1. The role of targeting in social
protection programmes:
what have we learned so far?
Background Paper for the SOFA 2015
United Nations Development Programme – International
Policy Centre for Inclusive Growth (UNDP/IPC-IG)

2. Targeting
- Maximizing programme impact
- Social equality
- Budget constraints
- Means Test (MT)
- Proxy Means Test (PMT)
- Categorical Targeting (CT)
- Geographical Targeting (GT)
- Community-Based Targeting (CBT)
- Self-Targeting (ST)
- Administrative
- Political
- Private
- Social
- Incentive
- Design
- Implementation
- Undercoverage and Leakage
- CGH Index
Rationale
Methods
Costs
Phases
Performance
measures
The Role of Targeting in Social Protection Programmes:
What have we learned so far?

3. What is Social Protection?
Social Protection is a set of policies and programmes that aim
to prevent and protect people against poverty and
vulnerability and to promote social inclusion and equality of
opportunities.
Social Protection can be provided through contributory or non-
contributory programmes.

4. Targeting
Poor and vulnerable groups Rural population
Agriculture Interventions
76%
24%
Geographic distribution of extreme poor
at global level
Rural area
Urban area
0%
20%
40%
60%
SSA SA EAP LAC MENA ECA Total
Share of the rural population below
$1.25/day
In developing countries, social protection programmes and agriculture intervention tend to target the same
population. The sinergies created by the jointly implementation of these two kinds of interventions boost the
impact produced on agricultural development and hunger erradication.
Social Protection programmes
Targeting as linkage between SP and Agriculture
Interventions

5. Targeting as linkage between SP and Agriculture
Interventions
Low income
countries
prioritize these
areas for the
implementation
of SP programs
Rural population
have less access
to basic services
High
concentration of
extreme poverty
in rural areas
Rural population
is exposed to
covariate shocks

6. Targeting as linkage between SP and Agriculture
Interventions
Since these policies
tend to target similar
geographic areas and
population groups,
they can potentially
support each other
and create synergies.
Positive impact of some SP
programs on beneficiaries’
investments in agricultural
assets and activities.
Agricultural interventions
can positively affect
beneficiaries producing an
impact on poverty and
vulnerability.

8. More costs
More accuracy
A very accurate targeting
strategy could better
identify beneficiaries but at
the same time could be
really costly and divert
resources that may be
transferred to the poor.
Targeting Costs
• Administrative costs
• Political costs
• Private costs
• Social costs
• Incentive costs
Targeting is efficient if its costs are offset by the additional impact produced on
the targeted group by a greater amount of benefits received or by an increase in
social equality.
The Costs of Targeting

9. Targeting
Phases
Implementation
Design • Identification of target population
• Identification of elegibility criteria
• Selection of targeting methods
• Identification of eligible households/individuals
• Selection of actual beneficiaries
Programme Objectives

10. Targeting Methods
•Setting a threshold according to an observed income, consumption
or asset indicator easily verified.Means Test
•Setting a threshold according to a score obtained taking into
account and weighting different proxies of the household
economic and social status or predictors of the per capita
household expeenditures.
Proxy Means Test
•Selecting individuals , or households with individuals, belonging to
a given social or age groupsCategorical Targeting
•Selecting geographic areas according to a mapping of social and/or
economic indicatorsGeographical Targeting
•Selecting eligible households or individuals through the assessment
of community members and leaders
Community-Based
Targeting
•Self-selecting application of households or individuals for
participating into the programmeSelf-Targeting

11. Targeting Performance
 Errors in Design and Implementation
 Coady-Grosh-Hoddinott Index
Beneficiaries Non-beneficiaries
Poor Non-Poor Poor Non-Poor
Respecting
eligibility criteria
No error
Inclusion error in
design
Exclusion error in
implementation
Exclusion error in
implementation
Do not respecting
eligibility criteria
Inclusion error in
implementation
Inclusion error in
implementation
Exclusion error in
design
No error
Share of benefits going to the poorest quintiles of the population

