Voices of the Poor

Voices of the Poor was an effort in the 1990s through 2000 by the World Bank to collect the experiences of the poor across the world. The name is also used for the reports that were eventually published from the effort. The effort consisted of two parts: primary research using participatory poverty assessment (PPA)[1]:4 in 23 countries, and reviews of existing PPAs and other participatory research. The project was originally called "Consultations with the Poor", but was changed to "Voices of the Poor" in late 1999.[1]:12

Voices of the Poor also informed the 2000 World Development Report.[1]:4

Publications

The three volumes of books published as part of the project are:[2]

  • Can Anyone Hear Us? (D. Narayan, R. Patel, K. Schafft, A. Rademacher, S. Koch-Shulte, 2000), which looks at 81[3]:87 participatory poverty assessments carried out by the World Bank during the 1990s, and includes the voices of over 40,000 people in 50 countries;
  • Crying Out for Change (D. Narayan, R. Chambers, M. Shah, P. Petesch, 2000), which looks at fieldwork done in 1999 involving over 20,000 people in 23 countries;
  • From Many Lands (D. Narayan, P. Petesch, 2002[4]), which includes regional patterns and country case studies from 1999.[5]

Key findings

The key findings of this study include the following:[3]:87

  • Poverty is multidimensional (i.e. the poor deal not just with lack of money, but with various problems like lack of resources, poor health, physical violence, social isolation, etc.).
  • NGOs have a limited role in the lives of the poor.

Reception

Writing in 2003, Hiroki Nogami praised Voices of the Poor for its use of qualitative analyses, but noted that the study did not sufficiently take into account how the opinions of the poor change with time and location.[5]:391

gollark: For instance, you would need position and accelerometer data on the wings of *every butterfly*!
gollark: Not *theoretically possible* as in "it will actually likely be possible to do it within a few centuries".
gollark: Well, *theoretically possible* in that it's not explicitly forbidden as far as I know.
gollark: To predict rain longer than a few weeks away, that is.
gollark: Weather is a chaotic system, so you would need extremely precise data on basically everything and insane amounts of computing power and a highly accurate simulator.

See also
  • Moving Out of Poverty, a later project by the World Bank that distinguishes itself from Voices of the Poor in that it focuses on the dynamics of moving out of (and falling back into) poverty, and it is a longitudinal study rather than a snapshot in time.
  • Millions Saved
  • Disease Control Priorities Project

References
  1. McGee, Rosemary, ed. Knowing Poverty. London, GB: Routledge, 2012. ProQuest ebrary. Web. 11 May 2016.
  2. "Overview". World Bank. Archived from the original on June 21, 2012. Retrieved May 17, 2016.
  3. Andy Norton with Bella Bird Karen Brock Margaret Kakande Carrie Turk (2006). "A rough guide to PPAs" (PDF). Overseas Development Institute.
  4. "Voices of the Poor - From Many Lands" (PDF).
  5. Hiroki Nogami (2003). "Book review of Voices of the Poor" (PDF). The Developing Economies.
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