Views of the Poor : The perspectives of rural and urban poor in Tanzania as recounted through their stories and pictures 

The Views of the Poor Study was commissioned by the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation primarily to assist in strengthening the poverty focus of the new Swiss Country Programme for Tanzania (2004-2010). The intention was to gain an understanding and insights into the lives of the poor through their  eyes, particularly within the geographic areas of operation of the existing SDC programme. 

This study was thus designed as a selective study which was not intended to provide statistical, representative or consensus views but deliberately sought to explore the range of experiences of poor households in rural and urban contexts. Methods were used to encourage the poor to voice their own opinions and share their experiences in relation to their understanding of wellbeing and illbeing - thus opening spaces for ‘the other voice’, i.e. the less often heard voice of the primary stakeholders or clients of development programmes. This report attempts to compile these perspectives without overlaying further interpretation or bias.

To be poor in Madagascar : The perception of rural people  

In 2001, the programme SAHA (financially supported by SDC and implemented by Intercooperation) initiated a participatory evaluation of poverty. The programme wished to better understand the overall perception of poverty amongst poor people themselves in the three regions covered by its activities.

The idea was to gain a more precise categorisation of poor people (to better define and understand the phenomena of exclusion, the determining factors behind it, and the dynamics of poverty); to test the criteria used by SAHA in monitoring changes in poverty; to review and eventually modify the indicators used by the programme; and to disseminate more widely the concept used for analysing poverty.

The result for SAHA was a deepened understanding of what it means to a rural Malagasy to be poor, including the fact that people do not wish to be labelled “poor”, and that they see poverty in a dynamic context – as a state from which they will be able to escape one day.

Another aspect that came out strongly was that participation in social rituals is strongly associated with a sense of well-being, self confidence and respect; thus the lack of resources to participate in such activities is a clear sign of poverty.

Voices and Views of the Poor: Real Life Stories from Pakistan

The SDC study “Voices and Views of the Poor: Real Life Stories ” was conducted during the revision process of SDC Pakistan’s Cooperation Strategy 2006-2010. The study aims to better understand the living conditions of poor people and their livelihood systems.

Among the 40 respondent svisited and interviewed in Buner and DeraIsmail Khan Districts in NWFP are landless peasants, seasonal laborers and vendors, local crafts women and men, people with little or no access to infrastructure, households affected by disaster, overcrowded households, nomads, and women-headed households. The invisible, forgotten segments of the poor population were given special focus.

The life stories in this book show the many faces of poverty which contribute to and maintain the exclusion and invisibility of people living in poverty. To order a copy of the book, please contact  SDC Pakistan >>>