91777 Social Protection & Labor Systems Social Protection & Labor Technical Note June 2014 | Number 2 Why Is It Important to Target Households Targeting Households Vulnerable That Are Vulnerable to to Disasters and Climate Change Disasters and Climate Change? Cecilia Costella and Mirey Ovadiya Natural disasters and climate change have the potential to reverse recent gains in Disaster- and climate- reducing poverty and vulnerability, pushing millions of people into poverty. As a related events result, more programs have integrated disaster risk management and climate change adaptation targeting mechanisms and criteria into their designs. In Bangladesh, for exacerbate chronic example, the Chars Livelihoods Programme includes household-level flood protection and transitory poverty as one of its criteria for “graduating” from poverty. because poor and Social protection programs need to be able to respond quickly to disaster and climate near-poor people shocks by providing buffers to smooth consumption and prevent negative coping have fewer coping and strategies, such as selling off productive assets or pulling children out of school to work. Disaster response mechanisms include adjustments to existing targeting systems recovery mechanisms. that provide additional assistance to existing beneficiaries and reach people who are In vulnerable countries, outside the social protection program (Box 1). In both cases, targeting needs to include the increase in households temporarily pushed into poverty as due to shocks, as well as chronically poor households. frequency and severity of such events will lead to a growing need Box 1. Climate-responsive targeting in Ethiopia for effective social Ethiopia’s Productive Safety Net Program (PSNP) targets beneficiaries based on the food security status of regions, districts, and households. A variety of mechanisms allows program coverage to increase in protection policies and response to extreme weather events: programs. • Annual targeting exercises allow for the recategorization of households from transitory to chronic status, making them eligible for full program support if they have become chronically food insecure the previous year. • Contingency budgets held at the district (woreda) level can be used to support both households that suffer from transitory food insecurity and households that are chronically food insecure. • A risk financing component targets food-insecure households in PSNP districts affected by a significant climate event. • Operational links with emergency systems cover catastrophic emergencies in PSNP areas and all food security needs in non–PSNP areas. Technical Notes June 2014 | Number 2 Sensitivity to the multi-faceted impacts of disasters and climate government provided a lump-sum transfer of about $73 to helps ensure social protection programs serve the people in most every affected household through its regular conditional cash need. Groups at particular high risk include the elderly, women transfer programs (Chile Solidario and Programa Puente). headed households, the disabled, workers in the informal sector, This payment was given to all affected households, regardless minorities, migrants, tenant farmers, and squatters. For a variety of wealth or previous program participation. Such assistance of reasons, these groups often face difficulties accessing the should be quickly transitioned to a more targeted approach. resources they need to protect themselves from hazard risks or obtaining post disaster assistance. Categorical targeting Correlating loss data with data on pre-disaster poverty or food Key Elements of a Beneficiary Targeting insecurity prevalence rates, as well as from past disasters can System effectively identify priority local areas. However, this is not always feasible due to a lack of subdistrict and community level data. Creating an effective beneficiary targeting system involves five main areas: The development of complementary categorical targeting criteria may be necessary, based on knowledge of the vulnerability • establishing selection criteria of different types of households to disaster impacts (Box 2). Categorical targeting of beneficiaries requires a combination of • responding to disasters information sources, including social protection databases, needs assessments, and stakeholder consultation. • involving communities • registering and verifying the eligibility of beneficiaries Box 2. Vulnerability criteria used to target • creating grievance and monitoring systems support following the 2005 earthquake Establishing Selection Criteria in Pakistan The World Bank–supported Pakistan Poverty Alleviation Fund developed A combination of the following strategies can reduce targeting the following culture-specific definitions of vulnerability in targeting its errors: support for rehabilitation and reconstruction following the earthquake in Pakistan in 2005: • geographic targeting of at-risk areas • widows without sons over the age of 18 • women with disabled husbands • categorical targeting (targeting single-parent households, • divorced, abandoned, and unmarried women who are past children, elderly people, people with disabilities, and so marriageable age and are dependent on others forth) • people with physical or mental disabilities • poverty-based targeting in which measures of changes in • orphans welfare as a result of disaster- or climate change–related • unaccompanied people over the age of 60 shocks complement easily identifiable welfare measures, • people left landless as a result of the earthquake. such as housing location and quality and assets • self-targeting, in which individuals decide whether to participate Geographic targeting Disaster- and climate-sensitive targeting Geographic targeting is an option in areas where damage is extensive and most households in the area are affected. Used Disaster- and climate-sensitive targeting criteria