The objective of the national course is to strengthen the analytical capacity in Georgia to analyze and monitor poverty data, and to provide the participants with the necessary technical skills. The course will be delivered by international consultants and the local trainers (experienced statisticians, who have had hand-on experience in data collection, monitoring and evaluation).

The Poverty Measurement and Diagnostics technical course description:

10 days technical course offered to economists, statisticians or other professionals wanting a hands-on introduction to poverty measurement and diagnostics. At the end of this course, participants will be able to understand the ‘welfare foundations’ of different types of poverty analysis, elaborate a poverty indicator, construct a poverty line, calculate a standard set of poverty measures, and prepare a poverty profile of a country. They will have the necessary skills to apply these techniques using software such as SPSS.

This course is composed of the following modules:

1. The concept of poverty and well-being: Conceptual frameworks for poverty measurement, concepts of poverty, equity and poverty. Rationale for poverty measurement

2. Measuring poverty: Choice of indicator of welfare. Issues of choice between income and expenditure, ways to account for household size and composition, ways to measure home production, data quality.

3. Poverty lines: issues of age, gender, urban-rural divides, prices, etc.

4. Poverty measures: headcount index, poverty gap index, FGT measure, duration measures, etc.

5. Issues in measurement: Comparison of measures, measurement errors, robustness of ordinal comparisons, etc.

6. Inequality measures: Alternative indices (Gini coefficient, Theil index, Decile ratio, etc.), decomposition of inequality.

7. Describing poverty: poverty profiles, targeting, decomposition, poverty comparison, poverty mapping.

8. Understanding the determinants of poverty: Standard econometric modeling techniques (single equation OLS, 2SLS, logit/probit). Discussion of regional, community, household and individual determinants of poverty.

9. Poverty reduction strategies: Assessing the validity of poverty comparisons, linking policies to poverty outcomes, targeting and social safety nets, fiscal policy and macroeconomic shocks, macroeconomic reforms and the poor, public spending and the poor.

Delivery mode:

The course is a face-to-face, with a combination of the formal lectures with hands-on exercises and computer based exercises. Each of the modules will be followed by sessions for participants to acquire skills in using software such as SPSS in poverty data analysis. The course would be delivered in Russian. Participants will also be provided a binder containing the presentations, background reading, and other relevant material.

In order to build the national capacity to design and implement effective poverty reduction strategies in ECA (Europe and Central Asia) countries The World Bank , operating through its World Bank Institute together with local partners has started the

Poverty Analysis Initiative Capacity Building in Poverty Measurement and Diagnostics in ECA Region

In order to strategically build capacity in these areas, a medium term strategy has been prepared. The strategy would proceed in three steps:

• Stage one – Poverty Measurement, Diagnostics and Analysis: This strategy aims at first strengthening national capacity in poverty measurement, diagnostics and analysis. This first component will allow to reinforce analytical capacity, and the knowledge of poverty and its determinants. This will provide a baseline for the PRSP.

• Stage two – Poverty Monitoring: After this, the strategy will focus on strengthening the monitoring systems, which will allow to follow those indicators identified initially and ensure that they are regularly measured and compared to the established baseline.

• Stage three – Poverty Impact Evaluation: Finally, the strategy will turn to strengthening capacity to carry out evaluation of the poverty impact of projects, programs and policies. Evaluation would then be used to complement monitoring of the PRSP in order to allow for feedback and improvements in the policies, in light of the successes and limitations experienced.