Distorting the voices of the poor

The World Bank has published Moving Out of Poverty, a follow up to its 2000-2 study on Voices of the Poor. Both studies are ostensibly based on the views of over 60,000 poor people. But it looks likely that the new study, like the original, is highly selective in what it chooses to define as the aspirations of the poor.

See John Pender’s 2001 article on spiked for an astute piece on how the Voices of the Poor does not represent what it claims.

Meanwhile, the Danish Institute for International Studies has published a report (PDF) by Richard Manning on progress towards meeting the Millennium Development Goals.