Understanding the impacts of policy reform

In this section we introduce frameworks and tools for examining the likely or actual impact of policy reform at the meso and micro levels. The micro level has been described as a “black box” characterized by processes of poverty that are complex and often non-quantifiable. Social analysis at the meso and micro levels takes us beyond the sometimes mechanical view of transmission mechanisms that measures: (i) changed incentives in the market to producer responses, and (ii) enhanced producer incomes to general improvements in consumption and other dimensions of well being. The frameworks and tools introduced here allow us to differentiate between winners and losers and to apply theories on how policy change is likely to impact on poverty dynamics at the local level.