1. This note is intended to provide good practice guidance to staff in the preparation of poverty assessments. It is not intended to be a mandatory policy document nor are its requirements binding. For these requirements, staff should refer to OP 1.00, Poverty Reduction. Content of poverty assessments 2. As part of economic and sector work, the Bank periodically prepares, in close collaboration with national institutions, partners and civil society groups, including poor people's organizations, poverty assessments for member countries in which it has an active program. To be most useful, a poverty assessment should be conducted at least every five years.1 2 Where useful, poverty assessments should be integrated, or at least closely coordinated, with other country studies, such as Country Economic Memorandum, Development Policy Reviews, Risk and Vulnerability Assessments, and integrate findings from other analytical work such as Country Gender Assessments and Public Expenditure Reviews.3 3. A poverty assessment includes: (a) an analytical synthesis of the existing body of knowledge on the three topics to be covered in a poverty assessment, which are: (i) assessment of the poverty situation; (ii) analysis of the impact on poverty of growth and public actions; and (iii) appraisal of poverty monitoring and evaluation systems; (b) an identification of key knowledge gaps with respect to these three topics; and (c) new analysis that addresses selected gaps or complements existing work.
4. In covering the three topics highlighted in point (a) above, poverty assessments should address the key questions raised below in paragraphs 8-17. The bullet points mention additional topics which may also be covered in the assessments. The bullet points are not intended to be exhaustive; there may be other issues that are important in a particular country and that should be covered. Poverty assessments should emphasize the topics that are most relevant in the country context. 5. When deciding on the content and depth of a poverty assessment, it is important to take into account the capacity and data sources existing in the country. Where capacity and data are weak, a poverty assessment might place more emphasis on ways to improve data sources, monitoring systems, and analytical capacity. Qualitative data and sociological/anthropological studies should also be considered. 6. Where other partners (the government, research institutions, other aid agencies, civil society groups, etc.) have done relevant analytical quantitative and/or qualitative work on one or more of these topics, the poverty assessment presents an analytical synthesis of the existing work and new analysis to complement it. In most cases, it is likely that the existing analysis does not fully cover the three topics, so the poverty assessment identifies the key gaps and provides new analysis intended to fill the gaps, thus complementing existing work (or work planned to be undertaken by others). Given limitations in available data, time, resources, as well as capacity and the inherent complexities of many issues, usually only some of the existing gaps can be addressed; the decision of what to cover is taken at the Concept Paper review meeting, at which point a decision is taken as to whether the task should be classified as a poverty assessment or as other poverty work (see para. 24 below). 7. Good-practice poverty assessments aim to inform good pro-poor policy. Good technical analysis is a means to this end. The choice of topics and presentation of results should be relevant to policy and program decisions. If the poverty assessment feeds into processes that aim to develop a strategy, such as for example PRSP processes, it need not contain a fully developed poverty reduction strategy, so as not to pre-empt discussion, but may rather lay out options to be discussed. When it is appropriate to recommend actions to be taken, it is important to prioritize them, indicate the appropriate timing, and identify the institutions that would be responsible for taking such actions, including the Bank and other development agencies. Options and recommendations should follow from the analysis. When poverty assessments include the analysis of poverty and social impacts of reforms, recommendations for the design and/or implementation of reforms should be made. Assessment of the poverty situation 8. This topic covers the description of the poverty situation across the country's regions and its evolution over time, using monetary and non-monetary indicators that reflect the multidimensional nature of poverty, and the analysis of the determinants of monetary and non-monetary poverty. 9. The poverty assessment should address the following questions: What are the levels of monetary and non-monetar poverty indicators (income/consumption poverty and human development indicators)4 across regions? What have been their trends over time? (Methodological choices related to the definition and measurement of indicators, in particular the construction of the income/consumption aggregate and the poverty lines, as well as any adjustments made for price variations across areas and time, should be documented carefully. In analyses based on household data, check the statistical significance of comparisons.)5 Additionally, the poverty assessment may: - Assess levels of and trends in indicators of empowerment and vulnerability.
- Incorporate findings from both quantitative and participatory studies.
10. The poverty assessment should address the following questions: Who are the poor? Where are they? What do they do? What are their patterns of consumption, sectors of employment, access to health and education services? How do aspects of monetary and non-monetary poverty differ between males and females? Additionally, the poverty assessment may: - Examine income sources and asset ownership (land, livestock, etc.) of different groups.
- Assess the degree of participation in key markets (labor, product, financial, land markets) of different groups.
- Assess access to key infrastructure such as electricity, water, transportation, communications and access to other services (in addition to health and education).
