Number of low-income individuals who served as distributors of the organization's products/services during the reporting period.
Organizations should footnote all assumptions used, including the assessment tools used to identify low-income distributors. See usage guidance for further information.
This metric is intended to capture how many self-employed, low-income individuals sold the organization's products or services during the reporting period, either to other distributors (wholesale) or to ultimate consumers (retail).
Distributors counted under this metric need not exclusively sell the organization's products or services. Direct employees who distribute the organization's goods or services should be considered employees, not distributors.
The population classified as low income includes all those who fall below a fixed threshold, which includes those classified as poor or very poor. Because assessing the poverty level of distributors is complex, organizations will likely use specific assessment tools to accurately report on this metric. See the glossary definition for additional information on commonly used tools to help determine the absolute poverty level of individuals and households.
This metric is multi-dimensional with regard to the five dimensions of impact: it may help describe the WHO dimension when the stakeholder group represented by the metric is the stakeholder group targeted by the investment or organization. It may also help measure the HOW MUCH Scale dimension, which helps estimate the number of the targeted stakeholders experiencing the outcome. For more on the alignment of IRIS metrics to the five dimensions of impact, see IRIS+ and the Five Dimensions of Impact (https://iris.thegiin.org/document/iris-and-the-five-dimensions/). No single metric is sufficient to understand an impact; rather, metrics are selected as a set across all dimensions of impact. When possible, the selection of metrics to measure and describe the five dimensions should be based on best practice and evidence.
This is a submetric of Distributor Individuals: Total (PI2758), which has 7 other related submetrics.
Metrics identified as "cross-category" are those that are relevant to any IRIS+ Impact Category or Impact Theme (i.e., these metrics are not specific to any particular industry/category or theme).
June 2022 - IRIS v5.3 Released (current version)
Immaterial change. Minor revision to usage guidance for clarity.
January 2020 - IRIS v5.1 Released
No change.
May 2019 - IRIS v5.0 Released
No change.
March 2016 - IRIS v4.0 Released
Immaterial change. Metric name modified to improve accuracy and align with catalog's structure.
March 2014 - IRIS v3.0 Released
New metric. Distributor Individual: Low Income (PI2125) was developed via the IRIS Taxonomy Group.
IRIS Metrics Work Better in Sets
To use IRIS metrics—and the resulting data—to understand impact performance, IRIS metrics should be used and analyzed in generally accepted sets and according to well-defined objectives. IRIS+ gives you access to generally accepted Core Metrics Sets aligned to common Impact Themes and Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).