14523977
Using a community-based definition of poverty for targeting poor households for premium subsidies in the context of a community health insurance in Burkina Faso
BackgroundOne of the biggest challenges in subsidizing premiums of poor households for community health insurance is the identification and selection of these households. Generally, poverty assessments in developing countries are based on monetary terms. The household is regarded as poor if its income or consumption is lower than a predefined poverty cut-off. These measures fail to recognize the multi-dimensional character of poverty, ignoring community members’ perception and understanding of poverty, leaving them voiceless and powerless in the identification process. Realizing this, the steering committee of Nouna’s health insurance devised a method to involve community members to better define ‘perceived’ poverty, using this as a key element for the poor selection. The community-identified poor were then used to effectively target premium subsidies for the insurance scheme.MethodsThe study was conducted in the Nouna’s Health District located in northwest Burkina Faso. Participants in each village were selected to take part in focus-group discussions (FGD) organized in 41 villages and 7 sectors of Nouna’s town to discuss criteria and perceptions of poverty. The discussions were audio recorded, transcribed and analyzed in French using the software NVivo 9.ResultsFrom the FGD on poverty and the subjective definitions and perceptions of the community members, we found that poverty was mainly seen as scarcity of basic needs, vulnerability, deprivation of capacities, powerlessness, voicelessness, indecent living conditions, and absence of social capital and community networks for support in times of need. Criteria and poverty groups as described by community members can be used to identify poor who can then be targeted for subsidies.ConclusionPolicies targeting the poorest require the establishment of effective selection strategies. These policies are well-conditioned by proper identification of the poor people. Community perceptions and criteria of poverty are grounded in reality, to better appreciate the issue. It is crucial to take these perceptions into account in undertaking community development actions which target the poor. For most community-based health insurance schemes with limited financial resources, using a community-based definition of poverty in the targeting of the poorest might be a less costly alternative.
195330459
Poverty Reduction and Sustainable Development
The prominent place of the chapter on poverty in the Johannesburg Plan of Implementation (JPI) is totally in keeping with the priority given to poverty reduction in the development thinking of the international community of today. The Johannesburg process did not lead to any new insights or new commitments in the fight against poverty. Section one sets out a factual comparison of the poverty chapters in Rio's Agenda 21 (AG21) and in the JPI. Section two reviews the conceptual links between poverty reduction and sustainable development, since poverty is used both as a dependent and as an independent variable. This analysis shows a shift in the function of growth as related to environmental protection. Section three explores the ‘naturalization’ of development thinking in its economic and social dimensions and shows how this affects the policy options for social protection. I also explain how social and environmental sustainability have become elements of risk management and how are both aimed at conflict prevention and enhanced growth. Finally, in section four three lines of action are suggested to enhance the emergence of a socially meaningful sustainable development agenda that, ideally, would make poverty reduction strategies redundant.
156852455
The MDGs and Beyond
‘Development’ has come to mean the MDGs for many — policy-makers in particular. In this chapter we look at the evolution of the meaning of development and its relationship with the MDGs.1 We draw on recent conceptual discussions regarding the evolving notion of ‘well-being’ (as opposed to poverty, deprivation and ‘ill-being’) and ask what it adds and what it might contribute to a post-2015 future.
13706573
How are we doing on poverty and hunger reduction? A new measure of country performance
The paper presents a new composite indicator - the poverty and hunger index (PHI) - to measure countries' performance toward achieving millennium development goal No.1 (MDG1) on halving poverty and hunger by 2015. Building on the statistical structure of the human development index, the PHI combines all five official MDG1 indicators, thereby generating insights on a country's net progress towards its own goal, as opposed to progress measured by a single yardstick. Nonparametric analysis on the PHI components provides further evidence on the nature of the relationship between poverty and hunger measures, while cross-country results show significant variance in progress between and within regions. An extension of the PHI allows for consideration of the rate of progress made by each country in its own terms; that is, based on where it needs to be to attain all 5 MDG1 targets by 2015. Countries needing priority attention are identified, as well as areas for future research and recommendations for post-2015 initiatives.
154700399
LONGITUDINAL MEASURES OF POVERTY: ACCOUNTING FOR INCOME AND ASSETS OVER TIME
This paper uses data from the Survey of Income and Program Participation to estimate durations of poverty spells and to determine whether temporarily poor families have sufficient assets to cover the shortfall of their incomes below poverty—their personal poverty gaps. If poverty is measured using monthly rather than annual income data, four times as many persons enter poverty, but most spells are short: the median duration is between four and six months. More than one‐third of all poverty spells are eliminated if financial assets are used to fill poverty gaps, but remaining poverty spells are longer. Separate estimates are made for the elderly and for families with children.
10081881
Relative or absolute poverty lines : a new approach
When measuring poverty over time analysts must choose the value of the income elasticity of the poverty line, which essentially determines whether an absolute or relative poverty line is being used. The choice of this parameter is ultimately a value judgement but this paper suggests an approach which has some empirical basis. Borrowing from the life-style and deprivation approach to poverty various dimensions of poverty and deprivation are identified and the income elasticity of these items is used as the income elasticity of the poverty line. Data from the 1987 and 1994 Irish Household Budget Surveys suggest an upper bound of 0.7 for this parameter. Poverty measures using a number of values of the income elasticity of the poverty line are presented and test statistics are presented to determine whether observed differences in poverty measures are statistically significant.
154426788
Dealing with Poverty and Income Distribution Issues in Developing Countries: Cross-Regional Experiences
The paper deals with the major empirical poverty and income distribution issues in the context of developing countries. To focus attention it starts with a simple poverty decomposition framework where a change in poverty is shown to be the sum of a change due to economic growth and a change due to income distribution. It is shown that when the poverty line is a function of mean income, the elasticity of the poverty line with respect to income plays an important role in determining the size of the change due to growth. Using a recent set of data on income distribution for developing countries, the paper then looks at income inequality and poverty in three developing regions (Latin America, Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa). Empirical results on the Kuznets curve, initial inequality, and growth and adjustment and poverty are reported and policy implications are drawn. Copyright 1998 by Oxford University Press.