- Identify, as permitted by the data, the role of ethnic, religious, or other social group indicators and their correlation with poverty indicators.
- Use anthropological, historical, and sociological data in addition to economic data.
11. The poverty assessment should address the following questions: What are the main sources of vulnerability at the various levels (e.g., individual, household, community and national levels)? Additionally, the poverty assessment may: - Assess food security; health risks; conflict; and environmental risks.
- Assess risk of loss of income due to poor harvests, terms of trade shocks, unemployment, or to declines in real wages.6
12. The poverty assessment should address the following questions: Why are people poor? What are the key economic, institutional, social, political, environmental, and regional/locational factors that cause and/or perpetuate poverty?7 Additionally, the poverty assessment may: - If panel data and/or qualitative information are available, describe the dynamics of poverty: through what processes do households move in and out of poverty?
Analysis of the impact of growth and public actions on poverty and inequality 13. The poverty assessment should address the following questions: What is the impact of growth (past and projected; level and patterns) on different poverty and inequality indicators? What is the poverty impact of distributional changes? Additionally, the poverty assessment may: - If there is data for more than one point in time, decompose changes in poverty between growth and changes in distribution (for different groups, as appropriate), and calculate the rate of pro-poor growth and the growth incidence curve.8
14. The poverty assessment should address the following questions: What is the impact of key past policies (macroeconomic, structural, and sectoral) and programs (specific public expenditure programs, social protection programs, targeted programs, etc.) on the well-being of different groups, particularly the poor and subgroups of the poor (based on gender, regional or ethnic characteristics, etc.)? What are the priority public actions that could help households move out of poverty? Policies and programs should be selected based on their perceived impact on poverty, their magnitude, and importance in the policy debate. Additionally, the poverty assessment may: - Carry out average and marginal benefit incidence analysis of key public programs.
- Analyze the factors responsible for success and/or failure, looking in particular at institutional aspects, particularly the role of central and line agencies, and the role of local agencies in decentralized settings, in determining how public actions affect the poor.
15. The poverty assessment should address the following questions: What are the poverty and social impacts of major policy reforms and programs envisaged in the country? The analysis should identify: the key stakeholders (i.e. those likely to be affected by the reform, both positively and negatively, and those likely to affect the reform); the principal channels through which each stakeholder is affected, or affects, the reform; the expected direction and order of magnitude of the impact on various stakeholders and the main risks associated with the poverty and social impacts of the reform; mitigating measures, if needed.9 The selection of the policy/program reforms to be analyzed should be based on the expected magnitude of the poverty and social impacts, their timing and urgency, and their prominence in the country's Poverty Reduction Strategy (where it exists or is under preparation). Appraisal of systems and capacity for poverty monitoring and evaluation and improvements needed 16. The poverty assessment should address the following questions: A r e the systems and capacity to monitor and analyze trends in poverty indicators adequate and sustainable? Where there are significant problems, what actions are needed to improve them and what are the estimated resource requirements? Additionally, the poverty assessment may: - Describe any actions being taken and resources allocated to institutionalize monitoring and analysis work carried out by donors.
17. The poverty assessment should address the following questions: Are systems and capacity to evaluate the poverty impact of policy and expenditure interventions adequate and sustainable? Additionally, the poverty assessment may: - Describe any actions being taken and resources allocated to institutionalize evaluative work carried out by donors.
