estimating poverty among refugee populations: a cross-survey imputation exercise for Chad

Household consumption surveys do not typically offer poverty estimatesfor refugees. We test the performance of a recently developed cross-survey imputation method to estimate poverty for a sample of refugeesin Chad, combining survey and administrative data collected by theUnited Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). We find theimputed poverty rates are not statistically different from the poverty ratesobtained directly from the survey consumption data. This result is robustto different model specifications, varying poverty lines, and assumptionsof the error terms. Targeting results based on the imputed poverty esti-mates also outperform common targeting methods, such as proxy meanstests and the current targeting method used by humanitarian organiza-tions in Chad. Replicating this approach in at least some of the 122 othercountries currently using UNHCR administrative data could help addressdata gaps and provide much-needed estimates to effectively respond toforcibly displaced crises.