22 U.S.C. § 262p–4f — Assistance to countries to develop statistical assessment of well-being of poor

(a) Findings Congress finds that: (1) developing countries need better ability to regularly measure the nutrition and physical well-being of their poorest 40 percent, which is essential to fighting absolute poverty; (2) internationally accepted statistical indicators for measuring poverty and locating the poor are being developed to guide policy and target assistance; (3) some developing countries, especially the poorest, can't use such guidance because they lack the underlying statistical data; (4) the World Bank and International Development Association have the technical and financial ability to help borrowing governments build these statistical measurement tools for social indicators needed to design and monitor poverty-reduction policies; (5) social indicator data is also essential to these institutions' own work, especially monitoring how structural adjustment lending affects the poor; and (6) such indicators will also help other public and private donors measure progress fighting poverty. (b) Assistance to countries The Treasury Secretary must instruct the U.S. representative at the World Bank and the International Development Association to push for and support, as an immediate priority, helping borrowing governments develop proper statistical measures of the poor's physical well-being — broken down by sex and age — using indicators like death rates, health, education, and nutrition, as well as wealth and income, and to maintain and publish these indicators regularly.