Seeing is Believing : Poverty in the Palestinian Territories

World Bank

Washington, DC

关键词: ACCESS TO EDUCATION;    ACCESS TO MARKETS;    ACCESS TO SERVICES;    AGRICULTURAL LAND;    AVAILABILITY OF SERVICES;   

RP-ID  :  86038

学科分类：社会科学、人文和艺术（综合）

来源: World Bank Open Knowledge Repository

【 摘 要 】

The Palestinian Territories have auniquely fragmented geography, characterized by theisolation of Gaza from the rest of the world, and theman-made barriers to mobility within the West Bank. Theinternal mobility restrictions imposed by Israel, unique tothe West Bank, play an important role in explaining spatialvariations in outcomes within the West Bank. This isstrikingly analogous to the role of Gaza's externalbarriers in explaining the divergence between the West Bankand Gaza. These have consequences for poverty and economicdevelopment. Detailed analysis using a series of labor forceand household surveys were undertaken as part of the WestBank and Gaza poverty and inclusion assessment, coping withconflict? The analysis revealed that over the last decade,internal and external barriers have been associated withtremendous constraints to growth and investment, which isevident in high rates of unemployment, especially in Gazaand among women and youth. Poverty mapping relies onhousehold survey and census data, making the most of thestrengths of each, and compensating for their weaknesses.Certain key data requirements must be fulfilled to be ableto construct a poverty map. Survey data must includedetailed consumption data, which is the basis forcalculating poverty estimates, for instance at the nationaland the regional level. However, the survey usually coversonly a representative sample of the population. Thistradeoff between sample size and the cost and time needed tocollect quality consumption data implies that surveys cannottypically be used to calculate reliable poverty estimatesfor more disaggregated areas. This is because, at such lowerlevels of disaggregation, for instance, the community orvillage, the number of observations in the survey is toosmall to produce statistically reliable estimates. Thecensus on the other hand covers the entire population andcan therefore be reliable even at lower levels ofaggregation. However, the census usually covers only basicinformation like demographics, education and employment butnot detailed information on consumption.