Note No. 07 June 1995 Participation in Poverty Assessments The Bank's approach to country poverty assessments (PAs) is increasingly stressing the involvement of stakeholder groups, with the aim of building in-country capacity to address the problems of the poor. The participation of government and other institutional stakeholders in all aspects of the work increases sensitivity to poverty issues, enhances analytical skills, and builds allegiance to the measures proposed for poverty reduction. In addition, conventional statistical analysis is complemented by qualitative information from participatory social assessments, known as "PPAs", which reveal the concerns voiced by the poor. Some early lessons for task managers have already emerged from this experience. Rationale of the poor themselves. PPAs, however, are only one component of the wider PA. This paper argues Poverty assessments (PAs) are now an that most components of the PA--from defining essential component in the Bank's country the agenda and designing the research program, economic and sector work, contributing to the through data gathering and analysis, to report wider process of poverty related analysis and the writing and formulating policy prescriptions--can formulation of all aspects of country strategy. benefit from broad stakeholder participation. Making PAs participatory requires more time and resources but can yield important benefits. Making the PA More Participatory Involving a range of stakeholders, including The methods used to broaden stakeholder the poor themselves, can help participation in PAs have varied enormously, dependingonthetimeallowed,thefundsavailable, · improve understanding of the cultural, social, the local research capacity and the level of economic and political dynamics which government interest in discussing poverty issues. perpetuate poverty in a given country; It has also become clear since the initial flurry of · ensure that strategies identified for poverty poverty assessments in 1993, that to increase reduction reflect the real concerns voiced by participation,taskmanagers(TMs)needsomewhat the poor; more time and resources to complete the PA. · promote ownership of the proposed solutions by a variety of stakeholders; and Involving Institutional Stakeholders · build in-country institutional capacity for It is the institutional stakeholders--from ongoing analysis of poverty and the design of senior government officials and a variety of actors measures to reduce it. in civil society to service providers and development workers at the community level-- A distinction is made between "participation who are responsible for defining poverty in poverty assessments"--the subject of this reduction policies and for translating them into paper--and "participatory poverty assessments", programs and services. The collaboration of these known as "PPAs". The latter term has come to refer groups at each step of the PA helps to promote to the use of specific qualitative research consensus, ownership and commitment to the techniques to discern the perceptions and attitudes strategic conclusions among those whose support This note is based on the paper written by Andrew Norton and Thomas Stephens as a contribution to the Participation Sourcebook. Copies of the full paper are available from the SOcial Development Department, of the World Bank, Washington, D.C. 20433, Fax (202) 522-3247. Dissemination Notes represent the views of their authors and are not official publications of the World Bank. Box 1 Broad Stakeholder Participation in Cameroon Cameroon's Poverty Assessment was carried out with extensive Cameroonian participation, involving the National Statistical Office in preparing the poverty profile and the Centre for Nutrition Research in addressing food insecurity issues. The PPA was carried out by local NGOs and research institutes. To share the research results and broaden participation in dialogue on the policy implications, a four-day technical workshop was sponsored by the government and the Bank, with financial support from several key donors. Participants included representatives of donor agencies and some 45 Cameroonians with interest in related research and civic or government activities--from the government, university, research and advocacy groups, journalism and NGOs. Women participants were funded by UNICEF. Despite the breadth of different interests represented, some important areas of agreement emerged, including the potential benefits of decentralizing decisionmaking. By the end of four days, there was agreement on the form the recommendations should take and considerable enthusiasm for the final report. The workshop was followed by a one-day conference to provide wider exposure of the findings to both government and the general public. The immediate impact of this conference was to raise consciousness concerning poverty issues, to generate widespread public interest and concern, and to put poverty reduction higher on the public policy agenda. will be needed for effective implementation. It also helps to build the institutional capacity for Box 2 ongoing, iterative policy analysis and formulation Policy Formulation in Peru for poverty reduction. In the Peru Poverty Assessment, the Bank team opted to hold back on defining a poverty alleviation strategy, So far, most institutional stakeholder waiting until the government produced their own involvement in Bank PAs has been limited to strategy. Two things which helped this approach to work government officials and local researchers. were: (i) that most of the survey analysis had been done Innovative approaches such as those used in in Peru, making it easier for Peruvians to incorporate the results into a policy document; and (ii) government Cameroon (see Box 1), are