154827150
Roles of income and equality in poverty reduction: recent cross-country evidence
This paper uses a reasonable model and recent cross-country data to study empirically the effects of income and equality on poverty. Three main points are noted. First, the estimates show highly significant roles of income and equality in poverty reduction, and the effects of increased income and lower inequality are both substantial. Second, the elasticity of poverty with respect to inequality is substantially larger than that relative to income. Third, the estimates suggest a 'growth elasticity' of poverty that is much smaller than the values used in almost every study. Therefore, most of the well-known and influential recent research seems to have overstated the impact of income growth on poverty alleviation by de-emphasising the role of inequality, to which poverty is highly responsive, and by using an income (growth) elasticity of poverty that is much larger than what seems reasonable. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
154122290
Experienced Poverty and Income Poverty in Mexico: A Subjective Well-Being Approach
Summary This paper uses a life-satisfaction conception of well-being to define experienced poverty. Based on a domains-of-life approach, it shows that experienced poverty is a broader concept than income poverty and that they lead to substantial dissonance in the classification of persons as poor. It is argued that experienced poverty better captures the complexity of being human. It is shown that raising the income received by persons does not automatically translate into greater well-being. It states that public policy should be concerned not only about getting people out of income poverty, but also about placing them in a life-satisfying situation.
154919549
Poverty Comparisons with Absolute Poverty Lines Estimated from Survey Data
The objective of measuring poverty is usually to make comparisons over time or between two or more groups. Common statistical inference methods are used to determine whether an apparent difference in measured poverty is statistically significant. Studies of relative poverty have long recognized that when the poverty line is calculated from sample survey data, both the variance of the poverty line and the variance of the welfare metric contribute to the variance of the poverty estimate. In contrast, studies using absolute poverty lines have ignored the poverty line variance, even when the poverty lines are estimated from sample survey data. Including the poverty line variance could either reduce or increase the precision of poverty estimates, depending on the specific characteristics of the data. This paper presents a general procedure for estimating the standard error of poverty measures when the poverty line is estimated from survey data. Based on bootstrap methods, the approach can be used for a wide range of poverty measures and methods for estimating poverty lines. The method is applied to recent household survey data from Mozambique. When the sampling variance of the poverty line is taken into account, the estimated standard errors of Foster–Greer–Thorbecke and Watts poverty measures increase by 15–30 percent at the national level, with considerable variability at lower levels of aggregation.
153804009
Unidimensional and multidimensional fuzzy poverty measures: New approach
the analysis of deprivation is usually seen as a unidimensional condition. However, recently it is considered to be a multidimensional one. A useful tool for such analysis is to view deprivation as a degree providing a quantitative expression to its intensity for individuals. Such fuzzy conceptualisation has been widely adopted in poverty and deprivation research. This paper aims to further develop and refine this strand of research. First, we re-examine two aspects introduced by the use of fuzzy measures, as opposed to conventional poor/non-poor dichotomous measures, namely the choice of membership functions and the rules to manipulate, resulting fuzzy sets. Secondly, we propose fuzzy monetary and non-monetary measures with the membership functions of poor and non-poor. An application based on individual well-being data from Tunisian households in 1990 is presented to illustrate use of one of the proposed concept.
153678242
Using Non-Monetary Deprivation Indicators to Analyze Poverty and Social Exclusion: Lessons from Europe?.
Non-monetary indicators of deprivation are now widely used in studying poverty in Europe. While measuring financial resources remains central, having reliable information about material deprivation adds to the ability to capture poverty and social exclusion. Non-monetary indicators can help improve the identification of those experiencing poverty and understand how it comes about. They are most productively used when multidimensionality is explicitly taken into account, both in framing the question and in empirical application. While serious methodological and measurement issues remain to be addressed, material deprivation indicators allow for new insights in making poverty comparisons across countries and analyzing changes over time. © 2010 by the Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management.
5523935
Theories of Poverty: A Comparative Analysis
Many poverty authors point out that the various ways poverty is conceptualized and measured are very crucial because different poverty measures tend to capture different people as poor. The main focus of this research is to review the theoretical and empirical research on theories of poverty, poverty measures and outcomes. Subsequently, we discuss conceptual framework of the different poverty measures.
144048444
Voices from the bottom
Despite many years of poverty eradication programs in numerous countries, 25% of the world's population continues to live in poverty. In the light of this global crisis, it is clear that anti-poverty strategies have not been as successful as they should have been. This paper argues that continuing poverty may be related in part to the fact that policies developed to alleviate the problem are mainly based on monetary definitions developed by ‘experts’, rather than by the poor themselves. Thus this paper will demonstrate that expert definitions invariably neglect the more qualitative aspects and experiences of poverty. In contrast, it is argued here that the poor are the ‘real’ poverty experts and their voices should be included in the definition of poverty and the formulation of solutions. While there is increasing recognition of this latter approach in developing nations, often taking a human needs perspective, this response is only in its infancy in Australia. After a discussion of the conceptualisation of human needs, this paper reports on a small pilot study that presents the voices of 10 disadvantaged men, identifying what poverty is for them in Melbourne
154279136
Multidimensional Poverty and Material Deprivation with Discrete Data
We propose a characterization of a popular index of multidimensional poverty which, as a special case, generates a measure of material deprivation. This index is the weighted sum of the functioning failures. The important feature of the variables that may be relevant for poverty assessments is that they are discrete in nature. Thus, poverty measures based on continuous variables are not suitable in this setting and the assumption of a discrete domain is mandatory. We apply the measure to European Union member states where the concept of material deprivation was initiated and illustrate how its recommendations differ from those obtained from poverty measures based exclusively on income considerations.
153350292
The Multidimensional Poverty Assessment Tool: a new framework for measuring rural poverty
The Multidimensional Poverty Assessment Tool (MPAT) measures fundamental dimensions of rural poverty in order to support poverty-alleviation efforts in the less developed world. This article's primary purpose is to introduce MPAT and describe its theoretical rationale. It begins with an overview of the importance of creating enabling environments for rural poverty alleviation before describing MPAT's purpose and structure. The article goes on to address some of the advantages and shortcomings of surveys and indicators as means of measuring poverty, and concludes with a few caveats on using MPAT, and a focus on its added value to practitioners and academics.
