Poverty Reduction and Economic Management

Human Development

Environmentally and Socially Sustainable Development

Private Sector Development and Infrastructure

Financial Sector

Thematic Perspectives

Poverty in the Voices of the Poor

In an effort to understand poverty from the perspective of poor people themselves, the World Bank undertook a 60-country participatory study, known as Voices of the Poor. The study was conducted as background for the WDR 2000/2001 and consists of two parts: a review of recent participatory studies in 50 countries involving 40,000 poor women and men; and a comparative study in 1999 involving 20,000 people in 23 countries. What emerges is that poverty entails multiple and interlocking disadvantages that frequently leave poor people powerless to better their lives.

Poor people emphasize material deprivation but also speak of social, physical and psychological dimensions and lack of freedom of choice and action. Their livelihoods are often precarious, seasonal and inadequate; many see economic conditions worsening. Their villages and slums are often isolated, lacking in basic services and transport. Hunger and illness are common, and access to medical care, difficult. Especially in urban areas, crime and violence pose daily threats; police protection is scarce. Within the household, domestic violence against women remains widespread even though more poor women are earning incomes than ever before. Descriptions of poverty also often encompass mental distress and anxiety about the future. "Poverty is lack of freedom, enslaved by crushing daily burdens, by depression and fear of what the future will bring," says a participant from the Caucuses.

Poor people highlight powerlessness, pointing to officials, traders and civic actors who are neither responsive nor accountable to them. They share numerous examples of criminality, abuse and corruption in encounters with public institutions, saying they have little recourse to justice. "Government has let us down, too many promises–never fulfilling them," says a 30-year-old unemployed mother from the Caribbean. In poor communities worldwide, local groups and actors are key supports; however, poor people recognize limits to how much "one hungry man can help another hungry man."

The study is being published in a three-part series: Voices of the Poor: Can Anyone Hear Us? (2000) by Deepa Narayan, with Raj Patel, Kai Schafft, Anne Rademacher, and Sarah Koch-Schulte; Voices of the Poor: Crying Out for Change (2000) by Deepa Narayan, Robert Chambers, Meera K. Shah and Patti Petesch; Voices of the Poor: From Many Lands (forthcoming) edited by Deepa Narayan and Patti Petesch.