Process in countries 18. Good-practice poverty assessments are linked with country-based and owned processes that aim to develop a strategy and/or to inform the choice and design of public actions. 19. Building capacity for poverty monitoring, analysis and evaluation of ex-ante and ex-post impacts is a key goal of good-practice poverty assessments. Hence, whenever possible, poverty assessments are conducted as part of a long-term process of capacity building and done jointly with country counterparts, especially in the government, and other partners. 20. Poverty assessments also support, as much as possible, in-country participatory processes aimed at reaching broad consensus on methodologies, findings, strategies and priority actions. Such processes take place throughout the process of conducting analytical work rather than just at the end. 21. Poverty assessments are normally made available publicly. Under the Bank's Disclosure Policy, if an ESW report, such as a poverty assessment, is tumed into a gray cover report and distributed to the Board, it will be made publicly available after its distribution to the Executive Directors. If the poverty assessment is not sent to the Board, the director responsible for the report may make the report publicly available, taking into account the need to protect confidential information and the country's deliberative process, and after consultation with the country concerned.10 Poverty assessments that are made publicly available are disseminated widely through printed publications and electronic media, including at Public Information Centers in countries. Whenever feasible, they are translated into local languages. A disclosure and dissemination strategy, consistent with the Disclosure Policy, should be developed and adequately budgeted at the Concept Paper review stage of the task. Bank processes 22. The CAS reflects the findings of earlier poverty assessments and lays out the Bank's work program, including future poverty assessments and other poverty work as appropriate.11 Poverty work should be carried out sufficiently in advance of the next CAS or CAS Progress Report to inform its development.12 23. Regional procedures for processing ESW products apply to poverty assessments and other poverty work. These procedures vary by Regions, but they generally include the preparation of a concept paper, peer reviews, and decision meetings. Regional guidelines on ESW procedures can be accessed on regional websites. 24. Decisions concerning the scope of poverty work and whether a task would lead to a poverty assessment or other poverty work13 are made at the Concept Paper review meeting. The relevant regional representative on the Poverty Reduction Board will review the study at the Concept Paper and Decision Draft stages, and assess (at the Decision Draft stage) whether it qualifies as a poverty assessment. He/she will consult with the PRB as needed. The PRB will draw up a list of "expert" peer reviewers, and one of the peer reviewers assigned to each poverty assessment will be chosen from this list. These guidelines apply to all poverty assessments, including those managed by non-PREM units. In cases when sufficient knowledge exists,14 the country team would prepare a brief note mentioning what exists on the key questions raised below, and the Poverty Reduction Board regional representative would confirm in writing that, given this knowledge, a full poverty assessment is not needed at the time. 25. Whenever the Quality Assurance Group (QAG) reviews the quality of ESW, these guidelines provide the basis of QAG's review of the content of and processes for poverty assessments. 26. Because of the cross-sectoral nature of poverty work, particular attention should be paid to cross-sectoral interactions. The task team should include Bank staff working in the relevant sectors, to ensure that adequate expertise is available and that the analysis and conclusions are useful (and used) for Bank operations. The Concept Paper should be circulated widely to all potentially interested operational staff in the country team, and participation in the review meeting should be open to the entire team. 27. To ensure strong linkages between poverty assessments, the development of CASs, and the design of lending operations and non-lending activities, is it useful to disseminate widely the results of poverty work within the Bank and outside.
1 Even where household survey data are not available every five years, there will generally be at least some new information on poverty from other surveys or participatory studies every five years to prepare a poverty assessment. Moreover, there may be gaps in existing assessments - for example on the poverty and social impact of reforms - that do not necessarily require additionallnew data. 2 The frequency of poverty assessments is determined as part of the CAS process (see OP1.00, Poverty Reduction, footnote 4, BP 2.11, Countiy Assistance Strategy, forthcoming). 3 For example, when analysis of gender issues is an important focus of a poverty assessment, the poverty assessment may serve as a country gender assessment. For the requirements of a country gender assessment, see (OPBP 4.20, Gender and Development, March 2003). Guidance on county gender assessments can be found at: http://gender/overview/cga/home.htm. 4 The Millennium Development Goals provide guidance on indicators. 5 For guidance on these issues see chapters 1.1. and 1.2. in the PRSP Sourcebook. 6 When analysis of risk issues is an important focus of a poverty assessment, the poverty assessment may serve also as a risk and vulnerability assessment. Guidance on risk and vulnerability analysis can be found at: http://www1.worldbank.org/sp/risk_management/. 7 Some recent studies that looked at institutional factors and may be a useful reference for this type of work are: Guatemala PA; Pakistan PA; Russia Labor Market Study; Russia PA; Uttar Pradesh PA; Uzbekistan PA; Zambia PER. Institutional and Governance Reviews also provide useful information. See also the summary and presentations of the clinic held on this topic in June 2003 at http://www.worldbank.org/poverty/wbactivities/pa/index.htm. 8 For more information on how to calculate the rate of pro-poor growth see: Ravallion, 2004. "Pro-Poor Growth: A Primer," World Bank (Policy Research Working Paper, #3242). 9 More detailed guidance on the core issues to be addressed by poverty and social impact analysis can be found in the PSIA Users Guide on the PSIA web site [http://www.worldbank.org/psia] for further guidance. As there are capacity and resource constraints, judgment should be used in assessing what analysis can be carried out, especially in crisis, emergency, post-conflict situations, and for small countries. 10 See Disclosure Policy, September 2002, paragraphs 5-6. 11 See BP2.11, Country Assistance Strategies, forthcoming. 12 Availability of data is of course an important factor in determining the timing of a poverty assessment. 13 Coded respectively POR or POS. 14 "Sufficient" knowledge in the sense that it addresses the questions in paragraphs 8-17 above. Back to World Bank Policies |
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