North East England Participatory Poverty Assessment

A “Participatory Poverty Assessment” is a well-used way of involving people experiencing poverty in developing effective ways to tackle poverty. In different parts of the world PPA’s have involved people at a grassroots level in identifying what causes poverty and what needs to change to tackle it. The process recognises that people with personal experience are “experts” that have essential role in developing proposals that work effectively. It is not another dis-empowering, extractive consultation exercise.

Clearly North East England is very different to Uganda, Vietnam, Bosnia and other countries where PPA’s have been used. The nature of poverty and power are different, and we need to find out whether a PPA would really work in a rich country with long-standing institutions of governing. To do find this out we need an exercise that includes relevant people and bodies to consider the context and proposal – a feasibility study. To this end, a pre-feasibility stage has already been undertaken.

To find out more contact Alan Thornton.