1335056
Multidimensional Poverty Index
A person is multidimensionally poor if she/he is deprived in one third or more (means 33% or more) of the weighted indicators (out of the ten indicators). Those who are deprived in one half or more of the weighted indicators are considered living in extreme multidimensional poverty. MPI is significant as it recognizes poverty from different dimensions compared to the conventional methodology that measures poverty only from the income or monetary terms.
140956632
Perceptions of Poverty and Wealth in Western and Post-Communist Countries
This paper analyzes the felt legitimacy of poverty and wealth in the United States, West Germany, The Netherlands, Hungary, the Czech Republic, and Russia. Several theories on poverty and wealth perception are discussed; of these, dominant ideology theory has been the most influential. This theory can predict the existence not only of a legitimizing ideology in a society, but also of challenging beliefs that incumbents of specific social positions hold. It is argued that poverty and wealth perceptions are more complex, however, involving at least three latent dimensions. Using data from the International Social Justice Project it is demonstrated that, regarding poverty, individuals distinguish between merited, unmerited, and fatalistic types of poverty. Merited poverty is poverty brought about by the individual's own doing or not doing, unmerited poverty is due to forces external to the individual, whereas fatalistic explanations attribute poverty to ascribed properties of the individual. For wealth also there are three causally relevant factors: in addition to merited und unmerited ones, a social capital factor that sees social contacts as a source for determining economic success. Using a structural equation approach and its group comparison option for comparing countries, the different explanations of poverty and wealth are translated into specific measurement models. Testing simultaneously with linear regression models show how preferences for particular explanations are shaped by stratification-related experiences and by the social position of an observer.
144143689
Development as Happiness: The Subjective Perception of Happiness and UNDP’s Analysis of Poverty, Wealth and Development
This paper examines to what extent the concept of happiness is complementary to the United Nations Development Program's (UNDP) human development approach in the evaluation of poverty, wealth and development. The deconstruction of UNDP's discourse on and its measurement of these concepts show that its perspective is highly arbitrary. Poverty is exclusively defined as lack and state of ill-being, inferior to wealth regarded as a state of abundance and well-being. Development then becomes a teleological process trying to promote well-being through abundance. Yet, this external perspective of UNDP on well-being is questioned by the subjective perception of the individuals themselves. Happiness studies—which define happiness as the degree to which an individual judges the overall quality of his life-as-a-whole favorably—prove that higher levels of UNDP's development indicators are not necessarily better for subjective well-being. Despite methodological and conceptual problems, happiness studies discover that the individuals' perception of poverty, wealth and development can differ considerably from UNDP's perspective. Increased income, better objective health and higher levels of education do not automatically lead to greater happiness. Furthermore, additional dimensions essential for human happiness are detected by the research, yet not taken into account by UNDP. A country ranking comparison between the two approaches confirms the different visions of well-being. The integration of a happiness indicator in its analysis of poverty, wealth and development is thus indispensable for UNDP in order to correct its analytical and also practical approach to development.
154006029
Perceptions of Poverty in Japan: Constructing an Image of Relative Poverty Contrasted Against an Image of Extreme Poverty
ABSTRACT Japan is now ranked as the country with the second highest ratio of relative poverty second only to the U.S. However, according to the results of our research, most Japanese people do not understand what relative poverty is. The only image they have of poverty is that of extreme poverty, which is based on media portrayals and influenced by their memories of the desperate conditions in Japan after World War II. This perception is manipulated in order to gain public acceptance of “welfare reform” and destruction of the economic safety net in the conservative political arena. Thus there is a critical and urgent need to discuss and construct a clear concept of relative poverty using understandable language accessible to Japanese people.
16078179
Participatory rural appraisal (PRA): Challenges, potentials and paradigm
Abstract Much of the spread of participatory rural appraisal (PRA) as an emerging family of approaches and methods has been lateral, South–South, through experiential learning and changes in behavior, with different local applications. Rapid spread has made quality assurance a concern, with dangers from “instant fashion”, rushing, formalism and ruts. Promising potentials include farmers' own farming systems research, alternatives to questionaire surveys, monitoring, evaluation and lateral spread by local people, empowerment of the poorer and weaker, and policy review. Changes in personal behavior and attitudes, and in organizational cultures, are implied. PRA parallels and resonates with paradigm shifts in the social and natural sciences, business management, and development thinking, supporting decentralization, local diversity, and personal responsibility.
153661918
Targeting the poor using community information
Abstract Governments and aid agencies target transfers to the poor, but audits to deter the rich are costly. This paper analyzes how community information can improve targeting. If each community is given a hard budget constraint, then targeting costs can be substantially reduced by asking recipients to make reports about each other. Audits are threatened in the event of a disagreement but never carried out in equilibrium. This scheme is immune to collusion.
25945615
Using community wealth ranking to identify the poor for subsidies: a case study of community-based health insurance in Nouna, Burkina Faso.
Access to health-care is low in developing countries. Poor people are less likely to seek care than those who are better off. Community-based health insurance (CBI) aims to improve healthcare utilisation by removing financial barriers, unfortunately CBI has been less effective in securing equity than expected. Poor people, who probably require greater protection from catastrophic health expenses, are less likely to enrol in such schemes. Therefore, it is important to implement targeted interventions so that the most in need are not left out. CBI has been offered to a district in Burkina Faso, comprising 7762 households in 41 villages and the district capital of Nouna since 2004. Community wealth ranking (CWR) was used in 2007 to identify the poorest quintile of households who were subsequently offered insurance at half the usual premium rate. The CWR is easy to implement and requires minimal resources such as interviews with local informants. As used in this study, the agreement between the key informants was more (37.5%) in the villages than in Nouna town (27.3%). CBI management unit only received nine complaints from villagers who considered that some households had been wrongly identified. Among the poorest, the annual enrolment increased from 18 households (1.1%) in 2006 to 186 (11.1%) in 2007 after subsidies. CWR is an alternative methodology to identify poor households and was found to be more cost and time efficient compared to other methods. It could be successfully replicated in low-income countries with similar contexts. Moreover, targeted subsidies had a positive impact on enrolment.
