Combining light monitoring surveys with integrated surveys to improve targeting for poverty reduction: The case of Ghana

Policymakers use Poverty maps to design and assess poverty programs. The ac curacy of these maps, which is critical for targeting depends largely on th e nature of the instrument used to construct them. Recently, in response to tight budget constraints, many countries have begun to construct poverty m aps based on light, monitoring surveys that rely on short questionnaires. T his article shows that poverty maps constructed from such surveys are not a ccurate and could result in substantial leakage. Light monitoring surveys d o include large samples that can help to target poverty programs at subregi onal levels. Combining these surveys with mote detailed Integrated Surveys can help researchers reduce targeting errors significantly and build improv ed poverty maps with finer levels of disaggregation.