should be on a stand-alone basis it is subject to high rates of exclusion developed that align with other poverty criteria. Table 1 and inclusion errors. Affected families who live outside a describes the criteria in several important programs. disaster zone are often affected by a disaster. If only geographic targeting is used these households will be neglected while The development of targeting selection criteria and indicators better-off households inside the declared zone will benefit. needs to take into consideration not only longer-term measures of household poverty but also household losses or potential In areas where the affected population is dispersed and in losses as a result of a shock. Methods such as proxy means places where pockets of poverty or vulnerability coexist with testing need to be supplemented with measures of rapid relatively well-off populations, geographic targeting needs to be changes in welfare resulting from disaster or climate shocks. combined with other methods, such as categorical or poverty These measures of household vulnerability can be incorporated targeting. Following a major earthquake in 2010, the Chilean into a proxy means test to measure transitory need. Social Protection & Labor | World Bank Group Table 1. Examples of Disaster- and Climate-Sensitive Beneficiary Targeting Criteria Program Targeting criteria Char Livelihoods Project Poor communities living on fluvial islands (chars), which are highly vulnerable to (Bangladesh) flooding and climate change impacts, are eligible for support. Productive Safety Net Geographic regions and districts that are chronically food insecure because they are Program (Ethiopia) highly climate vulnerable, usually as a result of droughts. Chronic food insecurity is defined as a food gap of three months or more and receipt of food aid for three consecutive years. The program also includes a household-level criterion that looks at severe asset loss over time. This criterion is sensitive to the cumulative effect of both disasters and economic shocks. Temporary Employment Municipalities with high average rainfall and rugged topography, which are prioritized Program (Mexico) for hazard-resistant road construction. Municipal drought-related climate indexes are used as targeting criteria for fire mitigation and watershed protection activities under a disaster risk management component. When a disaster occurs, geographical targeting is the first level of beneficiary selection. Participation is limited mainly to households residing in municipalities declared to be in a state of emergency. Since 2009, housing damage surveys have been used as a proxy for loss of livelihood (that is, as a basis for determining temporary income support needs and indirectly contributing toward home reconstruction costs). Houses identified as damaged are targeted for follow-on engineering assessments by the relevant agency. Selection criteria can be identified by analyzing natural hazard Self-targeting and climate change risks and the vulnerability of different groups within the population. The analysis should be carried Self-targeting of beneficiaries is usually done through public out as a component of program poverty and risk assessments, works programs. Emergency public works programs should including community-level analyses of vulnerability and follow these same principles. The main difference is that coping capacities. It is important that assessments collect wage rates for certain occupations may be affected by a and analyze the age, gender, and diversity of the targeted or reconstruction boom and targeting should include groups affected population, as well as underlying structural issues that made vulnerable by the disaster. contribute to inequality, poverty, and vulnerability. Other forms of targeting The risk analysis needs to be updated regularly, as vulnerability and resilience change over time, potentially As the response progresses and the availability and quality requiring adjustments in targeting over the life of a program. of information improve, beneficiary targeting can be refined Geographic and household data on exposure to climate and (Box 3). It is important to undertake more in-depth needs other natural hazards can help distinguish transitory and assessment as soon as conditions permit, to make sure that no chronic poverty in places where crises are likely to occur and vulnerable groups are missed and that elite capture of social require rapid scaling up. protection does not occur. Box 3. Reaching the vulnerable following flooding in Pakistan Pakistan’s Citizen’s Damage Compensation Program (CDCP) is a rapid response cash grant program that reached an estimated 8 million people following severe floods in 2010. Initially created by the government to provide relief to the affected population, it was later expanded to support early recovery with donor assistance. The first (relief) phase, from September 2010 to June 2011, relied on a mix of geographical targeting and assessments of community-level housing damage and crop loss (used as proxies for livelihoods losses) to determine eligibility for a one-time cash transfer payment; the exact method used varied by province. This approach allowed for quick mobilization of the program but inevitably missed some households and did not allow for vulnerability targeting. For the second (recovery) phase, from June 2011 to June 2013, housing damage was combined with refinements to the beneficiary targeting mechanism to filter out the better-off and include the most vulnerable flood-affected families. The vulnerability characteristics of flood-affected families were profiled by analyzing a random sample from the flood registration database and linking this information with information on gender, disability, and educational levels in the national civil registration database. Both databases were administered by the National Database