154378181
Perceptions of poverty among poor livestock keepers in Kenya: a discourse analysis approach
The paper examines perceptions of poverty among poor livestock keepers in Kenya. The study utilized discourse analysis techniques to evaluate community values towards the poor. The results demonstrated that most study participants viewed poverty as a process rather than a permanent state. The findings also highlighted the differences between the rich and the poor in terms of capabilities. When the results were compared with a wealth ranking exercise, two types of bias were noted. First, wealth-ranking exercises may not be targeting those who are the most needy. Second, projects and programmes may be viewed as assisting those who are responsible for their own poverty. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
8678712
Identifying Welfare Effects from Subjective Questions
The authors argue that the welfare inferences drawn from subjective answers to questions on qualitative surveys are clouded by concerns about the structure of measurement errors and how latent psychological factors influence observed respondent characteristics. They propose a panel data model to high-quality panel data for Russia for 1994-96, they find that some results widely reported in past studies of subjective well-being appear to be robust but others do not. Household income, for example, is a highly significant predictor of self-rated economic welfare; per capita income is a weaker predictor. Ill health and loss of a job reduce self-reported economic welfare; per capita income is a weaker predictor. Ill health and loss of a job reduce self-reported economic welfare, but demographic effects are weak at a given current income. And the effects of unemployment is not robust. Returning to work does not restore a sense of welfare unless there is an income gain. The results imply that even transient unemployment brings the feeling of a permanent welfare loss, suggesting that high unemployment benefits do not attract people out of work but do discourage a return to work.
55264350
How Relevant is Targeting to the Success of an Antipoverty Program?
Policy-oriented discussions often assume that better targeting implies larger impacts on poverty or more cost-effective interventions for fighting poverty. The literature on the economics of targeting warns against that assumption, but evidence has been scarce and the lessons from the literature have often been ignored by practitioners. This paper shows that standard measures of targeting performance are uninformative or even deceptive about the impacts on poverty, and cost-effectiveness in reducing poverty, of a large cash transfer program in China. The results suggest that in program design and evaluation, it will be better to focus directly on the program's outcomes for poor people than to rely on prevailing measures of targeting.
23574638
Determinants of children's nutritional status in Kenya: evidence from Demographic and Health Surveys.
This paper uses a pooled sample of the 1998 and 2003 Demographic and Health Survey data sets for Kenya to analyse the determinants of children's nutritional status. We investigate the impact of child, parental, household and community characteristics on children's height and on the probability of stunting. Descriptive and econometric analysis, augmented by policy simulations, is employed to achieve the objectives of the study. In estimation, we control for sample design and possible heterogeneity arising from unobserved community characteristics correlated with children's nutritional status and its determinants. The key findings are that boys suffer more malnutrition than girls, and children of multiple births are more likely to be malnourished than singletons. The results further indicate that maternal education is a more important determinant of children's nutritional status than paternal education. Household assets are also important determinants of children's nutritional status but nutrition improves at a decreasing rate with assets. The use of public health services, more-so modern contraceptives, is also found to be an important determinant of child nutritional status. Policy simulations affirm the potential role of parental, household and community characteristics in reducing long-term malnutrition in Kenya and suggest that the correct policy mix would make a substantial reduction in the current high levels of malnutrition. Our findings suggest that, if Kenya is to achieve her strategic health objectives and millennium development target of reducing the prevalence of malnutrition, strategies for poverty alleviation, promotion of post secondary education for women and provision of basic preventive health care are critical concerns that need to be addressed. Copyright 2009 The author 2008. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Centre for the Study of African Economies. All rights reserved. For permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oxfordjournals.org, Oxford University Press.
8676925
Community concepts of poverty: an application to premium exemptions in Ghana’s National Health Insurance Scheme
BackgroundPoverty is multi dimensional. Beyond the quantitative and tangible issues related to inadequate income it also has equally important social, more intangible and difficult if not impossible to quantify dimensions. In 2009, we explored these social and relativist dimension of poverty in five communities in the South of Ghana with differing socio economic characteristics to inform the development and implementation of policies and programs to identify and target the poor for premium exemptions under Ghana’s National Health Insurance Scheme.MethodsWe employed participatory wealth ranking (PWR) a qualitative tool for the exploration of community concepts, identification and ranking of households into socioeconomic groups. Key informants within the community ranked households into wealth categories after discussing in detail concepts and indicators of poverty.ResultsCommunity defined indicators of poverty covered themes related to type of employment, educational attainment of children, food availability, physical appearance, housing conditions, asset ownership, health seeking behavior, social exclusion and marginalization. The poverty indicators discussed shared commonalities but contrasted in the patterns of ranking per community.ConclusionThe in-depth nature of the PWR process precludes it from being used for identification of the poor on a large national scale in a program such as the NHIS. However, PWR can provide valuable qualitative input to enrich discussions, development and implementation of policies, programs and tools for large scale interventions and targeting of the poor for social welfare programs such as premium exemption for health care.
154625172
The complexities of rural poverty in sub‐Saharan Africa
Abstract Rural poverty is an endemic problem in sub‐Saharan Africa, with the region faring very badly on most of the common poverty indicators. After drawing a contrast with the position in South Asia the paper considers the problem from the local level. It is argued, however, that while the manifestations are local, the causes and the potential remedies are found in the nature of linkages with the wider national and international economies. A framework is adopted to illustrate the complexity of linkage effects. The value of the framework is then demonstrated by considering the success of Machakos District (Kenya) in transforming a weak area into one which has shown distinctive signs of improvement as a result of the expansion of its external linkages and the consequent strengthening of its own local economy.
153403309
Attacking Poverty: but what happened to urban poverty and development?
