Voices of the Poor


Voices of the Poor was an effort in the 1990s through 2000 by the World Bank to collect the experiences of the poor across the world. The name is also used for the reports that were eventually published from the effort. The effort consisted of two parts: primary research using participatory poverty assessment in 23 countries, and reviews of existing PPAs and other participatory research. The project was originally called "Consultations with the Poor", but was changed to "Voices of the Poor" in late 1999.
Voices of the Poor also informed the 2000 World Development Report.

Publications

The three volumes of books published as part of the project are:
The key findings of this study include the following:
Writing in 2003, Hiroki Nogami praised Voices of the Poor for its use of qualitative analyses, but noted that the study did not sufficiently take into account how the opinions of the poor change with time and location.