Menu ENN Search

Conclusions to 'Targeting Food Aid in Emergencies' (Special Supplement 1)

The operational contexts for 'within geographical area targeting' are limited

This supplement has focused on targeting food aid in emergencies within geographical areas. Within area targeting is only likely to be appropriate when:

In the absence of these conditions, any targeting system is either likely to be so expensive that any saving realised by delivering a smaller quantity of food aid is eliminated, or the system will experience a scale of inclusion and exclusion error which invalidates any attempt at targeting in the first place.

People on the move challenge how food and can be delivered

In practice, biased assessment and definition of needs can undermine the primary principle of targeting

Ensuring that resources are received according to need is the main reason for targeting food aid and indeed, is supported by human rights principles of non-discrimination, impartiality and equity. In practice, agencies assessing needs have their own 'needs agenda', often have pre-determined their intervention (based on the financial and material resources available to them), and choose methods of assessment which provide recommendations to support their plans. This means that in practice, emergency affected populations' needs are not always assessed in an objective manner. The result is often targeting which does not address real needs.

Inclusion and exclusion errors occur at all levels

Errors can occur at every stage of the targeting process and will never be entirely eliminated. Careful judgements on expected and acceptable errors should be made and factored into food aid planning.

Minimise errors by combining approaches

The best targeting systems which manage to minimise errors are those that employ multiple approaches simultaneously, e.g. community managed targeting combining communitydetermined and administrative criteria, targeting some households according to socio-economic criteria and targeting malnourished children with a feeding programme to ensure a safety net for those excluded from the household distribution.

Minimise errors by applying key principles

This supplement has shown that participation of varying degrees by the community in the process is an essential prerequisite for effective targeting. Targeting can be specifically improved by involving women in the process. The tension between participation of powerful groups, and the threat the same groups may pose to the integrity of a targeting system, will be felt and should influence the system design.Transparency in the use of information and in communicating the details of the targeting system to the affected community is another prerequisite for success.

The lack of monitoring and evaluation data on targeting is a real barrier to progress

There are some examples in this supplement where programmes have attempted new innovative approaches, building on the key principles in order to apply targeting in contexts which may have previously been considered unsuitable. It is only through careful documentation of robust monitoring data that practice can move on and new approaches be validated and more widely adopted. This supplement should serve as a call for more, and better, monitoring and evaluation of targeting.

More like this

FEX: Introduction (Special Supplement 1)

Glossary ACF Action Contre la Faim BMI Body Mass Index CMT Community Managed Targeting CSB Corn Soya Blend DFID Department for International Development FFW Food...

FEX: Distributing food (Special Supplement 1)

Food may be distributed in many different ways but the method of distribution will, to a large extent, depend on the eligible groups and the method for identifying them....

FEX: Principles and Practice for Food Distribution in Conflict

Summary of Published Review Field Exchange 10 highlighted a study underway by the Humanitarian Policy Group and Nutrition Works on the principles and practice for food...

FEX: Monitoring the targeting system (Special Supplement 1)

In the past, little emphasis has been placed on monitoring what happens to food aid after it has reached the distribution point. Donor reporting has been limited to the...

FEX: Letter on targeting food aid, by Anna Taylor

Dear Editor The targeting of food aid is widely assumed to be the most effective and efficient way of ensuring that the limited food aid resources available in emergencies...

FEX: Determining eligibility (Special Supplement 1)

Children are often a group targeted in emergencies Eligibility criteria, i.e. the characteristics of those individuals or households to be targeted with food, arise from the...

FEX: Setting objectives (Special Supplement 1)

Indian flood victims eat at open air kitchen in Nagari. The objectives of a targeting system arise from the definition of need (Section 1). Given a definition of need, the...

FEX: Global factors shaping food aid

Summary of published paper1 USAID funded vegetable oil being distributed at Kassab IDP camp, North Dafur A paper in a recent special issue of Disasters on food aid, reviews...

FEX: Community participation in targeting in South Sudan

Summary of research1 Women collect bags between air drops near the town of Habilla, West Dafur A recent study, carried out by the Feinstein International Centre and...

FEX: WFP Monitoring and Evaluation of HIV/AIDS Programming in Malawi

By Jeremy Shoham, ENN Post distribution monitoring GOAL food distribution Chiradzulu 2 This article was written based on a WFP consultation to Malawi in February...

FEX: Assessing the economic value of fortified foods

Summary of published paper1 CSB distribution in Ethiopia In some communities an affordable nutritionally adequate diet based on local foods may be difficult to achieve...

FEX: Authors wanted

The ENN will be producing a series of special supplements over the next two years. The first of these supplements is on 'targeting of emergency food aid' and has already been...

FEX: Resourcing Targeting (Special Supplement 1)

Agencies deciding to implement food aid targeting in emergencies often face constraints on targeting design. Three such factors are dealt with here: Quantity and quality of...

FEX: Targeting in complex emergencies: the cases of Somalia and Columbia

Summary of case studies1,2 An IDP camp in Somalia where the evaluation was undertaken. The World Food Programme (WFP) recently commissioned research to investigate the...

FEX: Project on humanitarian principles and practice for food distribution in conflict

Research in progress Food Distribution - Angola '93 by Susanne Jaspars, Project Manager, Food in Conflict Project. Partner in NutritionWorks. NutritionWorks and the Overseas...

FEX: Community Managed Targeting – Tanzania

Post-script by Jeremy Shoham, ENN DFID commissioned an evaluation of the community-managed targeting programme in Singida and Dodoma regions of Central Tanzania in May 1999....

FEX: Gatekeepers in Mogadishu

Summary of report1 Summary prepared by Dina Sinigallia. Report authors: Erik Bryld and Dina Sinigallia (Tanya Copenhagen), Christine Kamau (iDC) Mogadishu Location:...

FEX: A Review of the advances and challenges in nutrition in conflicts and crises over the last 20 years

Abbreviated version of unpublished paper Food distribution at the ICRC kitchen in Tonj. By Frances Mason and Anna Taylor This paper is a shortened version of the complete...

FEX: Delivery of Social Protection Programmes in Kenya

By Clemensia Mwiti and Nupur Kukrety Clemensia Mwiti is a Humanitarian Support Professional (HSP) in Emergency Food Security and Livelihoods. Nupur Kukrety is the Social...

FEX: ALNAP review of humanitarian system

Summary of published report1 A recently published report, commissioned under ALNAPs2 Humanitarian Performance Project, set out to chart the performance and progress of the...

Close

Reference this page

Anna Taylor and John Seaman (). Conclusions to 'Targeting Food Aid in Emergencies' (Special Supplement 1). Supplement 1: Targeting food aid in emergencies, July 2004. p29. www.ennonline.net/fex/101/conclusions

(ENN_3139)

Close

Download to a citation manager

The below files can be imported into your preferred reference management tool, most tools will allow you to manually import the RIS file. Endnote may required a specific filter file to be used.