How do you measure the concept of poverty BRAC Experiences

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How do you measure the concept of poverty?BRAC
Experiences

• Syed Masud Ahmed MBBS, PhD
• BRAC Research and Evaluation Division

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Discussion topics

• Introduction
• Setting the context BRAC
• BRACs concept of poverty
• Measuring the concept of poverty
• Summing up

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Tubeculosis Bangladesh Scenario(WHO estimates
per 100,000 population, 2004)

• Ranks 5th among worlds 22 high-burden disease
  (WHO)
• Incidence of all TB cases 221
• Incidence of new smearve cases 99
• Prevalence of smearve cases 188
• TB mortality of all cases 52
• MDR among new cases of TB 1.4

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• BRAC
• Indigenous NGO working with the twin objectives
  of
• Alleviation of poverty and
• Empowerment of the poor
• http//www.brac.net
• http//www.bracresearch.org

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BRACs TB Programme

• Community based DOTS programme with CHWs at the
  nucleus
• Partnership with GoB and NGOs
• Recipient of GFATM since July 2004
• Coverage 82 million (2/3rd of the population)
• Average case detection rate 44 (2004)
• Treatment success rate for new sputumve cases
  89 (2003)

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BRACs TB Programme

• Cost-effectiveness of community health workers in
  tuberculosis control in Bangladesh.Bull World
  Health Organ. 200280(6)445-50.

• Success with the DOTS strategy.Lancet. 1999 Mar
  20353(9157)1003-4.

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Relevance of poverty measurement in TB control
programme

• Poor are more vulnerable
• Equity inverse care law
• Making DOTS pro-poor
• Income-erosion effect of illness
• Poverty reducing effect of TB control programme

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BRACs concept of poverty Lack of an enabling
environment
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Dimensions of poverty measurement

• Economic
• Lack of income or employment
• Non-economic
• Lack of entitlement to basic necessities of life
• Poverty is increasingly seen as a
• multi-dimensional phenomenon

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BRACs targeting criteria for identifying the
poor households

• Households possess 50 decimals of land
• Sells manual labour for at least 100 days a year
  for subsistence
• Labour-selling HHs represent low SES given their
  dependence on variable seasonal employment

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Self-rated poverty status of HH

• Respondents perception about the state of HHs
  annual expenditure in relation to income during
  the referral period (say, past one year)
• Always deficit
• Occasional deficit
• No deficit
• a valid indicator of HH stratification in rural
  Bangladesh, used by poverty researchers

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Challenging the MC/MF paradigm

• Empirical evidence (from BRACs own and other
  development practitioners) showed that
  micro-credit programmes failed to reach the
  poorest of the poor/ultra-poor for various
  reasons
• Heterogeneity of the poor
• Customized programme needed for different
  sections of the poor

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CFPR/TUP (Challenging the Frontiers of Poverty
Reduction/Targeting the Ultra-Poor) Programme of
BRAC

• To enable ultra-poor attain a level of
  sustainable development so that they can
  participate in and benefit from mainstream
  (including microcredit-based) development
  interventions
• Grants-based productive asset transfer
• Subsistence allowance and skill-training
• Health inputs to mitigate income-erosion effect
  of illnesses

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How to target the ultra-poor households ?

• Based on experiences of working with the
  poor/review of poverty literature and empirical
  evidence
• Inclusion criteria
• Exclusion criteria

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Poverty measured as shortfall in fulfillment of
basic needs Basic needs approach

• Basic needs
• Food
• Clothing
• Shelter
• Health
• Education
• Social involvement

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Basic needs approach steps

• Items representing various dimensions selected
• Four items per dimension
• All items have three answers
• 3 for highest level
• 1 for lowest level
• Total poverty score range from 24 to 72
• The higher the score, the poorer the HH

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An example lack of health

• How frequently do the HH members on average
  suffer from illness or ill health?
• In case of illness of the HH members, how often
  an allopathic doctor is contacted?
• In case of diarrhoeal illnesses of the HH
  members, how frequently ORS is administered
• How common it s to wash hands with soap after
  defaecation among the HH members?
• Scoring
• 1quite frequently/most of the time (more than
  half) 2sometimes 3once in a while/never

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Conclusion

• Its possible to conceptualize poverty from
  non-economic dimension
• Very simple, easy to use and valid indicators can
  be developed to measure the concept of poverty
• Useful approach for targeting particular poverty
  group