Why use poverty measurement tools?

1. Gender, Intra-household Inequality and Poverty MeasurementAdapted by the IRIS Center at the University of Maryland from a presentation by Stacey Young, Senior Knowledge Management Advisor at the USAIDMicroenterprise Development Office, 2007

2. Why use poverty measurement tools? • to comply with USAID regulations (funding implications) • to learn about clients (product, program)

3. The PATs measure poverty • using proxy indicators • at the household level However, not all household members are equal – household is used as a proxy for an individual

4. What does this have to do with gender? • Answers to survey questions about proxy indicators may differ depending on the gender of the interviewer and interviewee – this has implications for how you implement the poverty tools and for the accuracy of the data you collect • The focus at the household level can distract from the fact that some members of the household may be poorer than others – this has implications for the field of poverty measurement and for how your project addresses poverty

5. Who is in the room? What are some survey questions that might give different answers depending on who is in the room during the interview? • the gender of interviewer and of the respondent • the gender of the other household members present during an interview

6. what is the household’s source of drinking water? (Bangladesh) • does anyone in the household have a bank account? (Peru, Guatemala and Bangladesh) • total area of all plots of land you own? (Vietnam) • sufficiency of food consumed (quantity/quality)? (Bangladesh) • does the household own: livestock, wristwatch, farm equipment, camera, radio, TV, pickup truck, bicycles, boats and canoes, etc. (various assets on all tools)

7. What is the household’s source of drinking water? (Who carries it?—usually women, children) • Male respondent: “The tap over that way.” • Female respondent with male present: “The tap over that way.” • Female respondent with no male present: “Usually the tap over that way, unless I’m running late with my household chores and have a few coins, in which case I buy a can full from the boy who brings full cans with his wheelbarrow.”

8. Does anyone in the household have a bank account? • Husband responds, when wife is present: “Not me.” • Woman responds, when male relative is present: “Not me.”

9. How many saris does the household own? • Male respondent: “I don’t know.” • Male respondent trying to impress the interviewer: “[an exaggerated number].” • Female respondent whose husband is present: “[fewer than she actually has].”

10. What is the total land area of all the plots of land you own? • Will a woman interviewee count only her plots, hers and her husband’s, hers and her co-wives’? • Will interviewees count land devoted to cash crops or only land where staple crops are being grown? What if the cash crop land is controlled by one member of the household – will they consider it to belong to the household?

11. Boats, canoes, pickup truck, farm equipment? • Will a woman always count these if they’re used only by male household members?

12. Enough of the right kind of food? • Is there a hierarchy to who eats what type of food, and when? If so, a respondent’s answer may depend on whether you’re asking the one(s) who ate first, second or last

13. What is the solution? Think about: • Who is asking • Who is answering • Who is listening to the conversation • Choose your interviewers and respondents accordingly • Train the interviewers in techniques to control the interview setting

14. Identify questions that different household members might answer differently and plan follow-up questions to probe • Have interviewers practice in advance Small group work: choose one of the problem questions and develop follow-up questions to probe further; report back to the whole group.