Participatory methods in the analysis of poverty: a critical review

This paper reviews the literature on participatory methods in poverty analysis. It discusses the tools as well as the insights they provide, and some recent evidence comparing participatory and non-participatory methods is presented.

The report highlights both the strengths and the weaknesses of participatory assessments, as well as opening the way for new approaches integrating elements of both.

Findings include:

• the central challenge faced in using participatory methods for poverty analysis moving participatory techniques from the project level to policy processes
• while there have been examples of Participatory Poverty Assessments which have contributed to the policy debate at the national level, there are other examples of cosmetic participatory research, performed for extractive purposes and without a commitment to empowering local people to have a greater say in policy processes
• it is important to consider instances of comparative research adopting different methods of analysis, both participatory and non-participatory, highlighting their relative strengths and weaknesses

The paper concludes that a move to new and integrated frameworks for the analysis of poverty seems almost inevitable. Such a research agenda has now entered the mainstream of development practice, with the 23 country study “Voices of the poor” (Narayan et al 2000) being the pinnacle of a sustained effort to adopt both standard monetary poverty assessments and participatory ones. Whose voices are being recorded and what it means to be listening are questions, however, which remain central to any future development of these methods.