Targeting of Cyclone Relief within the Village:Kinship, Sharing, and Capture

This paper investigates targeting of cyclone relief within the village in Fiji. We focus on two issues, the link of relief allocation with informal risk sharing and elite capture, both of which are directly related to kinship. We find the following. First, food aid is first targeted toward kin groups according to their aggregate shocks and then shared among group members. Right after the cyclone when aid supply is scarce, households with housing damaged and greater crop damage are allocated less aid within the group. Our conjecture is that they receive greater net private transfers in other forms especially in labor sharing. Consistent patterns are found in village, cropping, and housing rehabilitations. Second, there is no elite capture of food aid in the kin group and traditional kin leaders rather share it for others; contrarily, non-kin-based community leaders capture aid when it is allocated across kin groups. Third, distinct from food aid demanded by all, tarpaulins demanded only by the needed are strongly targeted on individual housing damage at the village level --- not kin group --- independent of social status. Like food aid, victims with greater crop damage are less prioritized. Implications for relief policies are discussed.