• Participatory wealth ranking

Participatory wealth ranking

This paper aims to assess the effectiveness and draw lessons from a targeting strategy used in identifying the ultra poor. This approach ultimately aims to help the ultra poor develop new and better options for sustainable livelihoods, which requires:

• a combination of approaches (promotional such as skills training, and protective such as asset grants, stipends, and health care services)
• attacking constraints at various levels (household and the wider environments of institutions, structures and policies)
• working within a multi-agent framework (strengthening institutions of the poor, building tactical alliances with elite, advocacy and social communication).

The authors suggest that the most innovative feature of this approach has been the combination of various targeting approaches and drawing from different streams of knowledge. Additionally, they also find that:

• the large differences between the poor, the extreme poor and those jsut above suggest there is a structural break in terms of deprivation of opportunities, security and empowerment
• the academic knowledge on poverty profiling is gradually maturing in being able to capture categories and descriptions used by poor people themselves
• there is a need to move beyond poverty profiling to a greater understanding of mechanisms through which extreme poverty persists for some and not for others

This study is based on a new BRAC (formerly known as Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee) programme called Challenging the Frontiers of Poverty Reduction-Targeting the Ultra Poor (CFPR/TUP).

[adapted from author]

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