| AUTHOR | Estanislao Gacitua-Mario and Quentin Wodon |
| ORGANIZATION | UNICEF |
| TYPE | Lessons Learned/Good Practices |
| DATE | 2001 |
| TOPIC | Child poverty and disparities |
| LANGUAGE | English |
The World Development Report on Attacking Poverty recommends looking at the multi-dimensionality of poverty, including social disadvantage, vulnerability and powerlessness. To deal with these issues, the World Bank has enriched its traditional quantitative analysis of poverty with qualitative and participatory research. The Bank’s evolution toward broader forms of assessment of disadvantage and the use of qualitative as well as quantitative methods results in part from the lessons of the existing evidence in the development literature. But it is also a response to the challenges faced in its lending operations. Quantitative methods have long been used for project design, for example in improving the targeting and implementation of interventions on the basis of monitoring and evaluation studies. But qualitative methods have also proved essential in identifying key social issues, assessing stakeholder interests and interactions, their likely effect on proposed Bank operations and the potential consequences for individuals and groups.
