Catalog

What’s a PPA? An acronym for a new political party? An abbreviation for a household detergent?

PPA stands for participatory poverty assessment or, put in layperson’s terms, simply listening to what poor people have to say. That’s it! It is a novel concept that seems to have escaped many in the development community, yet it is a very powerful tool to help us do our work.

A well-designed PPA allows us to consult poor people in initiating and identifying more effective forms of development interventions to reduce poverty. It is useful in validating, refining, or changing public policy. It can be a way to deepen the process of engaging civil society in the development process.

With this in mind, ADB initiated PPAs in several of its DMCs last year. In 2001, the Programs Department - Region West - completed nationwide PPAs in Cambodia and the Lao PDR. It also initiated PPAs in Thailand and in the Indian states of Gujarat, Kerala, and Madhya Pradesh. In a reorganization that took effect in January 2002, ADB created departments focused on countries and subregions in lieu of the broader “east” and “west” departments of the past. The relevant regional departments in the reorganized ADB now manage the ongoing PPAs.

These initiatives were to provide better insights into poverty and help ADB follow effective poverty reduction strategies in these countries. Interest from the host governments has ranged from the curious to the committed.

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A successful PPA is based on a combination of knowledge and insight. Knowledge of the dimensions of poverty must be combined with appreciation of and insight into the views of the poor. The knowledge should itself be based on different forms of analysis—statistical, cultural, anthropological, institutional, and economic.

A PPA is an important tool in the fight against poverty; but analysis should not be limited to specific studies. Participatory development requires institutional processes that ensure the views of the poor are taken into account in formulating and implementing antipoverty policies and programs. The voices of the poor should not only be heard; they must also be acted on. A PPA should have concrete follow-up actions.

Development organizations like ADB can help strengthen the capacity for participatory research in individual countries by encouraging qualitative studies to test the effectiveness of public policies and programs—particularly on governments’ antipoverty programs. This approach is a powerful tool in refining policies and redirecting limited government resources toward poverty reduction activities.

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In designing the PPA in the Lao PDR, we recognized that qualitative and quantitative analyses of poverty have their respective strengths and weaknesses.

Expenditure surveys, census data, and other purely numerical sources of information are easily aggregated, but such analysis lacks the context of good qualitative research. We found the best approach was to combine qualitative analysis with quantitative research. The PPA integrated the results of the qualitative research with the available quantitative data from expenditure and consumption surveys and other sources.

The PPA was implemented through consultations with poor people, civil servants, officials of the National Statistical Office, representatives of mass organ- izations, and academics. It involved individuals and agencies with local expertise and experience in researching factors affecting poverty.

In the Lao PDR, the Government was very committed in taking advantage of the PPA. The results helped the Government shape its development priorities for the 5-year plan that began in 2001 and in formulating specific annual public investment plans intended to reduce poverty. Based on the PPA recommendations, the Government built a monitoring component into the 5-year plan to provide feedback for updating the research.

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Even the most excellent piece of research is not of much use unless it leads to improvements in people’s lives. It is essential, therefore, to link the PPA with a government- supported institutional process. The experience of the Lao PDR underscored the importance of viewing participatory analysis from a “building block” perspective. It is an ongoing process, with every step adding value. It takes time for institutions and people to change, but as long as the process is moving in the right direction, we should be satisfied with incremental gain.

In the Lao PDR, for instance, poverty monitoring indicators and qualitative research are now to be integrated within public investment planning, thereby institutionalizing both the collection of data and the understanding of poverty at the subnational level. Supplementing the qualitative research of the PPA with quantitative data will make the public investment allocation more effective. This approach will help the Government both strengthen its antipoverty policies and programs and improve their implementation. Not surprisingly, ADB’s new country strategy and program for the Lao PDR is primarily based on the PPA findings.

Time alone will tell whether the PPA has helped reduce poverty in the Lao PDR. It certainly got off to a good start, with civil society and the country’s poor people participating in the process, and the Government playing a lead role in using it as a major tool in fighting poverty.