12. Challenges in Targeting Rural Population
• Income fluctuation due to agriculture seasonality
• Misreported self-consumption
• Migration rural-rural and rural-urban
• Difficulties in defining household structure
Data reliability
• Data collection in remote villages
• Monitoring targeting
High costs

13. Questions
Is targeting able to reach the poorest?
What is the best strategy for reaching the
poorest?

14. Is targeting able to reach the poorest?
Case studies
Programme Country and Year of programme
Implementation
Type of programme
Productive Safety Net Programme
(PSNP)
Ethiopia, 2005 Public work and Unconditional
Cash/Kind transfer
Social Cash Transfer Pilot Program
(SCTPP)
Ethiopia,2011 Unconditional Cash Transfer
Livelihood Empowerment Against
Poverty Program (LEAP)
Ghana, 2008 Unconditional/Conditional Cash
Transfer (depending on the category
of beneficiaries)
(including health insurance)
Lesotho Child Grants Programme
(CGP)
Lesotho, 2009 Unconditional Cash Transfer
Multiple Category Cash Transfer
Program (MCP)
Zambia, 2011 Unconditional Cash Transfer
Kenya Cash Transfer for Orphans and
Vulnerable Children (CTOVC)
Kenya, 2004 Unconditional Cash Transfer
Malawi Social Cash Transfer Scheme
(SCT)
Malawi, 2006 Unconditional Cash Transfer
Mozambique’s Programa Subsídio
de Alimentos (PSA)
Mozambique, 1993 Unconditional Cash Transfer

15. Is targeting able to reach the poorest?
Targeting Performance
CGH Index
(Mean score of all
programmes)
CGH Index
(Cash Transfers only)
122 programmes Coady et
al. (2004)
1.22 1.80
Programme Targeting Method CGH Index
(Full sample)
CGH Index
(Eligible sample only)
Ethiopia PSNP GT, CT and CBT 1.40
Ethiopia PSNP
(DS only)
GT, CT and CBT 1.37
Ethiopia PSNP
(PW only)
GT, CT and CBT 1.94
Ghana LEAP GT, CT, CBT and PMT 1.87 1.86
Lesotho CGP PMT and CBT 1.48
Kenya CT-OVC GT, CBT, PMT and CT 1.29 3.67
Malawi SCTS GT, CBT, and CT 3.68 2.72
Mozambique PSA CBT and CT 2.13 1.73
The selected programmes are able to reach the poorest two quintile of the
population better than a random allocation.

16. What is the best strategy for reaching the poorest?
A focus on Rural Areas
•Low reliability of data in rural areasMeans Test
•Able to capture context-based characteristics of rural and urban
areas but it requires the collection of a huge amount of dataProxy Means Test
•Based on easily observable characteristics that do not require the
collection of a large amount of data but the correlation between
each characteristic and poverty depends on the local context
Categorical Targeting
•Able to identify poor rural areas when there is unequal distribution
of poor across areas and high concentration of them within areas, as
in the case of remote rural areas with lack of access to basic services
Geographical Targeting
•Able to capture local specificity and to benefit by the high level of
social capital within rural communities but could perpetuate the
marginalization of stigmatized groups
Community-Based
Targeting
•Able to capture local needs if it respects agricultural seasonality and
takes into account differences between needs and tastes of rural and
urban populations . Could discourage individuals to apply if
registration centers are located far from rural areas
Self-Targeting

17. What is the best strategy for reaching the poorest?
The answer cannot be found in a predetermined package of methods:
 Usually a sequence of several methods is implemented in order to capture different
dimensions related to poverty.
 The choice about targeting mechanisms depends on: type of programme; context-
related costs and benefits; cultural norms; and heterogeneity in deprivation
dimensions across countries, areas (rural/urban) and social groups.
 Each strategy involves several strengths and weaknesses strictly affected by:
administrative capacity; quality of data; areas of implementation; and by the
methodological choices, made during the design phase, about the representative
dimensions of poverty and deprivation.
 Some method, such as the Community-Based Targeting and the Proxy Means Test, by
design allow to capture specific context-based features and differences across groups.

18. Thanks for your attention