Distribution mechanisms

In the Eastern Districts, all the government and WFP drought relief food aid was distributed free

through local government  channels, while WFP flood relief was channelled through the Red Cross

(due to concerns raised during the drought operation about the targeting capacity of local

government).

The North East of the country (Karamoja Region, comprising Kotido and Moroto Districts), where

school feeding and food for work programs are used as both a development / welfare measure

and an emergency safety net, was unfortunately inaccessible to the study team due to security

restrictions.  However,  the targeting of  these programs (as described during discussions in

Kampala, and by WFP and SCF in refs 66, 71, and 76) has three key features which are also

relevant to the comparable program in North East Kenya, and more generally in relation to school 

feeding and to chronically food insecure areas:

1)

Long term targeting of chronically vulnerable areas

. 

As in Kenya, WFP with its

implementing partners focuses long term food aid planning on areas known to be chronically

vulnerable. This allows programs to link relief and development, addressing underlying causes

while establishing the capacity to respond to periodic crises more effectively, and with alternatives

to free distribution:

 The incidence and concentration of both poverty and food insecurity is highest in the

north where there is also a very discernible, geographical pattern of food scarcity that

allows for cost effective targeting. To enhance the impact of its projects, WFP will

concentrate food distribution in the more chronically food deficit and economically

depressed areas of the country, namely, the six northern districts of Arua, Moyo, Gulu,

Kitgum, Kotido and Moroto.   [WFP Country Strategy, ref 74]

 Large scale relief food interventions have been initiated in Karamoja in 1980/81, 1984,

1987, 1990/91, as a result of food insecurity triggered by drought and insecurity. Since

1991, the policy of GoU / WFP has been to avoid free blanket distributions, and instead

introduce food into the district through school feeding programmes, FFW and rations to

health institutions. These measures would be expanded in scale in case of acute food

insecurity  [SCF Risk mapping Report,  ref 66]

This latter point also describes the second feature:

2)

Safety net expansion capacity,

  i.e. development programs which can serve as a base

for expanded assistance in emergencies. In chronically food insecure areas this allows for quicker

and better managed relief responses than trying to start emergency FFW or other programs from

scratch, and can improve targeting capacity.  In Karamoja,  WFP's project objectives include a

 food security reserve for drought periods   to ensure food security to drought affected families by

(i) distributing food to a larger number of vulnerable groups through the distribution network set up

in normal years; and (ii) by mobilizing the people of working age in the communities to carry out

famine relief works in exchange for food  [WFP 1990, ref 71]

3)

School feeding as a targeting mechanism

(`School feeding' in this project includes

formal and non formal education for children, and literacy training for women).  A common criticism

of school feeding as a targeting mechanism (leaving aside its educational objectives), is that it

often fails to reach the most vulnerable children from poor families because they are the least likely

to be attending school.  In Karamoja, the opposite appears to be true:  SCF's Risk Mapping report

on the area found that, although the percentage of eligible children actually attending school was

as low as 10% to 20%,

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