A review of criteria applied in targeted programs |

Sajjad Zohir |
in association with
Sara Zabeen, Hosneara Munni, Sujan Ghosh |

November 11, 2010 |

Most programs on safety nets are targeted. Thus, defining the target population and translating the latter into operational terms are two essential pre-requisites for these programs. Save the Children UK (SCUK), with funding support from Dfid-Shiree/EEP, is implementing a project on economic and food security for extreme poor in six upazilas of Khulna and Bagerhat districts1 . The Project intends to directly reach 15,000 extreme poor (EP) households during 2009-2012 through a Household Economic Security (HES) model.2 Much effort is given in the SCUK project as well as in other Shiree projects, in identifying EP households before transferring resources and providing other services.
Whether targeting a pre-defined set of households is a better approach to development than some other approaches, is not addressed in this paper 3 . In stead, it is assumed that development agencies are keen on identifying the EP households in the coastal upazilas; and the exercises undertaken in this paper aim at illustrating some of the issues involved in identifying EP. In the process, some broad conclusions are arrived at to guide the practices in identifying EP households in coastal southwest.

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