Developing a Participatory Poverty Grading Tool

Published in 2003, this 28-page paper outlines a research project in Bangladesh conducted by Marie Stopes International's partner, Marie Stopes Clinic Society (MSCS). The project involved the development of participatory poverty grading tool which allows the very poorest people within society to be identified by the health programme.

"In this research, MSCS worked with local communities and another local NGO, the PRIP Trust, to accurately measure or grade poverty levels in the community. Focus groups of slum community members were held and they identified which indicators best described their own levels of poverty. These indicators were then aggregated into a poverty grading tool. Following this, more groups convened to conduct a social mapping exercise and allocate a poverty grade to households in the three slums involved, using the tool they themselves developed."

The authors detail the methodology and results from their research project. Three slums in Dhaka were selected for the project. "In each slum a random sample of households was approached and individuals within those households invited to participate in this qualitative research.

Three focus groups made up of community members were then held in each slum; one group was made up of men, one was female and the third was a mixed group. These groups worked to define which indicators they considered important in describing poverty in their community. They then discussed the levels of these indicators which placed households in one of four poverty bands: very poor, poor, middle and rich."

Next, poverty indicators were chosen. "The key indicators chosen were selected to be representative of all slums in the study, to be practical and to incorporate the range of areas identified by communities to define poverty, for example, accomodation, earnings, facilities/services and food/nutrition." Each of these key poverty indicators were divided into the four poverty bands - from very poor to rich. Next, each household was graded across all the indicators and hence the total score would define the household poverty level.

Additionally, the researchers also introduced focus groups to the exercise of social mapping. Each focus group drew a map of its own community marking households, latrines, mosques, shops and schools. They then used this map to illustrate the effect of the poverty grading tool.

According to MSCS, this poverty grading tool can be used to successfully design health programmes for the poorest people in a community. "The value of this initial work in Bangladesh has been acknowledged by the World Bank which is funding the further development and refinement of this poverty grading process through field-testing in Yemen. A practical training manual on how to replicate the poverty grading process will then be produced. This manual can then be used by organisations to help develop their own local participatory poverty grading tool in conjunction with the communities in which they work. The field training manual [is expected to] be available from Marie Stopes International in September 2004."