Social assessment in Tajikistan brings rural realities to urban decisionmakers

OCIAL DEVELOPMENT NOTES ENVIRONMENTALLY AND SOCIALLY SUSTAINABLE DEVEILOPMENT NETWORK Note No. 34 May 1998 Social Assess:ment in Tajikistan Brings Rural Realities to Urban Decisionmakers A social assessment was done during the with inadequate basic data have been preparation of Tajikistan's Pilot Poverty compounded by difficulties with in-country Alleviation Project to answer severaLl key travel. As a result, a knowledge gap exists questions: What are poor people's priority between urban decisionmakers and rural needs and wants? Why are they poor? What realities. are their own strategies for improving their The project team used a social assessment lives? And how can they be helped to to narrow this gap. It was implemented in improve their circumstances? several stages, including a desk study to By answering these questions, the social review and summarize available information, assessment helped the project team a two-day in-country workshop to lay the incorporate poor people's priorities for basis for the social assessment and to poverty alleviation, identify nongovern- conduct an initial poverty ranking, a five- mental organizations (NGOs) whose scaled- week field study conducted by a consultant up programs would form part of the project, and a team of Tajik nationals, a review of the understand and address risks to project findings at a national workshop, a special success, build local capacity to carry out field study undertaken by a lawyer and a participatory research, and influence the human rights specialist of the problems of national dialogue on poverty and the local harassment of poor people, and an potential role of small-scale, participatory ongoing survey of institutions that could microprojects for poverty alleviation. The help monitor and mitigate poverty. Pilot Poverty Alleviation Project is designed . . to improve poor people's lives by scaling-up Intial Workshop international NGO programs and financing Nearly 60 senior civil servants and relief, small, participatory microprojects through rehabilitation, and development agency the recently established Tajikistan Social officials gave their perspectives on poverty Investment Fund. at a two-day social assessment launch Why Social Assessment? workshop in Dushanbe. Working in groups, these officials selected key poverty indicators Tajikistan, one of the poorest former (see Box 1), scaled and mapped them by Soviet republics, has suffered prolonged district, and then used pairwise ranking (see macro-economic difficulties and civil Box 2) to order the districts by incidence of conflict. As one response to the country's poverty. Workshop participants deliberately pressing development needs, the avoided comparing the country's four main government and the World Bank are looking regions because of prevailing sensitivities to small-scale projects and solutions. But about regional disparities. project planners have found that problems Michael Mills is the task team leader of the Tajikistan Pilot Poverty Alleviation Project. For more information on the social assessment, contact Keith Rennie, The World Bank, 1818 H Street, NW, Washington, DC 20433, USA, Fax: 202-477-0432, E-mail jrennie@worldbank.org. The viewus expressed in this note are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect thle official policies of thle World Bank.  Box 1. Urban Decisionmakers' The Field Study Wealth Indicators A team of 11 Tajik nationals trained in in thematic groups, the social assessment participatory and rural appraisal techniques workshop paricipants selected the following undertook the five-week field assessment of indicators and scales, which they then used to poverty. The team worked in seven areas rank districts based on their expert knowledge. selected on the basis of the workshop's These indicators complement the community- poverty rankings; interviews with refugees derived indicators described in Box o. allowed field teams to gather data on an * Household income eighth, war-affected zone in which field * Infrastructure development work was impossible.