needed to involve other officials were aware that presentation of their strategy actors, including opinion leaders, journalists, civic for poverty alleviation would be key to an effective or religious leaders, public interest groups and Consultative Group meeting, which was to be hosted by indigenous NGOs in preparing the PA. the Bank to raise funds for social programs. Bank staff worked closely with government staff on drafts of the The scope for collaboration in defining the strategy. The resulting government document is quite strong, setting specific goals in several areas, and should research agenda depends on political and serve as a good base for measuring progress in reducing institutional conditions in the country concerned. poverty in Peru. Especially in the early PAs, it was also constrained by tight deadlines facing TMs for completing the work. Close consultation and agreement between the Bank and the government from the outset can Collaborationinformulatingpolicyprescriptions reduce the risk of later misunderstandings and can be more difficult and most TMs have faced the acrimonyoverpoliticallysensitiveissues,especially quandary of how best to reconcile the interests of thecontroversialquestionofestablishingapoverty seniorofficialsandvocalstakeholderswiththeresults profile and poverty line to serve as benchmarks ofresearchandanalysis.ThemostparticipatoryPAs against which progress can be measured. in this respect have been those for Peru (see Box 2) and Morocco: in each case, the PA was presented as Drawing as widely as possible on local skills supporting research and analysis to help the and knowledge in the analytical work of the PA, government in the policy formulation process; the contributes to the quality of the conclusions. It government took full responsibility for preparing also spreads the ownership base. Analytical the policy document, discussing successive drafts studies and report writing have been contracted with Bank staff before final publication; and the to local researchers and/or assigned to Bank has integrated the government's poverty collaborative teams of Bank and local researchers. strategy in the lending program of the country To broaden participation, TMs have also used department as a whole. workshops or retreats, and established in-country task forces or steering committees. Incorporating the PPA The participation of the poor and other groups Box 3 PPA Highlights Potential through PPAs can contribute to the overall PA by of Women's Groups in Kenya complementing, informing or validating the results of more conventional analysis based on The coping strategies of the poor (the vast majority of household survey data and government statistics. whom do not have access to credit) depend on To date, PPAs have been designed specifically to: diversifying their livelihoods and on the strength of their social networks and informal groups. Because their livelihoods are so diversified, no single employment · enrich the poverty profile by illustrating local program will reach the poor. The informal groups and experience and understanding of poverty and associations, on the other hand, engage in a wide range vulnerability; of economic and social welfare activities. The PPA in · improve understanding of the impact of Kenya highlighted the untapped potential of these public expenditure by eliciting the groups to reach the poorer segments of society. perceptions of the poor on the accessibility The PPA study estimated that there are at least 300,000 and relevance of services; groups and associations in rural Kenya, including more · expand analysis of factor markets by than 23,000 registered women's groups. It found that every village had from 5 to 17 different types of groups, illustrating the operation of constraints on and more than one active or defunct women's group. The disadvantaged social groups to realizing following are some of the findings which emerged about market based opportunities; these women's groups. · contribute to policy prescription on the · During discussions of coping strategies at the economic and regulatory framework by individual, group and community levels, women's self demonstrating the impact of regulations on help groups were mentioned frequently in every poor households and communities; district. They were a particularly important part of the · support policy analysis of "social safety nets" coping strategies of female headed households. · In addition to income generation, group objectives by examining local experience of the operation frequently included welfare activities: raising cash to of formal and informal safety net systems and pay school fees, meet hospital expenses or assist with the coping strategies used by the poor; transport costs to bring the dead back to the villages · assess the capacities of the poor to act for burial. independently through community · Most groups levied membership fees and monthly organizations. (Box 3 provides an example contributions. · Although the poor were excluded when membership from Kenya.) fees were high, many groups targeted their activities specifically to assist the poor with food, schools fees The participation of the poor has been elicited and housing construction. through various data gathering and consultative · Women's groups were often formed along clan or mechanisms. The main methodologies-- kinship lines, and often had men as members. Generally, they were supported by village men and beneficiary assessment and participatory rapid the community at large. appraisal--share many core techniques, including Based on the findings of the PPA, proposals to reach the conversational and semi-structured interviews, poor through strengthening women's groups include legal focus group interviews and participant registration