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A multi-country research initiative to understand poverty from the
eyes of the poor, the Voices of the Poor project was
undertaken to inform the World Bank's activities and the upcoming
World Development Report 2000/01. The research findings
are being published in three books:
"Can Anyone Hear Us?" gathers the voices of over 40,000 poor women
and men in 50 countries from the World Bank's participatory poverty
assessments (Deepa Narayan, Raj Patel, Kai Schafft, Anne
Rademacher, and Sarah Koch-Schulte, authors).
"Crying Out for Change" pulls together new field work conducted in
1999 in 23 countries (Deepa Narayan, Robert Chambers, Meera Shah,
and Patti Petesch, authors).
"From Many Lands" offers regional patterns and country case-studies
(Deepa Narayan and Patti Petesch, editors).
Voices of the Poor marks the first time such an exercise
has been undertaken in so many developing countries and transition
economies around the world. It provides a unique and detailed
picture of the life of the poor and explains the constraints poor
people face to escape from poverty in a way that more traditional
survey techniques do not capture well. Each of the three volumes
demonstrates the importance of voice and power in poor people's
definition of poverty. Voices of the Poor concludes that
we need to expand our conventional views of poverty which focus on
income expenditure, education, and health to include measures of
voice and empowerment.
Voices of the poor. Crying out for change.Reviewed by Joav Merrick, 2002-02-24
This book is the second in a trilogy of books on the issue of
poverty and human development undertaken by the World Bank. It is
estimated that there are 2.8 billion poor people around the world
and this book will tell you stories about 20,000 of them from 23
countries in Africa and the Middle East (like Egypt and Zambia),
Eastern Europe and Central Asia (like Bosnia and Uzbekistan), Latin
America (like Argentina and Jamaica) and South and East Asia (like
Bangladesh and Vietnam).
The idea began in 1998, planning during 1998 and field studies in
1999 with final reports targeted for the 2000 World Development
Report. A very impressive and quick research study that in this
book focus on well-being and ill-being, problems and priorities,
role of institutions and the role of gender relations. For each of
the 23 countries a national research team selected 8-15 communities
to be representative of the target population of poor people with
field interviews and studies performed in a short time span,
sometimes under very stressful and sometimes dangerous
situations.
The authors of this book then had to go through about 10,000 pages
of field notes and national reports from 23 countries and make a
useful and readable book out of it. They have really done a good
and impressive job out of it. The pages are the stories of many
experts on poverty, not from academics or universities, but from
the mouth of the poor person him-or herself and there is a lot to
learn. Seven themes for change emerge:
· From material poverty to adequate assets and livelihoods
· From isolation and poor infrastructure to access and
services
· From illness and incapability to health, information and
education
· From unequal and troubled gender relations to equity and
harmony
· From fear and lack of protection to peace and security
· From exclusion and impotence to inclusion, organization and
empowerment
· From corruption and abuse to honesty and fair treatment
A powerful statement for change that we hope the World Bank will be
instrumental in fullfilling, so that the dream of a world free of
poverty can someday soon come true.
Professor Joav Merrick, MD
Medical director, Division for Mental Retardation, Box 1260,
IL-91012 Jerusalem, Israel. E-mail: jmerrick@aquanet.co.il
Geula Merrick, CDA, BA(Psych)
Child development specialist