This paper reviews Attacking Poverty with regard to its treatment of urban poverty. The central argument is that urbanization and urban poverty are increasingly important but are largely ignored in the report. Thus the dynamics of urban poverty are overlooked and the subsequent policy suggestions are subsequently weakened. The report's emphasis on empowerment misses the historically progressive nature of urbanization as a social force. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
153874594
Rural poverty in India: a regional analysis
Abstract This paper identifies the regional pattern of rural poverty in India, for the first time using consumer expenditure data for areal units smaller than the states. Further, it differs from existing studies in that poverty has been measured by using regional poverty lines, based on regional food habits and prices. The application of regional poverty lines, it is believed, has revealed a more accurate distribution pattern of rural poverty than in previous studies. The regional analysis exposes the fact that, even in a largely poor country, there are distinct regional concentrations of poverty, reflecting large regional differences in real incomes. The heaviest concentration of poverty is in the north-eastern and central plateau country, while the most prosperous regions are largely in the north-west. The regression analysis indicates that irrigation use, family size and size of holding exert a negative influence on poverty and landlessness positive.
154397398
Regional poverty lines, poverty profiles, and targeting
The most labour-intensive task in building a poverty profile consists in the estimation of the poverty lines. Does it matter whether poverty lines are estimated for the urban and rural sectors as a whole or by geographical area within each sector? Using a decomposition of the Gini index of inequality in poverty measures, it is shown that it does, but not too much in Bangladesh.
152461363
The Spatial Dimension of Welfare and Poverty : Lessons from a Regional Targeting Program in Indonesia
This paper examines the spatial dimension of welfare and poverty in Indonesia and explores the effective policy interventions to remedy the regional economic disparity which was most vividly shown during the recent economic crisis. The econometric estimations confirm the existence of a spatial poverty trap, where poverty persists for generations. The inclusion of the placement of Impres Desa Tertingal (IDT) implemented during 1994–96 suggests that the regional targeting programme could fail to achieve its policy goal when the empowerment of local communities is insufficient. It is suggested that full–scale decentralization could remedy the targeting policy failure. 
 
 
 
JEL classification: O15; O18; R15
145581075
An understanding of poverty from those who are poor
Participatory research in the study of poverty invites those living in difficult circumstances to participate in an analysis of their own livelihood situation. A participatory poverty assessment was facilitated with a small group of women who are members of a food co-operative in Niagara Falls, Canada and who live in poverty. The women explored together issues of well-being, the stress of living in poverty, the role of the social assistance system in shaping their lives and community attitudes. Important themes which emerged included an emphasis on social relationships, the impact of the pervasive scrutiny of the social assistance bureaucracy, the importance of community good will and the possibilities for community action. This article discusses the contribution of local knowledge to an understanding of poverty as well as the limitations of participation in changing social policy.
73634216
Pro-poor tourism: putting poverty at the heart of the tourism agenda.
This paper examines how tourism affects the livelihoods of the poor and how positive impacts can be enhanced. In doing so, it assesses the relevance of tourism to the poverty agenda, and the factors that encourage or constrain economic participation of the poor in the industry. In conclusion it outlines strategies for promoting pro-poor tourism.
154598469
Overcoming the ‘value‐action gap’ in environmental policy: Tensions between national policy and local experience
Abstract This paper is concerned with debates over the implementation of sustainability objectives. In particular, it focuses on policies that address the ‘value‐action gap’ in environmental policy. Using evidence from the author's research connected with the UK Going for Green Sustainable Communities Project in Huntingdonshire, the paper highlights the tensions between national policies that are based on an ‘information deficit’ model of participation, and local research and experience that posits a more complex relationship between individuals and institutions. While this suggests the need to develop more differentiated policies based on the restructuring of socioeconomic and political institutions, the paper warns against knee‐jerk calls for more local, community or public participation which simply replace one set of generalised appeals with another. The paper concludes that greater emphasis must be placed on the negotiation of partnerships that are more sensitive to local diversity, and which involve...
143057713
Perception and response to the challenge of poverty and environmental resource degradation in rural Nigeria: Case study from the Niger Delta
Abstract Much of environmental analyses has focused on national and global issues rather than on local areas and underprivileged people whose voices often remain largely unheard. This paper attempts an appraisal of the environmental concerns and resource values of the poor living in difficult and degraded environment in rural Nigeria. In the study, 831 respondents validated the nature of environmental problems and priorities in relation to their experiences within the community. The results show that the poor are environmentally rational but often handicapped in doing the right thing. While most respondents have a holistic and long-term view of the environmental implications of natural resource use, a host of sustainable traditional environmental resource conservation measures previously embraced by communities have been abandoned in order to meet the exigencies of short-term survival. The self- and socio-economic survival goals, rather than the community and the ‘common good’, appear to form the predominant contexts for the individual's environmental thinking and decision-making. Resource scarcity, declining yields and associated inflation/high cost of living were seen as the major signs of resource degradation. The study demonstrates the need for a proper understanding of natural resource issues drawing not only on scientific and economic evaluations but also on community-centered approaches. Finally, social justice and fairness to communities was established to be critical to sustainable development in poor areas; resources must be harnessed such that they contribute directly to community asset building to improve socio-economic activities and protect the environment.
157400478
Voices of the Poor: Poverty and Social Capital in Tanzania
Environmentally and Socially Sustainable Development Studies and Monographs Series 20. This study describes the practices and processes of participatory methods that tap the knowledge the poor have about their own reality. The Participatory Poverty Assessment uses methods to measure and facilitate ""listening to the poor."" Participatory tools show how the poor view poverty, inflation, and other economic and social trends. In addition, the study established the high economic returns to village social capital, measured by density of groups with particular characteristics.
9490817
Targeting the Poor: Evidence from a Field Experiment in Indonesia
This paper reports an experiment in 640 Indonesian villages on three approaches to target the poor: proxy-means tests (PMT), where assets are used to predict consumption; community targeting, where villagers rank everyone from richest to poorest; and a hybrid. Defining poverty based on PPP$2 per-capita consumption, community targeting and the hybrid perform somewhat worse in identifying the poor than PMT, though not by enough to significantly affect poverty outcomes for a typical program. Elite capture does not explain these results. Instead, communities appear to apply a different concept of poverty. Consistent with this finding, community targeting results in higher satisfaction.
