Targeting the vulnerable: A review of the necessity and feasibility of targeting vulnerable households (original) (raw)
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2009
Effective targeting of interventions is a challenge in development programmes. However, the need to be accountable and demonstrate impact has become critical, and is gradually forcing development practitioners implementing livelihood security programmes to change their operational regimes. Integrating efficient targeting systems makes it possible to effectively monitor and evaluate impact of development programmes. For example, organisations that have been implementing different interventions to reduce or reverse the adverse effects of the HIV and AIDS pandemic regard an efficient targeting system as a prerequisite to enhance the success of these programmes. Past studies have shown that HIV and AIDS in particular, has a broad livelihoods impact. Hence a development programme that integrates all the livelihood dimensions in its targeting is likely to have much greater success in mitigating the impacts of the epidemic. Such a programme would need to know the different dimensions throu...
Journal of Development Studies, 2019
The methods used to identify the beneficiaries of programmes aiming to address persistent poverty and shocks are subject to frequent policy debates. Relying on panel data from Niger, this report simulates the performance of various targeting methods that are widely used by development and humanitarian actors. The methods include proxy-means testing (PMT), household economy analysis (HEA), geographical targeting, and combined methods. Results show that PMT performs more effectively in identifying persistently poor households, while HEA shows superior performance in identifying transiently food insecure households. Geographical targeting is particularly efficient in responding to food crises, which tend to be largely covariate. Combinations of geographical, PMT, and HEA approaches may be used as part of an efficient and scalable adaptive social protection system. Results motivate the consolidation of data across programmes, which can support the application of alternative targeting methods tailored to programme-specific objectives.
Food Policy, 2011
The extensive literature on community participation in the targeting and management of humanitarian food assistance suggests that participatory approaches work best in slow-onset emergencies with no conflict or displacement. Yet the policies of many agencies-and compliance with Sphere minimum standards-require that the recipient community participate in decisions about the assistance they receive including targeting, regardless of the causes of the emergency. This paper analyzes current practice in the targeting and management of humanitarian food assistance in complex emergencies, the constraints to recipient communities' participation, and the possibilities for participatory approaches to improve targeting.
2020
This paper deals with the well documented problems of the most vulnerable and invisible social groups in disasters and complex emergencies, however, changes the focus of attention and action, furthermore analyses the possibilities of turning these threats into opportunities of empowerment. We identify the most vulnerable social groups – that is ethnic/religious minorities; children, pregnant and lactating women and children with disabilities – and investigate the impact of the threats to them in selected disasters/complex emergencies. Empirical evidence is collected about good practices on how to include the empowerment of these groups in humanitarian operations in these emergencies. These implemented operations show how humanitarian relief and development can be turned into a long-term opportunity of cooperation and empowerment of the most vulnerable communities.
Vulnerability to Hunger: Improving Food Crisis Responses in Fragile States
2008
The paper examines the imperative for improved classification and analysis of food crises in different fragile contexts. Recognizing the persistence and protracted nature of food crises, the paper questions how prevention and response mechanisms could be improved to help decisionmakers better address the underlying causes of vulnerability and hunger. The paper draws on case study information to examine real life opportunities and constraints in applying a recently developed food security classification system, named the analytical frameworks at country level, the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC). Developed originally in Somalia, this classification framework is now being applied in a range of country contexts within and outside of Africa by national governments, UN agencies, donors and NGO organizations. The paper draws on early applications of the IPC to consider opportunities and constraints in the application of common classification systems, taking into accoun...