Who Benefit from Cash and Food-for-Work Programs in Post-Earthquake Haiti?

Echevin, Damien and Lamanna, Francesca and Oviedo, Ana-Maria (2011): Who Benefit from Cash and Food-for-Work Programs in Post-Earthquake Haiti?

Abstract

In this paper, a unique post-earthquake survey designed to provide a rapid assessment of food insecurity in Haiti is used in order to address the question of whether cash and food-for-work (C/FfW) programs are allocated adequately in Haiti. We consider that the allocation principle should meet two main criteria. First, C/FfW programs should be targeted towards people who are in the most necessitous circumstances (i.e., poor and food insecure people). Second, these programs should be targeted at the most vulnerable people on the labor market. Modelling the impact of various covariates on C/FfW programs participation, we find that these programs are not specifically targeted at people who are most in need, be it because of their low level of subsistence or because of earthquakerelated losses. Pre-earthquake participation to programs appears to be an important determinant of post-earthquake participation. What is more, cash-forwork is very rarely declared as the main source of household income. So, a more efficient targeting of these programs should focus on reaching the poorest and most vulnerable households in the directly affected areas. Crowding out effect of temporary jobs should also be assessed on the labor market.

• Item Type: MPRA Paper
• Language: English
• Keywords: Cash and Food for Work; Targeting; Livelihood; Earthquake; Natural Disaster; Haiti
• Subjects: I - Health, Education, and Welfare > I3 - Welfare, Well-Being, and Poverty > I38 - Government Policy ; Provision and Effects of Welfare Programs; H - Public Economics > H5 - National Government Expenditures and Related Policies > H53 - Government Expenditures and Welfare Programs; Q - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics ; Environmental and Ecological Economics > Q1 - Agriculture > Q18 - Agricultural Policy ; Food Policy

References

Adams L., L. Meehan and S. Satriana (2005). ODI/UNDP cash learning project workshop in Aceh, Indonesia: To share experience and learning for cash interventions, Workshop report,16–17 June. http://www.odi.org.uk/hpg/meetings/Cash_learning_workshop.pdf.

Barrett C. B., S. T. Holden and D. C. Clay (2002). Can food-for-work programs reduce vulnerability?, in: Insurance against poverty, S. Dercon (ed.).

Bengtsson, L., X. Lu, R. Garfield, A. Thorson, and J. von Schreeb (2010). Internal population displacement in Haiti: Preliminary analyses of movement patterns of Digicel mobile phones. Karolinska Institutet and Columbia University.

Borgarello A., D. Echevin and F. Lamanna (2009). Social safety nets in Haiti, mimeo, The World Bank.

Cahuc P. and A. Zylberberg (2004). Labor Economics, The MIT Press. CNSA (2010a). Évaluation rapide d’urgence de la sécurité alimentaire post-séisme : Haiti, March 2010.

CNSA (2010b). Follow-up emergency food security assessment (EFSA II): Summary and findings, September 2010.

Davies R. (1996). Humanitarian aid: Economic implications and consequences, Oxford: University of Oxford Refugee Studies Programme.

Doocy S., M. Gabriel, S. Collins, C. Robinson and P. Stevenson (2006). Implementing cash-forwork programmes in post-Tsunami Aceh: Experiences and lessons learned, Disasters 30 (3), 277-96.

IFRC (International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies) (2003). Ethiopian droughts: Reducing the risk to livelihoods through cash transfers, IFRC, Geneva.

Kolbe A.R., R.A. Huston, H. Shannon, E. Trzcinskib, B. Miles, N. Levitz, M. Puccio, L. James, J.R. Noel and R. Muggah (2010). Mortality, crime and access to basic needs before and after the Haiti earthquake: a random survey of Port-au-Prince households, Medicine, Conflict and Survival 26 (4), 281-297.

Mascie-Taylor C. G. N., M. A. Marks, R. Goto and R. Islam (2010). Impact of a cash-for-work programme on food consumption and nutrition among women and children facing food insecurity in rural Bangladesh, WHO Bulletin 88 (11), 854-860.

Mattinen H. and K. Ogden (2006). Based interventions: Lessons from southern Somalia, Disasters 30 (3), 297–315.

Maxwell S., D. Belshaw and A. Lirenso (1994). The disincentive effect of food-for-work on labour supply and agricultural intensification and diversification in Ethiopia, Journal of Agricultural Economics 45 (3), 351–59.

MercyCorps (2008), Guide to cash-for-work Programming.

Narbeth S. (2004). Emergency cash relief to drought affected families of Sool Plateau: post distribution survey findings, UNOCHA Somalia. OCHA (2011). Bulletin humanitaire, February 2011.

Peppiat, D., J. Mitchell and P. Holzmann (2001). Cash transfers in emergencies: Evaluating benefits and assessing risks, ODI/HPG Network Paper No. 35. London: Overseas Development Institute.

Save the Children UK (2001). Cash for relief piloting, Review Report.

Zaidi, S., A. Kamal and N. Baig-Ansari (2010). Targeting vulnerability after the 2005 earthquake: Pakistan’s Livelihood Support Cash Grants programme, Disasters 34 (2), 380-401.