On Targeting and Outreach of NGDO Safety Net Programmes: Evidence from Rural Kenya

Abstract

Targeting limited resources in the context of poverty alleviation to a subgroup of the population who need them most remains a challenge to most development agencies and policy-makers. Though widely recognised as an attempt to reach the poorest of the poor, targeting is however not always straight forward to implement and a poorly targeted intervention could end up being more costly and less effective than one that is randomly allocated or made available to all households. Due to limited resources and the small scale of operations, most Non Governmental Development Organisationsí (NGDOs) practice targeting to limit access to the interventions to only a select group of individuals considered to be most in need. This paper examines the targeting performance and depth of outreach of two child-safety net programmes in rural Kenya that are funded by Christian Childrenís Fund/Kenya and Compassion International/Kenya. Targeting in both NGDOs is done at two levels. Geographical targeting is used to locate a programme area and household-level targeting is done on the basis of local community knowledge. Data for this paper was collected through a household survey of 120 randomly selected households, stratified equally into participants and non-participants, in which a detailed questionnaire was used. In addition, data from an in-depth study of the two NGDO programmes is used to complement the household survey. To analyse the depth of outreach, a relative household poverty index developed from a set of selected relative poverty indicators using Principal Component Analysis (PCA) is used. An econometric model is specified to identify the determinants of participation. Results show the importance of the human, physical and social types of capital in enhancing selection. The role of the local socio-political power structure is also evident in the selection process