166706211
Community strategic visioning as a method to define and address poverty: an analysis from select rural Montana communities.
Community strategic visioning is a citizen-based planning process in which diverse sectors of a community collectively determine a future state and coordinate a plan of action. Twenty-one communities in rural Montana participated in a multi-phase poverty reduction program that culminated in a community strategic vision process. Research on this process was guided by alternative definitions of poverty and place attachment literature. Results from the qualitative survey data show many descriptions of poverty outside of traditional economic definitions and illustrations on the significance of place. Implications and recommendations on the use of visioning in other contexts in Extension are discussed.
15222854
Understanding enrolment in community health insurance in sub-Saharan Africa: a population-based case-control study in rural Burkina Faso.
OBJECTIVE
To identify factors associated with decision to enrol in a community health insurance (CHI) scheme.


METHODS
We conducted a population-based case-control study among 15 communities offered insurance in 2004 in rural Burkina Faso. For inclusion in the study, we selected all 154 enrolled (cases) and a random sample of 393 non-enrolled (controls) households. We used unconditional logistic regression (applying Huber-White correction to account for clustering at the community level) to explore the association between enrolment status and a set of household head, household and community characteristics.


FINDINGS
Multivariate analysis revealed that enrolment in CHI was associated with Bwaba ethnicity, higher education, higher socioeconomic status, a negative perception of the adequacy of traditional care, a higher proportion of children living within the household, greater distance from the health facility, and a lower level of socioeconomic inequality within the community, but not with household health status or previous household health service utilization.


CONCLUSION
Our study provides evidence that the decision to enrol in CHI is shaped by a combination of household head, household, and community factors. Policies aimed at enhancing enrolment ought to act at all three levels. On the basis of our findings, we discuss specific policy recommendations and highlight areas for further research.
41978713
"To enrol or not to enrol?": A qualitative investigation of demand for health insurance in rural West Africa.
In spite of the fact that feeble levels of participation have long been identified as a major constraint to the successful long-term implementation of community-based health insurance (CBI) in low-income countries, evidence on determinants of enrolment in CBI is still lacking. The application of econometric modelling has provided a partial answer to the question, but on its own it has proved to be insufficient to guide policy making. This paper aims to fill this gap in knowledge using qualitative research methods. In-depth interviews with 32 household heads were conducted in the Nouna Health District, Burkina Faso, West Africa to assess determinants of enrolment in a newly established CBI scheme. The findings highlight that factors previously neglected in the literature, such as institutional rigidities and socio-cultural practices, play an important role in shaping the decision to enrol. The discussion of the findings focuses on the policy implications, offering concrete recommendations to maximise enrolment, within and beyond Burkina Faso.
4182559
The feasibility of community-based health insurance in Burkina Faso.
To ensure the acceptability of community-based insurance (CBI) by the community and its sustainability, a feasibility study of CBI was conducted in Burkina Faso, including preference for benefit package of CBI, costing of health services, costing of the benefit package and willingness-to-pay (WTP) for the package. Qualitative methods were used to collect information about preferences for the benefit package. Cost per unit health services, health demand obtained from household survey and physician-judged health needs were used to estimate the cost of the benefit package. The bidding game method was used to elicit household head's WTP for the package. We found that there were strong preferences for inclusion of high-cost healthservices such as operation, essential drugs and consultation fees in the benefit package. It is estimated that the cost of the package per capita was 1673 CFA (demand-based) and 9630 CFA (need-based), including 58% government subsidies (euro 1 = 655 CFA). The average household head with eight household members agreed to pay from 7500 (median) to 9769 CFA (mean) to join the CBI for his/her household. The WTP results were influenced by household characteristics, such as location, household size and age composition. Under certain assumptions (household as the enrolment unit, median household head's WTP as premium for the average household, 50% enrolment rate), it would be feasible to run CBI in Nouna, Burkina Faso if enrolees' health demand did not increase by more than 28% or if the underwriting of the initial losses was covered by extra funds.
144959529
Perceptions of Risk, Vulnerability, and Disease Prevention in Rural Burkina Faso: Implications for Community-Based Health Care and Insurance
This paper examines local discourse on perceived risk and vulnerability among rural and semiurban populations in Kossi Province in the northwest of Burkina Faso. Focus group data are presented to elucidate this discourse in a number of risk domains. Local notions of disease prevention are exemplified with respect to malaria, diarrhea, and vaccine-preventable diseases. Quantitative measures on perceived severity and perceived personal vulnerability, assessed using culturally adapted scaling methods and relating to a list of selected risks, are presented. Implications of the complex local discourse on uncertainty and vulnerability with respect to community-centered development efforts such as community-based health care and insurance are explored.
205087866
Drop-out analysis of community-based health insurance membership at Nouna, Burkina Faso.
OBJECTIVES
This study aims to identify the reasons why enrolled people decide not to renew their membership in following years.


METHODS
Household survey is used to collect information on the factors influencing dropping out from community-based health insurance (CBI). Information from CBI agency databank is used to describe the general situation of enrolment and drop-out.


RESULTS
Since the launch of CBI the enrolment rate has been low ranging from 5.2% to 6.3%. The drop-out rate, however, has been high ranging from 30.9% to 45.7%. It is found, by the multivariate analysis, that female household head, higher age or lower education of a household head, lower number of illness episodes in the past three months, fewer children or elderly in a household, poor perceived health care quality, less seeking care in the past month positively effected on drop-out, increasing the rate. However, the household six-month expenditure and the distance to the contracted health facility did not have the hypothesised sign. In contrast, a higher household expenditure and a shorter distance to the contracted health facility increased the drop-out.


CONCLUSIONS
High drop-out rates endanger the sustainability of CBI not only because they reduce the size of the insurance pool, but also because they bear a negative impact on further enrolment and drop-out. The drop-out rate in the scheme of the Nouna Health District, Burkina Faso, is very high. The reasons for drop-out may be related to affordability, health-needs and health demand, quality of care, household head and household characteristics. This study represents a valuable attempt towards further increasing the sustainability of CBI schemes, by understanding not what motivates people to first enrol in CBI, but what motivates them to renew membership year after year.
