Part II - Statistical methods and instruments for poverty measures and assessments

To show the need for a more coherent approach to poverty assessment at national and international levels, the need for a harmonized approach to data collection for poverty indicators through household surveys and national accounts; to present the basic approaches to poverty measurement including quantitative methods (e.g., money metric, calories consumed) and qualitative methods (anthropological and participatory approaches).

Chapter 4. Estimation methods for monetary measure of poverty
To explain how to define poverty lines (absolute, relative, objective, subjective) and to describe the procedure for estimating and comparing poverty indices (e.g., headcount index, poverty gap index, squared poverty gap index, the Sen Index) and give their statistical properties; to highlight the need for making statistical inference on poverty indices (e.g., for monitoring change over time) and describe the sources of measurement errors and the methods of statistical inference.

Chapter 5. Poverty correlates: Poverty profiles, poverty dynamics and vulnerability
To understand the pattern of poverty and the characteristics of poor households; to answer questions such as: who and where are the poor, how long does it take them to exit poverty, is poverty transient or persistent; to underscore the gender component of poverty and the need for developing gender-specific data collection instruments for poverty analysis; to discuss the use of simple statistical techniques to better inform policies aimed at reducing poverty (tables, ratios, odds ratio).

Chapter 6. Data collection tools for estimating poverty measures
To discuss the most commonly used data collection instruments for poverty data (e.g., household income and expenditure surveys, LSMS) and highlight some …practical difficulties with the current practices techniques (sampling, frequency, regional differences and other sources of non-random error, income versus consumption, equivalent scales); to review other data sources (e.g., DHS, labour surveys, population censuses, public sector financial data and national accounts, line ministries and qualitative data from participatory techniques) that could provide additional information for more complete poverty assessment (e.g., merging households surveys and population censuses to construct poverty maps); to discuss the sources of data to study poverty trends (extrapolation based on short period surveys, panel and longitudinal studies).