Knowing Poverty

The use of participatory research methods to provide policy-makers with information about poor people's perspectives on poverty became increasingly common in the 1990s. This, the first book to focus on the use of participatory techniques in poverty reduction policies, presents a series of participants' reflections on it. The 1990s witnessed a shift in the application of participatory methodologies, adding to the project-planning approaches of the 1980s a new focus on participatory research for policy. Much of this research centers on poverty issues. This volume, with contributions from the leading researchers and professionals, examines how participatory research has affected the way poverty is understood, and how these understandings have been acted on in making policy for poverty reduction.

Karen Brock is a researcher at the Institute of Development Studies (IDS), University of Sussex. She has carried out research on natural resources management and agro-pastoral livelihoods in Africa, and is currently focusing on policy-making for poverty reduction, and the political economy of knowledge construction Rosemary McGee is a social development specialist with a background in anthropological research on poverty and policy, poverty assessment methodologies and policy advocacy. She is currently a fellow at IDS, working mainly on civil society participation in policy processes