WPS 3369

# **Using Rapid City Surveys to Inform Municipal Social Policy – An Application in Cali, Colombia**

Jesko Hentschel World Bank 1818 H-Street, Washington D.C. <u>Jhentschel@worldbank.org</u>

## Abstract:

Many developing countries assign local governments increasing responsibilities in fighting poverty. This requires local social policy to go beyond the execution of centrally designed and funded education and health programs. Hence, local governments and their partners have both an opportunity and a need to analyze key local bottlenecks for poverty reduction and social development. Drawing on an example from Cali, Colombia, this paper describes a tool for such policy formulation at the local level, a rapid city household survey. Although the survey uses pre-coded and closed-ended questions, it is contextual in the sense that it is tailor-made to social and economic conditions in Cali. The survey places particular emphasis on collecting key quantitative information, such as household welfare and service access, as well as qualitative information, such as service evaluations and population priorities. Combining the quantitative and qualitative data allows, for example, the mapping of population budget priorities or service satisfaction levels by welfare group. Rapid city household surveys could provide an important tool for the development of local social policies.

Keywords: Latin America, Colombia, urban poverty, city development strategy, service satisfaction, contextual surveys

## World Bank Policy Research Working Paper 3369, August 2004

_The Policy Research Working Paper Series disseminates the findings of work in progress to encourage the exchange of ideas about development issues. An objective of the series is to get the findings out quickly, even if the presentations are less than fully polished. The papers carry the names of the authors and should be cited accordingly. The findings, interpretations, and conclusions expressed in this paper are entirely those of the authors. They do not necessarily represent the view of the World Bank, its Executive Directors, or the countries they represent. Policy Research Working Papers are available online at http://econ.worldbank.org._ _______________________________ This paper is based on an analysis of poverty in Cali carried out as part of the _City Development Strategy for Cali_ which the Municipality of Cali and the World Bank conducted from April 1999 to April 2000 (World Bank 2002). Financial support from the Bank/Netherlands Partnership Program, which financed the household survey and several background reports, is gratefully acknowledged. Kalpana Mehra and Radha Seshagiri contributed excellent technical research to the paper. Fernando Urrea from the Universidad Del Valle and Norbert Schady from the World Bank developed a large part of the questionnaire. The survey was fielded and the results tabulated by the _Centro Nacional de Consultoria_ . Alexandra Ortiz, the team leader for the _City Development Strategy_ , provided advice and comments during the whole project. Many thanks for comments and information are due to Jairo Arboleda, Tim Campbell, Elio Codato, Nigel Harris, Danny Leipziger, Gerald Martin, Carlos Ortiz, Fernando Rojas, Pilar Solans, Fernado Urrea and Fabio Velasquez.

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