Reaching the Poor : Cash Transfer Program Targeting in Cameroon

Identifying and selecting poor households with efficient targeting methods is essential for effective poverty alleviation programs. This paper assesses the ex-post performance of two popular targeting mechanisms, Proxy Means Testing (PMT) and Community-Based Targeting (CBT), in a pilot cash transfer...

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Main Authors:	Stoeffler, Quentin, Mills, Bradford, del Ninno, Carlo
Format:	Journal Article
Language:	en_US
Published:	Elsevier 2016
Subjects:	social assistance targeting proxy means testing community-based targeting cash transfers
Online Access:	http://hdl.handle.net/10986/24255

id	okr-10986-24255
recordtype	oai_dc
spelling	okr-10986-242552021-05-25T10:54:36Z Reaching the Poor : Cash Transfer Program Targeting in Cameroon Stoeffler, Quentin Mills, Bradford del Ninno, Carlo social assistance targeting proxy means testing community-based targeting cash transfers Identifying and selecting poor households with efficient targeting methods is essential for effective poverty alleviation programs. This paper assesses the ex-post performance of two popular targeting mechanisms, Proxy Means Testing (PMT) and Community-Based Targeting (CBT), in a pilot cash transfer program in Cameroon. Several indicators and metrics to measure each method’s performance in terms of inclusion of poor households and exclusion of non-poor households are employed. Results consistently show that CBT performs poorly in terms of selecting households with low per capita consumption when compared to PMT. CBT appears to select households with low physical and human capital, regardless of actual consumption level. However, CBT also shows more variability in the selection decision than PMT even when alternative poverty definitions are used as robustness tests. The PMT method used in the pilot slightly outperforms other targeting methods (hybrid, alternative PMT, and universal targeting with equal budget), but errors remain high when selecting 35% of the population for program participation. The results suggest caution is needed in employing CBT methods to select households with low per capita consumption in an environment where poverty levels are high and administrative capacities are limited. CBT performance may be improved through more uniform and consistent guidance on program selection criteria and process, including explicit criteria that enable CBT monitoring, as well as a better integration between PMT and CBT. 2016-05-09T20:02:46Z 2016-05-09T20:02:46Z 2016-07 Journal Article World Development 0305-750X http://hdl.handle.net/10986/24255 en_US CC BY-NC-ND 3.0 IGO http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/igo World Bank Elsevier Publications & Research :: Journal Article Publications & Research Sub-Saharan Africa Cameroon
repository_type	Digital Repository
institution_category	Foreign Institution
institution	Digital Repositories
building	World Bank Open Knowledge Repository
collection	World Bank
language	en_US
topic	social assistance targeting proxy means testing community-based targeting cash transfers
spellingShingle	social assistance targeting proxy means testing community-based targeting cash transfers Stoeffler, Quentin Mills, Bradford del Ninno, Carlo Reaching the Poor : Cash Transfer Program Targeting in Cameroon
geographic_facet	Sub-Saharan Africa Cameroon
description	Identifying and selecting poor households with efficient targeting methods is essential for effective poverty alleviation programs. This paper assesses the ex-post performance of two popular targeting mechanisms, Proxy Means Testing (PMT) and Community-Based Targeting (CBT), in a pilot cash transfer program in Cameroon. Several indicators and metrics to measure each method’s performance in terms of inclusion of poor households and exclusion of non-poor households are employed. Results consistently show that CBT performs poorly in terms of selecting households with low per capita consumption when compared to PMT. CBT appears to select households with low physical and human capital, regardless of actual consumption level. However, CBT also shows more variability in the selection decision than PMT even when alternative poverty definitions are used as robustness tests. The PMT method used in the pilot slightly outperforms other targeting methods (hybrid, alternative PMT, and universal targeting with equal budget), but errors remain high when selecting 35% of the population for program participation. The results suggest caution is needed in employing CBT methods to select households with low per capita consumption in an environment where poverty levels are high and administrative capacities are limited. CBT performance may be improved through more uniform and consistent guidance on program selection criteria and process, including explicit criteria that enable CBT monitoring, as well as a better integration between PMT and CBT.
format	Journal Article
author	Stoeffler, Quentin Mills, Bradford del Ninno, Carlo
author_facet	Stoeffler, Quentin Mills, Bradford del Ninno, Carlo
author_sort	Stoeffler, Quentin
title	Reaching the Poor : Cash Transfer Program Targeting in Cameroon
title_short	Reaching the Poor : Cash Transfer Program Targeting in Cameroon
title_full	Reaching the Poor : Cash Transfer Program Targeting in Cameroon
title_fullStr	Reaching the Poor : Cash Transfer Program Targeting in Cameroon
title_full_unstemmed	Reaching the Poor : Cash Transfer Program Targeting in Cameroon
title_sort	reaching the poor : cash transfer program targeting in cameroon
publisher	Elsevier
publishDate	2016
url	http://hdl.handle.net/10986/24255
_version_	1764456248964546560

Reaching the Poor : Cash Transfer Program Targeting in Cameroon

Similar Items