Registration Authority (NADRA). The inclusiveness strategy saw the coverage of households headed by women and people with disabilities increase by more than 14 percent over Phase I. Technical Note June 2014 | Number 2 The allocation of flexible contingency funds in social protection Involving Communities programs provides opportunities to take corrective action if new vulnerable groups are identified during implementation. Community participation is essential, in both programs that The development of specific disaster preparedness and seek to reduce disaster risk or facilitate adaptation to climate response mechanisms allows for easier and faster post disaster change and in programs that respond to disaster or climate- vulnerability targeting in countries at high risk, as demonstrated related shocks. If communities are given a clear role to play by the case studies from Ethiopia, Mexico, and Pakistan. in developing selection criteria and identifying the most vulnerable people, they are far more likely to understand the Responding to Disasters beneficiary targeting system and to perceive it as fair. For promotion and prevention programming, social protection Targeting processes need to be adapted to the scale and stage of a programs should follow the same community participation disaster. The need for speed in an initial emergency response often practices recommended for broader programming. means that beneficiary selection is often imprecise. The ability to refine vulnerability targeting methods and identify targeting Community-led approaches should be used to target gaps, generally improves as the response progresses. In addition, beneficiaries following a disaster. Although the ability to actively post disaster operational constraints can further complicate these engage communities may be restricted during the early days of matters. However, consulting with a cross-section of stakeholders response, some community participation is still possible. Rapid should make it feasible to collect information about the impacts of needs assessments provide an opportunity to visit a cross-section past disaster and vulnerabilities. of communities and affected groups. Where communities are dispersed, consultations with a representative cross-section of individuals living in rented accommodations, with host families, or in temporary camps or shelters can be undertaken. Box 4. Identifying vulnerable households Local and national stakeholder workshops, involving after disasters in Mexico representation from affected communities, can also be used to identify the most vulnerable and to develop beneficiary Mexico’s national Temporary Employment Program (Programa de selection criteria. Community representation can be Empleo Temporal [PET]) provides short-term employment opportunities, incorporated into beneficiary selection decision-making through public works projects to households in communities that are structures for both relief and recovery programming. highly marginalized, suffer high unemployment levels, or have suffered loss of livelihood as a result of a natural disaster or other systemic crisis. PET’s disaster response arm, called PETi (Programa de Empleo Temporal Following a disaster, community mobilization is critical to the Inmediato), uses geographical targeting and social marginalization to participation of the affected population in targeting. The use select beneficiaries to receive temporary employment opportunities on of trained community facilitation teams has been found to be emergency public works. Participation is limited mainly to households in one of the most cost-effective investments an agency can make, municipalities declared to be in a state of emergency, with housing damage saving time and money that would otherwise be spent defusing surveys used as a proxy for livelihood losses. PET’s emergency response teams establish information/registration desks within each municipality after tensions. Existing community-level staff can be expanded. a government early warning of probable impact has been released, perform Alternatively, new partnerships can be created with civil society a visual assessment of household and property damage, and interview the organizations that are respected within their communities or heads of households determined to have sustained the damage. The program with qualified local partners or international organizations. targets households that have lost their physical working space, a source of vulnerability often overlooked by aid agencies. The teams also use a Registering and Verifying the Eligibility of marginalization index to identify eligible individuals/households within the disaster-affected communities. Beneficiaries In places with frequent disasters, updated computerized beneficiary lists can help develop targeting strategies. Linking the disaster response registration databases to national civil registries, poverty databases, and social protection databases Social protection programs should coordinate with and, can facilitate vulnerability targeting. where feasible, collaborate on multiagency post disaster Good practices followed by a number of programs are the damage, loss, and impact assessments with the United periodic monitoring and reassessment of beneficiary targeting Nations and other humanitarian response agencies—by processes and outcomes and the evaluation of targeting providing staff to conduct assessments and assessing disaster mechanisms. Ethiopia’s PSNP found that the level of chronic impacts on beneficiaries, for example. Engagement with and transitory food insecurity in the areas where it provides broader humanitarian assessments is especially important if social protection assistance can fluctuate significantly, both existing social protection programs do not cover the area or within and between years. It therefore retargets beneficiaries if the government lacks the technical