World The Bank
Guidance Note on Poverty Assessments July 2004 Page 1 of 7
Guidance Note on Poverty Assessments 1. This note is intended to provide good practice guidance to staff in the preparation of poverty assessments. It is not intended to be a mandatory policy document nor are its requirements binding. For these requirements, staff should refer to OP 1.00, Poverty Reduction. Content of poverty assessments 2. As part of economic and sector work, the Bank periodically prepares, in close collaboration with national institutions, partners and civil society groups, including poor people's organizations, poverty assessments for member countries in which it has an active program. To be most useful, a poverty assessment should be conducted at least every five years.1 2 Where useful, poverty assessments should be integrated, or at least closely coordinated, with other country studies, such as Country Economic Memorandum, Development Policy Reviews, Risk and Vulnerability Assessments, and integrate findings from other analytical work such as Country Gender Assessments and Public Expenditure Reviews.3 3. A poverty assessment includes: (a) an analytical synthesis of the existing body of knowledge on the three topics to be covered in a poverty assessment, which are: (i) assessment of the poverty situation; (ii) analysis of the impact on poverty of growth and public actions; and (iii) appraisal of poverty monitoring and evaluation systems; (b) an identification of key knowledge gaps with respect to these three topics; and (c) new analysis that addresses selected gaps or complements existing work. 4. In covering the three topics highlighted in point (a) above, poverty assessments should address the key questions raised below in paragraphs 8 17. The bullet points mention additional topics which may also be covered in the assessments. The bullet points are not intended to be exhaustive; there may be other ...
WB_GuidanceNoteOnPovertyAssessment