15601787
Community-Based Targeting Mechanisms for Social Safety Nets: A Critical Review
This paper interprets case studies, and theory on community involvement in beneficiary selection, and benefit delivery for social safety nets. Several considerations should be carefully balanced in assessing the advantages of using community groups as targeting agents. First, benefits from utilizing local information, and social capital may be eroded by costly rent-seeking. Second, the potential improvement in targeting criteria from incorporating local notions of deprivation, must be tempered by the possibility of program capture by local elites, and by the possibility that local preferences are not pro-poor. Third, performance may be undermined by unforeseen strategic targeting by local communities in response to national funding, and evaluation criteria, or by declines in political support.
54912746
Socioeconomic stratification by wealth ranking: Is it valid?☆
Abstract This paper validates a Rapid Rural Appraisal wealth-ranking technique using standard socioeconomic indicators from a household survey in rural Bangladesh. Key informants stratified 1,637 households into three wealth groups according to a number of broad criteria and a questionnaire was subsequently administered to each household. Health, demographic and economic variables derived from the questionnaire were found to differ significantly according to wealth group. Analysis supports the construct validity and empirical validity of the wealth-ranking technique as a means of stratifying households by socioeconomic status. The requirements for external validity, as assessed through the comparison of findings with similar studies elsewhere in South Asia, are also satisfied.
74329051
Focus group discussion: a tool for health and medical research
Focus group discussion is a research methodology in which a small group of participants gather to discuss a specified topic or an issue to generate data. The main characteristic of a focus group is the interaction between the moderator and the group, as well as the interaction between group members. The objective is to give the researcher an understanding of the participants’ perspective on the topic in discussion. Focus groups are rapidly gaining popularity in health and medical research. This paper presents a general introduction of the use of focus groups as a research tool within the context of health research, with the intention of promoting its use among researchers in healthcare. A detailed methodology for the conduct of focus groups and analysis of focus group data are discussed. The potentials and limitations of this qualitative research technique are also highlighted.
27827901
Focus groups for qualitative research.
Introduction Focus Groups as Qualitative Method The Uses of Focus Groups Planning and Research Design for Focus Groups Conducting and Analyzing Focus Groups Additional Possibilities Conclusions
15830985
Community and anti-poverty targeting
The standard theory of anti-poverty targeting assumes individual incomes cannot be observed, but statistical properties of income distribution in broadly defined groups are known. ‘Indicator targeting’ rules are then derived for the forms of transfers conditioned on group membership of individuals. In this literature the motivating notion of a ‘group’ is purely statistical, even when it is groups such as localities and ethnicities. We focus instead on groups which are ‘communities’, meaning thereby collections of individuals who have access to community-specific public goods, from which non-members are excluded. Such differential access constitutes a source of inequality among poor individuals belonging to different communities, which is not captured by monetary earnings. We show that this formulation of what constitutes a group changes many of the basic results of the indicator targeting literature. Optimal targeting for poverty alleviation leads to seemingly paradoxical rules, such as targeting transfers to the community that is richer. Total wealth of non-poor members of a community and its distribution both become relevant for specifying optimal indicator targeting rules. In addition, a poverty measure that is sensitive to the community identities of poor individuals, yet defined on nominal incomes, may be incompatible with some of the basic axioms in the standard literature on poverty measurement.
142728209
'I keep myself clean...at least when you see me, you don't know I am poor': student experiences of poverty in South African higher education
There is little research exploring poverty amongst university students, which renders poverty on university campuses invisible. This study aims to begin to understand experiences and constructions of poverty among university students. The qualitative study design uses open-ended, in-depth interviews in which four students from a university in the Western Cape were interviewed. The findings suggest that poor students use multiple strategies to circumvent the psychological distress associated with poverty and to disguise their poverty. They reflect complex and seemingly contradictory views of poverty as an individually and structurally created burden when they simultaneously take responsibility for their poverty but also attribute it to structural factors. Despite this, participants expressed resilience and hope for a better future, championing education as the 'way out' of their current situation. The findings suggest that more qualitative research is needed in this area as it holds implications for student retention, access to university and drop-out rates in higher education, areas which are core to transformation in South African higher education. Some recommendations about individual and interpersonal interventions that may supplement collective or macro-level interventions are made.
154274252
Tourism and Poverty Reduction: An Interpretation by the Poor of Elmina, Ghana
Over the past decade, academic research into the use of tourism as a contributor to poverty reduction has grown considerably; however, there are few insights on how the poor perceive the connections between poverty and tourism. Based upon interpretive and participatory fieldwork with the poor of Elmina in Ghana, this paper explores their understanding and constructions of poverty and how they comprehend tourism as a provider of alternative livelihood opportunities. It emerged that poverty is understood as a multi-dimensional construct, including low and irregular incomes, depletion of natural resources, a lack of access to social assets and educational opportunities, and denial of meaningful participation in society. At a time of structural readjustment in Elmina's economy, the potential of tourism to enhance livelihoods and reduce poverty is high, but remains hindered by major barriers to entrepreneurship development and employment within the sector, which is worsened by the lack of access to credit, exclusion from decision-making, poor skills and excessive bureaucracy. It became evident that a focus on the use of tourism for macroeconomic gains will not necessarily benefit the poor. They need to be included in tourism policy and practice, not only as a target group, but also in participatory mechanisms to ensure the appropriate use of tourism for poverty reduction. It is argued that it is only through a better understanding of poor people's experiences of poverty, that tourism can be used more meaningfully as a strategy for its alleviation.
