Poverty Analysis Guideline
When do you use Poverty Analysis?
Partner Country National, Sector and Sub-national Planning Frameworks and Processes
The undertaking of poverty analysis should be considered as part of the development, review and/or reform of a partner country’s:
- national policy framework, including national development strategy, macro policies and public expenditure programme
- sector policies, strategies and programmes
- sub-national plans and programmes
The role of NZAID in supporting poverty analysis at these levels will depend upon a variety of factors, including the:
- potential impact (intentional or otherwise) on the poor and the level of uncertainty and controversy over the likely impact on the poor
- availability and quality of existing poverty analyses and poverty-related information
- interest and capacity of the partner country to undertake it
- potential to inform existing or planned NZAID policy engagement and programming
After a consideration of the factors outlined above, NZAID may decide there is a good case for it directly commissioning a poverty analysis to inform and influence, in a timely manner, an appropriate part of a partner country’s planning framework and process.
Where needed, NZAID should consider strategic opportunities to support i) the building of the capability of partner countries to undertake poverty analysis, including via regional approaches where appropriate, and ii) the mainstreaming of poverty analysis in partner countries’ planning frameworks and processes.
NZAID Programme Strategies
It is critical that NZAID Country Programme Strategy development is underpinned by recent analyses of the poverty situation in the country and an understanding of how government policy and programmes affect the poor. If existing poverty analyses and related information sources are poor, deficient, non-inclusive of the poor or simply non-existent, there might be a strong case for NZAID supporting some original analysis of poverty as part of the Country Programme Strategy development process.
Likewise, NZAID Regional/Thematic/Other Programme Strategy development should also be underpinned by poverty analysis - at the regional level if it exists and/or through the collation and synthesis of country-level poverty analyses.
NZAID Activities
All NZAID supported Activities 2, whether directly or indirectly targeting the poor, should consider the relevance of the four poverty-related questions in the NZAID Screening Guide for Mainstreamed and Other Cross-Cutting Issues:
i) who are the poor and vulnerable?
ii) why are they poor and vulnerable?
iii) how will poverty and vulnerability be addressed in this initiative?
iv) what are the risks for the poor and vulnerable?
If one or more of these questions are relevant to the particular Activity and they are not adequately addressed by existing sources of information or analysis, a poverty analysis should be considered.
Poverty analysis is best applied at the Activity identification and design phases of the Activity cycle, and thereafter built into ongoing monitoring and evaluation.
2 These are defined by NZAID as including: programmatic approaches (such as SWAps), strategic partnerships and projects.