Environmentally and Socially Sustainable Development Studies and Monographs Series No. 20. This study describes the practices and processes of participatory methods that tap the knowledge the poor have about their own reality. The Participatory Poverty Assessment uses methods to measure and facilitate "listening to the poor." Participatory tools show how the poor view poverty, inflation, and other economic and social trends. In addition, the study established the high economic returns to village social capital, measured by density of groups with particular characteristics.