The urban BNB is a tool for gathering information on the bare minimum cost of living for a family of five living in an urban area. The UBNB shows the cost of basic day-to-day necessities, including mealie-meal, sugar, salt and milk, housing and utility bills, required by an average family of five to live an acceptably decent and healthy lifestyle.  The UBNB also tracks the changes in household incomes in order to highlight the gap between the cost of living and the typical income of most families in urban areas. PRFT works with community enumerators, residents associations and community based organisations in data collection and analysis of the results.

Through the  project, PRFT develops  BNB reports  and  policy briefs  which are disseminated to  various stakeholders  to  inform pro poor  policies  at local level and national level. The tool also guides households on a day to day planning to address their basic needs. The BNB tool is readily available for local authorities, government departments, communities, civil society, churches, private sector, employers and households.