Mobilisation of the Poor – a means to Poverty Reduction? - Sida

achievements of certain obviously successful cases while neglecting the failures, which are just as
common (e.g. Dainis and Karunaratna 2001, Pathirana and Ekanayake 1999). This, in turn, has
made it difficult to arrive at a realistic assessment of the strengths and weaknesses of the approach
being pursued.
10
CAP
Successes
The field survey covered 11 Prajashakti Organisations out of a total of 53 registered with the
Prajashakti Maha Sangamaya (PSMS) national federation as of May 2001. The study units were
selected on the basis of geographical, socio-economic and programme characteristics. Details of the
selected study units are given in Table 1 (see Statistical Tables in Annex 1).
In each study area the following procedures were carried out:
1. From each Prajashakti Organisation (PO) selected basic information about membership, funds
and activities was collected from the principal office bearers.
2. Two villages (one where CAP is active and one where it is less active) were selected from each
PO for detailed field investigations.
3. Case histories were recorded of CAP and related group processes in each of the study villages.
4. A sample survey covering four types of households (those currently active in CAP, those
currently enrolled but not active in CAP, those that dropped out of CAP, and those who are
poor but have never been involved in CAP). The survey covered a total of 342 households in
five provinces (see Table 2). The survey was carried out by a team of 13 field investigators (five
men and eight women, all sociology graduates) under the supervision of the members of the
evaluation team.
Selection of the sample
CAP
Failures
The 11 Prajashakti Organisations covered by the study were chosen from a list of 53 POs taking
into consideration geographical location, duration of the programme in each area, level of activity
of the organisation as assessed by the national federation of POs and reported level of
organisational maturity. In selecting the study POs maximum care was taken to represent all
possible variation.
From each PO chosen for the study a list of all villages covered by the PO was obtained and out of
these two villages were chosen. In selecting the villages their distance from the PO office, reported
level of activity, duration of the programme, socio-economic characteristics and presence or
absence of other relevant development programmes were considered.
From each study village about 15 households were chosen for a household survey. Out of the 15
households five were chosen from among households currently active in CAP, and another five
from among households that are currently served by the Samurdhi Programme or a nongovernment
programme catering to low-income households such as Sarvodaya or SANASA. The
MOBILISATION OF THE POOR – A MEANS TO POVERTY REDUCTION – Sida EVALUATION 02/08
Samurdhi and
other
programmes