Participatory Poverty Diagnostics

In order to devise effective and appropriate strategies for poverty reduction and economic and social development, it is essential to understand levels of poverty, how poverty occurs, why it persists, and how it can be alleviated. A variety of data collection instruments, including household surveys, are necessary to understand the multidimensional nature of poverty and the realities that determine the opportunities and barriers poor people face in their efforts to move out of poverty.

A Participatory Poverty Assessment, or PPA, is an iterative, participatory research process that seeks to understand poverty in its local, social, institutional, and political contexts, incorporating the perspectives of a range of stakeholders and involving them directly in planning follow-up action. While the most important stakeholders involved in the research process are poor men and women, PPAs can also include decision makers from all levels of government, civil society, and the local elite in order to take into account different interests and perspectives and increase local capacity and commitment to follow-up action. Because PPAs address national policy, micro-level data are collected from a large number of communities in order to discern patterns across social groups and geographic areas.