MORE INFORMATION ABOUT Participatory Poverty Assessments

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	More Info. on Poverty Reduction Strategies

The first Participatory Poverty Assessments were conducted in Africa during the early 1990s.  Together with information generated through surveys and individual interviews, their findings were meant by the World Bank to show the complex relationship between poverty profiles, public policies, expenditures and institutions. 

PPAs quickly spread beyond the Bank to other agencies, where they continued to evolve and develop in terms of methodology and objectives.  As a result, there are many different definitions of what a PPA is and no apparent agreement on what a PPA is not.  One of the most contentious issues is the question of whose views should be represented in PPAs.  According to the World Bank, they should document the perspectives and priorities of multiple stakeholders – including local elites and donors.  The U.K. Department for International Development (DfID), amongst others, disagrees.  It argues that these voices are usually heard in policy fora.  Thus, they suggest that PPAs should focus on bringing the insights and concerns of poor people into these spaces. 

In the midst of ongoing debates, the many goals of PPAs have grown to include:

• Providing critical supplementary data (e.g. qualitative data) to inform effective pro-poor policies

• Providing information about the perceptions and attitudes of poor people

• Improving the accuracy of ‘poverty assessments’ based on conventional research methodologies (and thereby improving the quality of poverty alleviation policies)

• Explaining the causes and consequences of poverty

• Engaging a range of stakeholders in the research process so as to stimulate local activities for poverty alleviation

• Raising poor people’s awareness of their rights and responsibilities (particularly vis-à-vis good governance)

• Building poor people’s capacity to analyse and solve their problems

•  Changing policymakers’ understanding of and attitudes towards poor people by involving government officials in the research process

• Building governments’ capacity for poverty analysis and policy design

• Ensuring that Poverty Reduction Strategies reflect the priority needs of poor people

• Promoting wide ownership and partnership in the implementation of Poverty Reduction Strategies

Not all PPAs aim to meet all these goals, nor do all PPAs meet their goals.  However, many are realised and have made critical contributions to poverty alleviation efforts.  

Click on the following links to learn more about Participatory Poverty Assessments & Related Subjects: 

	The 1998 Shinyanga Region (Tanzania) PPA
	The Uganda PPA
	The Rwanda PPA
	The Kerala (India) PPA
	A novel PPA in India, implemented by the Institute for Development Policy Analysis and Advocacy (IDPAA) and the Participatory Poverty Assessment Coalition (PPAC)
	Information on PPAs in Jordan and Egypt
	PPA Reader
	Getting It Right with PPAs
	Participatory Poverty Assessment Information Pack
	The World Bank and Participatory Poverty Assessments
	ODI (on PPAs)
	Gender in the World Bank's Poverty Assessments: Six Cases from Sub-Saharan Africa
	Can the Poor Influence Policy?  Participatory Poverty Assessments in the Developing World
	A Synthesis of Participatory Poverty Assessments from Four Sites (Vietnam)
	Participation in Poverty Assessments
	Participation in Poverty Reduction Strategies: a Synthesis of Experience with Participatory Approaches to Policy Design, Implementation and Monitoring
	Participation and Combined Methods in African Poverty Assessment: Renewing the Agenda