Overview

Editors:

Paul Shaffer
Trent University, Ontario, Canada

Ravi Kanbur
Cornell University, United States of America

Nguyen Thang
Centre for Analysis and Forecasting
Vietnamese Academy of Social Sciences, Vietnam

Ellen Bortei-Doku Aryeetey
Institute of Statistical, Social and Economic Research
University of Ghana, Ghana

This IJMRA Special Issue presents peer reviewed research from the third (July 2007) in a series of conferences on integrating qualitative and quantitative approaches (Q-Squared) in poverty analysis in the developing world (see http://www.q-squared.ca/).

The first two conferences, at Cornell University (2001) and the University of Toronto (2004), addressed conceptual and empirical issues. This third conference, hosted by the Vietnamese Academy of Social Sciences from 07-08 July 2007, focused on the applied use of Q-Squared analyses to inform decision-making.

Contributions examine the production and use of mixed method analyses of poverty in the policy process, defined widely to include policy-level or programmatic decisions at national or sub-national levels by governments, NGOs and development organizations.

Individual articles address the use of Q2 approaches in five main areas:

• Analysis of poverty dynamics in a policy context
• Policy formulation
• Monitoring
• Evaluation
• Impact assessment

Contributors include leading international academics, researchers and practitioners working on poverty in the developing world.

Table of Contents

Introduction
Paul Shaffer, Ravi Kanbur, Nguyen Thang and Ellen Bortei-Doku Aryeetey

Whose numbers count? Probing discrepant evidence on transgenic cotton in the Warangal district of India - Ronald J Herring

The balance of all things: Explaining household poverty dynamics in 50 villages of Gujarat, India - Anirudh Krishna and J Daniel Lecy

Poverty dynamics and life trajectories in rural Bangladesh - Bob Baulch and Peter Davis

Combining quantitative and qualitative research to further our understanding of poverty dynamics: some methodological considerations - David Lawson, David Hulme and James Muwonge

Combined methods in poverty analysis: experiences from Namibia - Sebastian Levine and Benjamin Roberts

Combining survey and ethnographic methods to improve evaluation of conditional cash transfer programs - Michelle Adato

Community‐based change ranking to assess the impact of a programme for the ultra poor - Munshi Sulaiman and Imran Matin

On trying to be Q2: Merging methods for a technical minded client - Nilakshi de Silva and Neranjana Gunetilleke

Trade liberalisation and childhood poverty in Vietnam: A Q2 social impact analysis - Nicola Jones, Ngoc Anh Nguyen and Thu Hang Nguyen