A Menu of Options For Intra-Household Poverty Assessment

Households are aggregations of individuals who may act cooperatively or competitively when generating and using resources such as income or accessing assets such as land and financial wealth. It is clear that not all households share resources and assets equally and that some members may be relatively more privileged than others, commanding more income and accessing greater consumption opportunities. Where this is the case, some members of a household may be more likely to be very poor than others. There is also evidence that intra- household inequality and poverty may disproportionately affect women, children and the aged.

The report offers a preliminary assessment of gender-sensitive intra-household poverty tools and provides recommendations for further research and pilot-testing to develop such tools.