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In common with other contextual, qualitative approaches to data collection, CoIMPact exercises seeks to fill existing information gaps,
enrich the type of information available and provide explanations
about the various dimensions of poverty. CoIMPact also goes further
by examining whether a specific policy, programme or intervention,
such as free primary education or cost sharing in health care provision
is working or is having unexpected side effects. In this regard,
CoIMPact also helps to uncover the unexpected.
In terms of the type of information required, CoIMPact focuses on the
monitoring of outcomes (people’s use of, and satisfaction with,
public services delivered) and impacts (the effects of policies on
people’s overall well-being) of poverty-oriented policies and programmes
from the perceptions of poor men and women.
In addition to capturing the multi-dimensional nature of poverty,
CoIMPact exercises have shown that policy interventions affect
different groups of the community in different ways. Specific interest
groups can include women, girl children, the physically disabled,
landless labourers or smallholder farmers. Not all of these groups
are identified as potential winners or losers during policy formulation.
The exercises have focused on the differentiated picture of
poverty, and in particular on intra-household dimensions of poverty,
trying to identify who suffers most in a household in times of stress.
The key to achieving this is the use of selective focus interviews
group, which follow common guidelines. Community members who
would not normally be allowed to voice an opinion then have the
chance to speak-up.
CoIMPact is not an “off-the-shelf” tool and stresses the country’s
specific nature of each exercise. The approach has grown out of the
experiences of a number of countries with technical and financial
assistance from the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Technische
Zusammenarbeit (GTZ). It underlines the importance of ensuring any
round of data collection is linked to the policies and institutions of
the country.
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