expertise to assess post annually, both to correct for inclusion and exclusion errors and disaster social protection needs and options. to reflect changes in households. Social Protection & Labor | World Bank Group Creating Grievance and Monitoring Systems Box 5. Verifying beneficiaries in Bangladesh The beneficiary selection process for the Chars Livelihoods Programme Robust grievance mechanisms that incorporate strong (CLP) in Bangladesh is carried out by the staff of up to 21 local community participation elements are essential to ensure nongovernmental organizations and implementing organizations (IMOs). that targeting objectives are met in a fair and transparent way. The Management Secretariat, which is run by an international firm engaged Good practices are similar to those for regular social protection by the program’s bilateral donors, verifies beneficiaries. Teams of staff revisit programming and include the following: and reinterview 3–5 percent of households to confirm their eligibility. If the inclusion or exclusion error rate exceeds 5 percent, the IMOs repeat the • Make grievance processes as administratively simple selection process. and easy to use as possible, so that they are accessible to Extensive exclusion errors were identified through this process after poor and disadvantaged people. Information should be the first round of beneficiary selection during the project’s first phase accessible to different groups within communities (for (2004–10). Although the IMOs followed the CLP’s selection criteria, the example, written materials should not be provided in households identified tended to be younger and healthier than average, communities with limited literacy). with most headed by working men. The IMOs may have believed that these households had the greatest potential to make use of the productive assets provided through the program, to become future customers in IMO • Educate community members, including harder-to-reach microcredit programs, or to repay existing loans. groups, on the selection, verification, and grievance processes and on their rights and entitlements. The verification process required about 450 days of Secretariat input over four CLP-1 selection rounds. However, it demonstrated to the IMOs that • Update and provide information regularly. CLP management was serious. The fact that redoing the selection process entailed substantial costs for IMOs discouraged attempts to overestimate • Put forth clear messages regarding the beneficiary selection participant numbers and significantly reduced targeting errors. No IMO and payment process, and solicit feedback early on. had to repeat the selection process more than once, and the selection standards remained consistently high after the lengthy revisions that took • Train and coach/mentor women and marginalized groups place during the early stages of project’s first phase. The exclusion error rate in the first intake of the second phase was only 0.4 percent, and a 2011 CLP to build their skills and confidence to participate in these poverty assessment found less than 1 percent of eligible households were decision-making bodies. missed as a result of exclusion error. Tips for Practitioners: Principles to Follow in Targeting Households That Are Vulnerable to the Impacts of Disasters and Climate Change The following principles can help social protection national civil registries and poverty and vulnerability practitioners target beneficiaries who are vulnerable to the databases. Where feasible, computerize the databases for impacts of disasters and climate change: registering and tracking beneficiaries. 1. Include vulnerability to disaster and climate change 5. Ensure that staff and partners have clearly defined roles impacts in the beneficiary selection criteria and targeting and responsibilities, receive adequate resources, and are systems of regular social protection programs. fully trained on how to implement beneficiary targeting approaches and methods. 2. Conduct natural hazard, climate risk, and capacity needs assessments, incorporating social and gender analysis, 6. Create or expand community facilitation teams to support to inform beneficiary targeting decisions for existing the community-focused elements of beneficiary targeting programs and carry out or participate in rapid needs and grievance processes. assessments to decide on an appropriate combination of post disaster targeting criteria and methods. 7. Adapt and streamline regular grievance mechanisms to cope with the likely high volume of complaints that need 3. Actively engage key stakeholders, including disaster-affected to be resolved over a compressed time period following communities, in the development and implementation of disasters. beneficiary targeting criteria and mechanisms. 8. Incorporate disaster/climate resilience performance 4. Design management information systems (MIS) for indicators monitoring and evaluating beneficiary targeting disaster response that can be integrated into, or work with, processes and results. Technical Notes June 2014 | Number 2 References Arnold, M., and C. Burton. 2011. “Protecting and Empowering Vulnerable Groups in Disaster Recovery.” World Reconstruction Conference: Proceedings, 210–40.Washington, DC: World Bank. BBC Media Action. 2012. Policy Briefing No. 6: Still Left in the Dark? How People in Emergencies Use Communication to Survive— and How Humanitarian Agencies Can Help. 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The findings, interpretations, and conclusions expressed herein are those of the author(s), and do not necessarily reflect the views of the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development/The World Bank and its affiliated organizations, or those of the Executive Directors of The World Bank or the governments they represent. The World Bank does not guarantee the accuracy of the data included in this work.