How to Assess Urban Poverty
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 Indicators of Urban Poverty 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 web page on monitoring and evaluation.
Participatory Approaches; Techniques & Qualitative assessments
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.
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.
What are the Policy Issues
the different dimensions of poverty and their causal factors underscore the need for policy and institutional reforms at the national as well as the city level, in order to achieve sustainable and replicable improvements in the conditions facing the poor. As shown in the Understanding Different Dimensions of Poverty matrix, policy actions need to be structured to enhance the poor assets to decrease their vulnerability and capacity to manage their assets.
Policy and institutional reform include:
Land, housing and urban services. The vulnerability of the urban poor is exacerbated by the inadequate provision of basic public services, as well as by policy and regulatory frameworks that govern land and housing supply and property rights. Policy reforms are required in the areas of: tenure security, property rights and land development regulations, housing finance, service provision. more
Financial markets. Lack of access to credit increases the vulnerability of the urban poor by constraining their ability to improve their homes, their work, and to start new businesses. Credit underwriting is a major problem since the poor do not have property to use as collateral and often lack regular incomes. Supporting micro-finance programs and provision of tenure security to support underwriting are possible policy actions at local levels. more
Labor markets and employment. Employment opportunities for the urban poor are affected by diverse factors including macroeconomic conditions, regulatory constraints on small businesses, lack of access to job market opportunities, infrastructure, education and training, and bad health. A range of issues concerning labor market regulations and legislation, e.g., employment protection rules such as minimum wage, hiring and firing regulations, etc., can also have counterproductive effects on the poor by increasing labor costs and thus constraining job opportunities. more
Social protection and social services (health, nutrition, education and security). Social insurance benefits include unemployment insurance and assistance and pensions. Safety nets/social assistance interventions include various cash and in-kind transfers programs such as child feeding, vouchers for schooling and housing, etc., that supplement income. more
Environment. Environmental problems exacerbate urban poverty. Poor cities and poor neighborhoods suffer disproportionately from inadequate water and sanitation facilities and indoor air pollution. Poor people are often forced to live in environmentally unsafe areas, steep hillsides and flood plains or polluted sites near solid waste dumps, open drains and sewers, and polluting industries
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