Wellbeing Ranking: Developments in applied community-level poverty research

Well-being Ranking tells the story of the development of assessment methods since the rise of wealth ranking in the 1980s.

It looks at the results of well-being ranking exercises and how they help identify important differences within communities and monitor changes in well-being over time and describes the successful use of ranking tools over large populations and the value of using multi-dimensional models of well-being.

Wealth-ranking is a participatory tool enabling people to group their fellows into wealth bands, and thus identify the very poor. Now the method has been developed to include the broader aspects of well-being – such as social standing and health – that people value as much as material wealth. The book suggests that understanding differences within communities is essential for good development aid work and briefly explores the ideas used to make assessments of well-being at national levels. This book is essential reading for everyone interested in participatory methods, from researchers and students of international development, to field workers and staff of international development agencies.