 Collecting Indicators
Income (or consumption) is the most frequently used proxy for poverty. Money-based poverty definitions and assessments provide a standard scale so that different population groups can be compared. For comparisons across very different types of settlements (such as between rural and urban areas), it is important that quantitative measures take adequate account of major differences in the minimum essential "consumption basket" and the differential prices faced for goods and services. Social indicators, such as life expectancy and infant mortality, are also important. Definitions and benchmarks should allow the living conditions of different population groups to be compared with others. | | |
Poverty diagnostics and monitoring of results require appropriate indicators. The table 3 below suggests a menu of indicators that can be used to assess and monitor both "visible causes" and "policy-related causes" of the various dimensions of poverty. Selecting indicators is an important basic task in strategy formulation. The chosen indicators can then be used to assess the depth of problems over time and in relation to external benchmarks. Indicators need to be developed to facilitate stakeholder participation; indeed, the selection of indicators can be an essential focus of participation. The indicators thus validated can then be used for increasing the accountability of the public and private sectors to poor people. Disaggregating the Data
Assessing urban poverty nationwide is necessary to ascertain the overall level of poverty as well as to understand differences in poverty trends within regions and within urban areas. Identifying such locational variations would help to target interventions to cities or regions with the greatest levels of deprivation. For assessing urban (and rural) poverty, and especially to identify policy interventions, it is desirable to have indicators collected at the lowest practical level of aggregation. The indicators that derive from household survey data (such as data on expenditures and access to services) are often produced as averages for all urban areas of a country. However, this degree of aggregation often masks important differences among types of urban areas (e.g., small or newly growing cities compared with large and well-established cities). Constructing Poverty Profiles Local authorities need to assess the causes, characteristics, and location of poverty within their city in order to design poverty strategies and to make appropriate regulatory changes. A city poverty assessment is a tool for acquiring up-to-date information on a city's poverty and social development. Constructing a poverty profile at the city level will provide a snapshot showing who is poor, where they live in the city, their access to services, their living standards, and so forth, thereby contributing to the targeting of poverty measures. In addition to a snapshot of poverty, it is important to see how city living conditions change. This will give feedback on whether the city is moving in the right direction. For example, even if poverty in the city is low relative to other areas, an increase in poverty over time will alert policymakers and enable them to take preventative actions. Changes over time can also provide insights into the factors that help people grow out of poverty or fall into it. Measuring changes over time requires consistent definitions and measurement of poverty indicators. For further details, see the section on monitoring and evaluation. Table 3: Indicators of Urban Poverty Participatory Approaches; Techniques & Qualitative assessments
Why Participation?
Experience has proven that participation of stakeholders in project preparation and implementation, including data collection and formulating indicators, helps to improve project impacts, enhance accountability and lessen corruption. Soliciting participation from beneficiaries in assessing poverty help to understand the poverty and thus promote sustainability of poverty alleviation programs. Participatory Poverty Assessments (PPAs) have been used to provide clearer insight into the perception of the poor on the key issues related to poverty reduction. They are contributing to a greater understanding of the processes by which people fall into and get out of poverty, the complex coping and survival strategies adopted by the poor, and the major priorities and solutions found by the poor, all within regional and local contexts. By combining PPA with the quantitative analyses (household surveys, etc), the final poverty assessment is able to more fully analyze the various dimensions of poverty and make more informed and appropriate policy recommendations. * (see C. Robb 1999 - Can the poor influence policy : participatory poverty assessments in the developing world ) What is a Participatory Poverty Assessment (PPA)?
A participatory poverty assessment is typically one of many inputs into a poverty assessment. Unlike household surveys, which collect statistical data on the extent of poverty through standardized methods and rules, PPAs focus on processes and explanations of poverty as defined by individuals and communities. PPAs are sometimes referred to as qualitative surveys.  Back to top
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