Poverty Profiles

POVERTY PROFILES ARE analytical descriptions of the poor. They provide an analytical tool for people studying poverty so that information gathered about the poor can be more effectively used. Poverty profiles try to answer questions such as, who are the poor: are they old, young, ethnic, rural, or urban? Where do the poor live? What are the chief features that define their poverty? What caused them to be poor? Poverty experts who develop poverty profiles use data from a number of sources, such as records of services delivered to the poor, surveys, and analyses of a country policy. The goal is to create a snapshot of poverty in a country at a certain time.

The data used in a poverty profile should come from both qualitative and quantitative sources. It should answer the questions posed about income and consumption, human capabilities, and access to public resources, including schools, transportation, and information. The poverty profile should give those who read the profile information that shows the extent, scope, and severity of poverty. It should also identify all the groups who comprise the poor in an area or a country. Analysis in the profile should show the characteristics that mark the poor. It should state the circumstances and issues that are of major concern. The profile reader should be able to understand how severe the poverty is.

For example, a poverty profile on current conditions in Malawi could begin with a situation analysis that reports that, beyond the current endemic poverty, a drought was occurring in 2005. The food stocks in the affected regions were low, and the reduced harvest will lead to a shortage of food for numbers of people located in identifiable areas. Imported relief supplies would be needed to make up the differences. A poverty profile would analyze the Malawi situation, and an action plan to meet the needs could be coupled to it as well.

Once a poverty profile is constructed, it can be a useful guide for influencing the policy process of a country. The policy process starts with identifying the problem. Once the problem is defined, it must be put on the agenda of the decision-makers, who will then work to formulate solutions. After a policy or a set of policies (usually identified as a program) is adopted, it must be implemented and then later evaluated for effectiveness. Then the cycle starts anew, depending upon the results of the evaluation stage of the policy process.

Policy profiles aid the early stages of the policy process. When policies are being formulated to solve a problem, such as malarial sicknesses, the poverty profile can be a basis for assessing the impact that a policy proposal will have. For example, a malarial infection map could be part of a poverty profile. If the map showed that dry, higher elevations were not troubled by the disease, then a policy proposal could be modified to concentrate resources upon the areas of greatest need. This assessment of the possible impact of a policy proposal is important because once policies are adopted, it is hard to modify them.

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