A Technique for Small-area Poverty Analyses

This paper proposes a technique for undertaking poverty analyses at city level, by studying the implementation of Costa Rica's social housing policy in the medium-sized city of Liberia. The technique was appraised in relation to its capacity to explore the links between social housing, poverty and inequality, the effects of the implementation of the selected policy and the differences between targeting implementation strategies. The technique helps to clarify the effects that housing policies have on poverty reduction in Liberia. In particular, the use of an urban residential segregation approach in small-area poverty analyses allows the identification of concrete deprived urban areas and the prioritisation of feasible pro-poor land-based actions; therefore, it shows potential as a tool for urban planning and local decision-making