CNSA Targeting

31
Figure 23: Income per Decile: Metropolitan vs. Provincial Urban vs. Rural
(Verner 2008: 201, using HLCS 2001)
Beneficiary Unit in Haiti
As seen earlier, Beneficiary Units can be conceptualized as 1) “intermediary” —those institutions
selected as distribution channels for reaching the intended beneficiaries--and 2) “primary”—the
intended beneficiaries or groups of beneficiaries. With respect to intermediary beneficiary units,
the most obvious best candidates are health organizations and schools. In the course of their work,
health extension agents come into contact with the ill and malnourished making them the best
situated to identify individuals and families in greatest need. However, what we found during the
course of the research is that health administrators view the task of targeting as an interference
with health extension work. Record keeping and tasks associated with monitoring and evaluation
take up an inordinate amount of the agents’ time. Handling food draws the attention of the
population and results in demands and pestering. It also incites corruption among the staff. Most
health extension functionaries felt their role should be limited to making referrals to food
distribution agencies.
Although the most frequent means of targeting vulnerable children, the use of schools as
intermediary beneficiary units has significant drawbacks as well. Not least of all, they miss the
poorest children. Many low income schools lack the infrastructure needed to store the aid; and
they lack the capacity to meet the accounting requirements that the NGO, WFP and USAID
distributors demand of them. The consequence is that precisely those schools most likely to harbor
the poorest children—i.e. the poorest schools—are not entrusted to handle food relief. Moreover,
the poorest families cannot afford to send their children to school at all. The ENSA (2011) found
that 10% of children 6 to 14 years of age had never been to school; another 7% did not go regularly.
Associations are another frequently used intermediary Beneficiary Unit and also a type of
beneficiary selector option as discussed in section on Community Based Targeting. The principal
problem is that the most vulnerable individuals typically do not obtain representation in
associations. The associations tend to be politicized and prioritize their own members as