Poverty Maps: Uses and
Caveats
Tara Vishwanath
Lead Economist
World Bank
Uses of Poverty Maps
• A visual illustration of estimated poverty indices
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at DS division level or below (currently excluding
N-E region due to lack of data)
Further benefits from overlaying poverty maps
with other GIS info
Making a case for reform initiatives
Identifying broad policy priorities for reducing
poverty and inequality
Caveats
Poverty maps and GIS information
in Sri Lanka
• Poverty maps
– Headcount ratios at DS division level and below starkly identifies the pockets of poverty
• Pockets of severe poverty in the least poor district Colombo
• Headcount ratio versus population of the poor:
important for designing poverty programs.
– Overlaying other GIS information with poverty map
can be very instructive
• Remoteness and Poverty Map
• Road Network and Poverty Map
• Droughts and Poverty Map
• Food insecurity and Poverty Map
• Impacts of Tsunami and pre-tsunami Poverty
Poverty Map (Headcount Ratio)
Accessibility Index
Uses of poverty maps in poverty
alleviation programs: International
Experience
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Many countries have experimented with different policy
applications
• Nicaragua: Used poverty map to guide expansion of health services in
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especially poor areas
South Africa: Combined poverty map with GIS on safe water and a map
of cholera outbreak (2001) to identify high risk areas and devise
protection mechanisms
Brazil: The most comprehensive use of poverty map combined with GIS
to inform poverty reduction initiatives (educational programs, providing
safe water and sanitation for schools, establishing health care teams, etc.)
Guatemala and Panama: Combined poverty map with GIS of road
network to devise a road strategy and identifying need for roads in
poorest districts
Cambodia: Used the map to guide food aid (World Food Program food
aid (2001-02)) to alleviate food insecurity
Caveats
• Poverty maps indicate poverty correlates (such
as remoteness/droughts).
– However, poverty maps do not identify causes of
poverty
– Therefore can help policy prioritization but not actual
policy design
• Poverty maps indicate geographic mis-targeting
in poverty programs
– Useful for “motivating” the need for reform but not
how to design the actual reform
• For both, need further careful analyses with
well-focused surveys
Example in Geographic
Targeting
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Targeting transfers to poor areas (geographic
targeting) is a well known poverty alleviation policy
– Administratively simple but politically challenging
• Poverty maps are considered to be very useful for
aiding geographic targeting
– Higher resolution maps locate poorer areas better
– May even help build political consensus for geographic
targeting (e.g., Panama)
• But: Maps need to be combined with other
information to determine criteria for eligibility and
resource allocation
Broader Issues in Geographic
Targeting
• Desirability of geographic targeting is still an open
question
• Resources to poor areas do not guarantee that
benefits reach all
• Cost–benefit analysis of whether
geographic/individual or a combination of both
needs further investigation.
• Room to explore this question in the context of
Welfare Reform in Sri Lanka
Other Applications for Sri Lanka
• Explore scope for using poverty maps to plan
infrastructure investments-i.e., roads
• Overlaying poverty map with nutrition and health
facility map could help to identify policy levers for
addressing malnutrition
• Overlaying satellite images of service facilities in
focused areas like estates could be quite
informative
• Scope for expanding and improving HIES for
higher resolution maps.