Social Assessments and Program Evaluation with Limited Formal Data : Thinking Quantitatively, Acting Qualitatively

This note revisits the long-standing tension between qualitative and quantitative approaches to poverty analysis, with reference to social assessments and program evaluation. It presents a summary of recent work in St. Lucia and Colombia, where inn...

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Main Author: World Bank
Format: Brief
Language:English
Published: Washington, DC 2012
Subjects:
Online Access:http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/2001/07/2819774/social-assessments-program-evaluation-limited-formal-data-thinking-quantitatively-acting-qualitatively
http://hdl.handle.net/10986/11376
id okr-10986-11376
recordtype oai_dc
spelling okr-10986-113762021-04-23T14:02:55Z Social Assessments and Program Evaluation with Limited Formal Data : Thinking Quantitatively, Acting Qualitatively World Bank SOCIAL ANALYSIS QUALITATIVE CRITERIA QUANTITATIVE ANALYSIS POVERTY ANALYSIS PROGRAM EVALUATION ENVIRONMENTAL ISSUES LOW INCOME COUNTRIES RURAL AREAS URBAN AREAS CLEAN WATER POOR HOUSEHOLDS BASIC BENEFICIARIES CENSUS DATA COMMUNITIES COMMUNITY PROFILES CONSULTATION DEVELOPMENT NETWORK DEVELOPMENT STUDIES GROUP INTERVIEWS HOUSEHOLD INCOME HOUSEHOLD SURVEY INCOME INCOME COUNTRIES INFRASTRUCTURE PROJECTS LOCAL CAPACITY OUTCOME VARIABLES PARTICIPATORY APPROACHES PARTICIPATORY POVERTY PARTICIPATORY POVERTY ASSESSMENTS POLICY RESEARCH POOR COMMUNITIES POVERTY ALLEVIATION POVERTY ASSESSMENTS PROGRAM EFFECTS PROGRAM EVALUATION PROGRAMS QUALITATIVE APPROACHES QUALITATIVE MATERIAL QUALITATIVE METHODS QUALITATIVE RESEARCH QUANTITATIVE APPROACHES QUANTITATIVE DATA RANDOM SAMPLE SOCIAL ASSESSMENT SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT This note revisits the long-standing tension between qualitative and quantitative approaches to poverty analysis, with reference to social assessments and program evaluation. It presents a summary of recent work in St. Lucia and Colombia, where innovative efforts were made to integrate the guiding principles of quantitative approaches with the practice of qualitative approaches. While neither case should be seen as ideal or a substitute for a more comprehensive analysis, they nonetheless present a series of strategies for generating some meaningful and useful results in environments where, for any number of reasons, formal data is weak or absent. Such environments, of course, are all too common in low-income countries. The first case, a social assessment of poverty, comes from St. Lucia. The task manager had funds sufficient to cover key informant and focus group interviews in sixteen communities around the island. Given this small number, he elected not to work with a "random sample" as such but rather to maximize coverage on as many key variables as possible (rural/urban, access to clean water, distance to main road, level of poverty, etc). Our St Lucia-based colleagues happened to have access to a 1990 census, but it did not contain data on the full set of variables that would have enabled us to generate a final sample meeting all our criteria. 2012-08-13T14:54:02Z 2012-08-13T14:54:02Z 2001-07 http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/2001/07/2819774/social-assessments-program-evaluation-limited-formal-data-thinking-quantitatively-acting-qualitatively http://hdl.handle.net/10986/11376 English Social Development Notes; No. 68 CC BY 3.0 IGO http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/igo/ World Bank Washington, DC Publications & Research :: Brief Publications & Research Latin America & Caribbean Colombia St. Lucia
repository_type Digital Repository
institution_category Foreign Institution
institution Digital Repositories
building World Bank Open Knowledge Repository
collection World Bank
language English
topic SOCIAL ANALYSIS
QUALITATIVE CRITERIA
QUANTITATIVE ANALYSIS
POVERTY ANALYSIS
PROGRAM EVALUATION
ENVIRONMENTAL ISSUES
LOW INCOME COUNTRIES
RURAL AREAS
URBAN AREAS
CLEAN WATER
POOR HOUSEHOLDS BASIC
BENEFICIARIES
CENSUS DATA
COMMUNITIES
COMMUNITY PROFILES
CONSULTATION
DEVELOPMENT NETWORK
DEVELOPMENT STUDIES
GROUP INTERVIEWS
HOUSEHOLD INCOME
HOUSEHOLD SURVEY
INCOME