153869823
The Face of Chronic Poverty in Uganda from the Poor’s Perspective: constraints and opportunities
This paper examines the factors influencing chronic poverty in Uganda from the perspective of the poor. The findings are based on participatory poverty assessments conducted in 23 urban and 57 rural sites covering 21 districts. The paper examines: the view of the poor on the definitions of chronic poverty, the types of people who are chronically poor and why; opportunities and constraints for moving out of poverty; the effects of government policies; and suggestions for improvements. The findings suggest that the factors driving and maintaining poverty often are transmitted inter-generationally, and certain categories of people, such as the disabled, women and refugees, are more vulnerable than others. Also, ineffective local governance and government policies seem to prevent the chronically poor from escaping the poverty trap.
26562027
Poor People in Rich Nations: The United States in Comparative Perspective
Cross-national comparisons can teach lessons about antipoverty policy. While all nations value low poverty, high levels of economic self-reliance and equality of opportunity for younger persons, they differ dramatically in the extent to which they reach these goals. Nations also exhibit differences in the extent to which working age adults mix economic self-reliance (earned incomes), family support and government support to avoid poverty. We begin by reviewing international concepts and measures of poverty. The Luxembourg Income Study (LIS) database contains the information needed to construct comparable poverty measures for more than 30 nations. It allows comparisons of the level and trend of poverty and inequality across several nations, along with considerable detail on the sources of market incomes and public policies that shape these outcomes. We will highlight the different relationships between antipoverty policy and outcomes among several countries, and consider the implications of our analysis for research and for antipoverty policy in the United States. In doing so, we will draw on a growing body of evidence that evaluates antipoverty programs in a cross-national context.
150979919
Participatory poverty assessment : incorporating poor people's perspectives into poverty assessment work
A foundation stone of the World Bank's sharpened poverty strategy is to conduct Country Poverty Assessments in all borrowing countries within the next two years. These assessments have the following principal elements: a poverty profile (which analyses the depth, social and cultural nature, gender disparities and geographic spread of poverty); a review of current government policies relating to poverty; an analysis of pertinent public expenditures and institutions; an overview of nongovernmental organizations and community-based organizations working toward the alleviation of poverty; an analysis of the safety nets (both government programs and sociocultural mechanisms) in place; and based on the above a suggested country strategy of priority measures the government should take to reduce poverty. This paper proposes to supplement conventional poverty assesments with an effort to involve key groups of vulnerable people, among them women and members of indigenous communities and racial and ethnic minority goups.
6855851
Validity of rapid estimates of household wealth and income for health surveys in rural Africa
STUDY OBJECTIVE To test the validity of proxy measures of household wealth and income that can be readily implemented in health surveys in rural Africa. DESIGN Data are drawn from four different integrated household surveys. The assumptions underlying the choice of wealth proxy are described, and correlations with the true value are assessed in two different settings. The expenditure proxy is developed and then tested for replicability in two independent datasets representing the same population. SETTING Rural areas of Mali, Malawi, and Côte d'Ivoire (two national surveys). PARTICIPANTS Random sample of rural households in each setting (n=275, 707, 910, and 856, respectively). MAIN RESULTS In both Mali and Malawi, the wealth proxy correlated highly (r⩾0.74) with the more complex monetary value method. For rural areas of Côte d'Ivoire, it was possible to generate a list of just 10 expenditure items, the values of which when summed correlated highly with expenditures on all items combined (r=0.74, development dataset,r=0.72, validation dataset). Total household expenditure is an accepted alternative to household income in developing country settings. CONCLUSIONS It is feasible to approximate both household wealth and expenditures in rural African settings without dramatically lengthening questionnaires that have a primary focus on health outcomes.
151231025
Измерение И Анализ Бедности [Poverty Measurement and Analysis]
This chapter offers a primer on poverty, inequality, and vulnerability analysis and a guide to resources on this topic. It is written for decision makers who want to define the type of information they need to monitor poverty reduction and make appropriate policy decisions and for the technical experts in charge of the analysis. The chapter takes a broad look at tools for analysis and provides a brief introduction to each topic. It also outlines why certain information is essential in policymaking and how this information can be generated. This unpublished version of the paper in Russian was translated from an English version published in the World Bank's Poverty Reduction Strategy Sourcebook.
154256836
Poverty and basic needs fulfilment in Africa during structural change: Evidence from Cote d'Ivoire
Abstract Much attention is given in the literature to the evolution of social indicators during periods of structural adjustment and economic reform. This paper argues that these processes are not distribution-neutral from the point of view of basic needs fulfilment and that hence the focus should not be on aggregate indicators but on the distribution of beneficiaries of social services, and changes in this distribution. Evidence is presented for Cote d'Ivoire during the second half of the 1980s—a period of intense structural change—which shows that the poorest absorbed the bulk of the decline in basic needs fulfilment as a result of structural change. This was the case for almost all aspects of basic needs and occurred regardless of the overall trend in the social indicators.
145010855
The basic needs approach: Overcoming the poverty of homo oeconomicus
Abstract A major issue in the controversy surrounding the Basic Needs Approach to economic development concerns the difficulty of identifying a universal set of basic needs which is capable of cross-cultural application. It is argued that the apparent conceptual infeasibility of the Basic Needs Approach stems from prominent deficiencies in our current stock of economic, political and ethical paradigms, particularly with respect to the image of humans embodied in the notion of Homo oeconomicus . Recent advances in sociobiology and neurobiology provide an adequate foundation for a concept of universal basic human needs, and a proposed typology of basic needs is suggested.
56067366
Basic Needs: Some Unsettled Questions
Abstract Though the large basic needs literature has clarified some issues related to anti-poverty strategies, it has also raised others. This paper identifies some of these unsettled questions: (1) who is to determine basic needs? (2) do basic needs refer to the conditions for a full, long and healthy life or to a specific bundle of goods and services that are deemed to provide opportunity for these conditions? (3) what is the purpose of participation? what form should it take? how does a right to participate (if it exists) relate to the political/administrative structures necessary for efficient implementation of basic needs approach? (4) what is the relationship between the redistribution approach to development and the basic needs approach? does the basic needs approach require fundamental systemic change, or is it a palliative? (5) what is the relation between meeting basic needs as an end in itself and as an instrument for developing human resources? (6) in what manner should international support for basic needs approaches be mobilized? (7) what is the relation between poverty eradication and reducing income inequalities?