so that groups are eligible for credit; technical observation. Participatory rapid appraisal, which and business management training of group members; and focuses on analysis at the community rather than the extension of micro-enterprise credit to groups. household level, also uses thematic mapping, wealth and preference ranking, institutional assessment to investigate a range of issues diagramming and other techniques by which typically requires at least six to nine months work. participants generate their own analyses of key Rapid appraisal, using less than one month of elements of their livelihoods. field work, has been used in five of the 22 countries where PPAs have been undertaken. The choice of methods has depended in practice on the particular experience of the TM Someearlylessonshavealreadyemergedfrom or supporting specialist, as well as on available this experience. In defining objectives of the PPA, resources and the role intended for the PPA within there is a temptation to overload the agenda with the overall PA. The costs have ranged from well a large number of questions important to the PA under $50,000 to over $150,000. Achieving as a whole. Most TMs feel in retrospect that results reasonable coverage for a national scale of the PPA would have been richer if the research focus had been narrower. The PPA can provide an required for analysis and synthesis of qualitative importantnewperspectiveontheissueofpoverty, research material. TMs should plan for some of complementing but not substituting for the analysis to be carried out in the field and also quantitative data. The key challenge is to integrate allow for inputs from experienced social scientists the two approaches within the PA framework, (from within or outside the Bank). appreciating the limitations of each. Since the PPA is only one of the inputs Identifying and selecting field sites and influencing the recommendations of the PA, and participants (a representative sample of "the since the PA document, in turn, is only one of the poor") is a critical issue for the PPA, especially factors influencing actual policy change, it can be when societies and the communities within them difficult to measure the policy impacts of specific are highly stratified. This can be approached PPAs. Nonetheless, policy relevance should be the either through participatory methods, using local guiding criterion in the design of methodology perceptions of key groups for analysis, or through and process for the PPA. Evaluation by the sampling based on household survey results. Country Department of the impact of the Zambia Researchers need to be clear about which they PPA, as summarized in Box 4, has found that the are using as results may differ. PPA strongly influenced both the conclusions of the PA, especially the Action Plan, and national There are good reasons for selecting a broad policy formulation. range of people, from different technical and institutional backgrounds, for the PPA research Evaluation of the Zambian experience (the teams. Including NGO and government staff as first national-scale PPA to be completed) also well as academics broadens ownership and points to some measures which could have enables the team to draw on wider institutional increased the value of the PPA in policy experience. However, the more diverse the formulation: a stronger focus on the institutional backgrounds of team members, the more vital is mechanisms by which needs and problems could a rigorous training input to generate a unified be resolved; completing the PPA earlier, to allow and coherent approach. for follow up of the priority areas identified; and sharpening methods to investigate local Another lesson learned on the early PPAs is perceptions on specific policy issues, such as food that it is easy to underestimate the time and skills marketing. Box 4 Policy Impact of Zambia PPA The impact of the Zambia Participatory Poverty Assessment on the conclusions of the Poverty Assessment was clearly strong--especially on the Action Plan. Specific elements which influenced the Action Plan included the emphasis on rural infrastructure investments (roads and water), and on urban services (mainly water supply). Other parts of the Poverty Assessment which drew heavily on the findings of the PPA included the Poverty Profile (especially for community-based identification of the ultra-poor) and the chapter dealing with coping strategies, safety nets and targeted interventions. The Task Manager for the PA gave the following assessment of the overall impact of the Zambia Participatory Poverty Assessment on policy formulation in Zambia to date: · Government has been influenced by the priorities expressed by the poor in ranking exercises in the PPA (through reinforcing the current emphasis on agriculture and health, stressing the importance of rural infrastructure and environment issues to the poor, and emphasizing ongoing problems with the delivery of education services). · The Ministry of Health has been using the results of the PPA and the Poverty Assessment as a whole extensively in policy development. For example, one of the authors of the PPA has been participating in a committee looking into the issue of exemption from user fees for the poor. · Observations from the PPA related to the timing of school fee payments (which coincide with the period of maximum seasonal stress for most rural communities) have contributed to ongoing work in the education ministry on school fees. A new policy is in preparation which will address these issues. · The very positive feedback from communities in the PPA on the functioning of the emergency safety net during the southern Africa drought of 1992 influenced policy recommendations on ongoing provision for the vulnerable in the Poverty Assessment.