IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/unu/wpaper/wp-2014-040.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Targeting Social Transfer Programmes: Comparing Design and Implementation Errors Across Alternative Mechanisms

Author

Listed:
  • Rachel Sabates-Wheeler
  • Alex Hurrell
  • Stephen Devereux

Abstract

Identifying the poorest for selection into social transfer programmes is a major challenge facing programme implementers. An innovative cash transfer programme in northern Kenya trialed three targeting mechanisms to learn lessons about which approach is most effective at minimizing inclusion and exclusion errors. We conclude that community-based targeting is the most accurate of the three approaches, followed by categorical targeting by age and household dependency ratio. However, targeting performance is strongly affected by implementation capacity and modalities.

Suggested Citation

  • Rachel Sabates-Wheeler & Alex Hurrell & Stephen Devereux, 2014. "Targeting Social Transfer Programmes: Comparing Design and Implementation Errors Across Alternative Mechanisms," WIDER Working Paper Series wp-2014-040, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    • Handle: RePEc:unu:wpaper:wp-2014-040
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.wider.unu.edu/sites/default/files/wp2014-040.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Giovanni Andrea Cornia & Frances Stewart, 1993. "Two errors of targeting," Journal of International Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 5(5), pages 459-496, September.
      • Giovanni Andrea Cornia & Frances Stewart, 1993. "Two Errors of Targeting," Papers iopeps93/54, Innocenti Occasional Papers, Economic Policy Series.
    2. Frank Ellis & Stephen Devereux & Phillip White, 2009. "Social Protection in Africa," Books, Edward Elgar Publishing, number 13393.
    3. Ariel Fiszbein & Norbert Schady & Francisco H.G. Ferreira & Margaret Grosh & Niall Keleher & Pedro Olinto & Emmanuel Skoufias, 2009. "Conditional Cash Transfers : Reducing Present and Future Poverty," World Bank Publications - Books, The World Bank Group, number 2597, December.
    4. Ravallion, Martin, 2007. "How relevant is targeting to the success of an antipoverty program ?," Policy Research Working Paper Series 4385, The World Bank.
    5. Conning, Jonathan & Kevane, Michael, 2002. "Community-Based Targeting Mechanisms for Social Safety Nets: A Critical Review," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 30(3), pages 375-394, March.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Stoeffler, Quentin & Mills, Bradford & del Ninno, Carlo, 2016. "Reaching the Poor: Cash Transfer Program Targeting in Cameroon," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 83(C), pages 244-263.
    2. Juan M Villa, 2016. "A harmonised proxy means test for Kenya’s National Safety Net programme," Global Development Institute Working Paper Series 032016, GDI, The University of Manchester.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. González-Flores, Mario & Heracleous, Maria & Winters, Paul, 2012. "Leaving the Safety Net: An Analysis of Dropouts in an Urban Conditional Cash Transfer Program," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 40(12), pages 2505-2521.
    2. Sabates-Wheeler, Rachel & Hurrell, Alex & Devereux, Stephen, 2014. "Targeting social transfer programmes: Comparing design and implementation errors across alternative mechanisms," WIDER Working Paper Series 040, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    3. Stoeffler, Quentin & Mills, Bradford & del Ninno, Carlo, 2016. "Reaching the Poor: Cash Transfer Program Targeting in Cameroon," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 83(C), pages 244-263.
    4. Henderson, Heath & Follett, Lendie, 2022. "Targeting social safety net programs on human capabilities," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 151(C).
    5. Dodlova, Marina & Giolbas, Anna & Lay, Jann, 2016. "Non-Contributory Social Transfer Programmes in Developing Countries: A New Data Set and Research Agenda," GIGA Working Papers 290, GIGA German Institute of Global and Area Studies.
    6. Md. Masud‐All‐Kamal & Choyon Kumar Saha, 2014. "Targeting Social Policy and Poverty Reduction: The Case of Social Safety Nets in Bangladesh," Poverty & Public Policy, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 6(2), pages 195-211, June.
    7. Stephan Klasen & Simon Lange, 2015. "Targeting Performance and Poverty Effects of Proxy Means-Tested Transfers: Trade-offs and Challenges," Ibero America Institute for Econ. Research (IAI) Discussion Papers 231, Ibero-America Institute for Economic Research.
    8. Tesliuc, Cornelia & Silverio Marques, Jose & Mookodi, Lillian & Braithwaite, Jeanine & Sharma, Siddarth & Ntseane, Dolly, 2013. "Botswana social protection," Social Protection Discussion Papers and Notes 89003, The World Bank.
    9. Krishna, Anirudh, 2007. "For Reducing Poverty Faster: Target Reasons Before People," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 35(11), pages 1947-1960, November.
    10. Lendie Follett & Heath Henderson, 2022. "A hybrid approach to targeting social assistance," Papers 2201.01356, arXiv.org.
    11. Alik-Lagrange, Arthur & Dreier, Sarah K. & Lake, Milli & Porisky, Alesha, 2021. "Social protection and state-society relations in environments of low and uneven state capacity," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 110766, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    12. Schnitzer,Pascale & Stoeffler,Quentin, 2021. "Targeting for Social Safety Nets : Evidence from Nine Programs in the Sahel," Policy Research Working Paper Series 9816, The World Bank.
    13. T. M. Maleva & E. E. Grishina & E. A. Tsatsura, 2017. "Regional social assistance systems: Why and how targeting policy is introduced," Regional Research of Russia, Springer, vol. 7(4), pages 363-371, October.
    14. Gentilini, Ugo & Omamo, Steven Were, 2011. "Social protection 2.0: Exploring issues, evidence and debates in a globalizing world," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 36(3), pages 329-340, June.
    15. Cecchini, Simone & Madariaga, Aldo, 2011. "Conditional cash transfer programmes: the recent experience in Latin America and the Caribbean," Cuadernos de la CEPAL, Naciones Unidas Comisión Económica para América Latina y el Caribe (CEPAL), number 27855 edited by Eclac, March.
    16. Fultz, Elaine. & Francis, John., 2013. "Cash transfer programmes, poverty reduction and empowerment of women : a comparative analysis: experiences from Brazil, Chile, India, Mexico and South Africa," ILO Working Papers 994842913402676, International Labour Organization.
    17. repec:ilo:ilowps:484291 is not listed on IDEAS
    18. Follett, Lendie & Henderson, Heath, 2023. "A hybrid approach to targeting social assistance," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 160(C).
    19. repec:dau:papers:123456789/4713 is not listed on IDEAS
    20. Segal, Paul, 2011. "Resource Rents, Redistribution, and Halving Global Poverty: The Resource Dividend," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 39(4), pages 475-489, April.
    21. de Brauw, Alan & Gilligan, Daniel O. & Hoddinott, John & Roy, Shalini, 2014. "The Impact of Bolsa Família on Women’s Decision-Making Power," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 59(C), pages 487-504.
    22. Verónica Amarante & Marco Manacorda & Edward Miguel & Andrea Vigorito, 2016. "Do Cash Transfers Improve Birth Outcomes? Evidence from Matched Vital Statistics, Program, and Social Security Data," American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, American Economic Association, vol. 8(2), pages 1-43, May.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:unu:wpaper:wp-2014-040. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Siméon Rapin (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/widerfi.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.