INCOME COUNTRIES
INFRASTRUCTURE PROJECTS
LOCAL CAPACITY
OUTCOME VARIABLES
PARTICIPATORY APPROACHES
PARTICIPATORY POVERTY
PARTICIPATORY POVERTY ASSESSMENTS
POLICY RESEARCH
POOR COMMUNITIES
POVERTY ALLEVIATION
POVERTY ASSESSMENTS
PROGRAM EFFECTS
PROGRAM EVALUATION
PROGRAMS
QUALITATIVE APPROACHES
QUALITATIVE MATERIAL
QUALITATIVE METHODS
QUALITATIVE RESEARCH
QUANTITATIVE APPROACHES
QUANTITATIVE DATA
RANDOM SAMPLE
SOCIAL ASSESSMENT
SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT
SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT
spellingShingle SOCIAL ANALYSIS
QUALITATIVE CRITERIA
QUANTITATIVE ANALYSIS
POVERTY ANALYSIS
PROGRAM EVALUATION
ENVIRONMENTAL ISSUES
LOW INCOME COUNTRIES
RURAL AREAS
URBAN AREAS
CLEAN WATER
POOR HOUSEHOLDS BASIC
BENEFICIARIES
CENSUS DATA
COMMUNITIES
COMMUNITY PROFILES
CONSULTATION
DEVELOPMENT NETWORK
DEVELOPMENT STUDIES
GROUP INTERVIEWS
HOUSEHOLD INCOME
HOUSEHOLD SURVEY
INCOME
INCOME COUNTRIES
INFRASTRUCTURE PROJECTS
LOCAL CAPACITY
OUTCOME VARIABLES
PARTICIPATORY APPROACHES
PARTICIPATORY POVERTY
PARTICIPATORY POVERTY ASSESSMENTS
POLICY RESEARCH
POOR COMMUNITIES
POVERTY ALLEVIATION
POVERTY ASSESSMENTS
PROGRAM EFFECTS
PROGRAM EVALUATION
PROGRAMS
QUALITATIVE APPROACHES
QUALITATIVE MATERIAL
QUALITATIVE METHODS
QUALITATIVE RESEARCH
QUANTITATIVE APPROACHES
QUANTITATIVE DATA
RANDOM SAMPLE
SOCIAL ASSESSMENT
SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT
SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT
World Bank
Social Assessments and Program Evaluation with Limited Formal Data : Thinking Quantitatively, Acting Qualitatively
geographic_facet Latin America & Caribbean
Colombia
St. Lucia
relation Social Development Notes; No. 68
description This note revisits the long-standing tension between qualitative and quantitative approaches to poverty analysis, with reference to social assessments and program evaluation. It presents a summary of recent work in St. Lucia and Colombia, where innovative efforts were made to integrate the guiding principles of quantitative approaches with the practice of qualitative approaches. While neither case should be seen as ideal or a substitute for a more comprehensive analysis, they nonetheless present a series of strategies for generating some meaningful and useful results in environments where, for any number of reasons, formal data is weak or absent. Such environments, of course, are all too common in low-income countries. The first case, a social assessment of poverty, comes from St. Lucia. The task manager had funds sufficient to cover key informant and focus group interviews in sixteen communities around the island. Given this small number, he elected not to work with a "random sample" as such but rather to maximize coverage on as many key variables as possible (rural/urban, access to clean water, distance to main road, level of poverty, etc). Our St Lucia-based colleagues happened to have access to a 1990 census, but it did not contain data on the full set of variables that would have enabled us to generate a final sample meeting all our criteria.
format Publications & Research :: Brief
author World Bank
author_facet World Bank
author_sort World Bank
title Social Assessments and Program Evaluation with Limited Formal Data : Thinking Quantitatively, Acting Qualitatively
title_short Social Assessments and Program Evaluation with Limited Formal Data : Thinking Quantitatively, Acting Qualitatively
title_full Social Assessments and Program Evaluation with Limited Formal Data : Thinking Quantitatively, Acting Qualitatively
title_fullStr Social Assessments and Program Evaluation with Limited Formal Data : Thinking Quantitatively, Acting Qualitatively
title_full_unstemmed Social Assessments and Program Evaluation with Limited Formal Data : Thinking Quantitatively, Acting Qualitatively
title_sort social assessments and program evaluation with limited formal data : thinking quantitatively, acting qualitatively
publisher Washington, DC
publishDate 2012
url http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/2001/07/2819774/social-assessments-program-evaluation-limited-formal-data-thinking-quantitatively-acting-qualitatively
http://hdl.handle.net/10986/11376
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