Q-squared: combining qualitative and quantitative methods in poverty appraisal

Whilst the use of quantitative approaches in poverty analysis has been dominant in the past decade, the use of qualitative approaches has been increasing, with many multilateral and bilateral agencies now routinely commissioning studies in this tradition. There have been increasing attempts at integrating the two approaches but these have generally been neither systematic nor successful. Despite the obvious complementarities between the two it seems practitioners are not working together as much as they could to develop sound poverty reduction strategies. This is the context in which the workshop "Qualitative and Quantitative Poverty Appraisal: Complementarities, Tensions and the Way Forward" took place in March 2001 at Cornell University. Participants were asked to submit short contributions setting out key issues which were presented and discussed at the workshop. Two central tenets of the workshop were self criticism in both traditions and a search for best practice in combining the two approaches. This report is a compilation of these contributions, made by 19 participants from around the world.