TUFTS: Targeting in Complex Emergencies: South Sudan Country Case Study

Daniel Maxwell and John Burns

Can community-based approaches to the targeting of humanitarian assistance in complex emergencies improve participation and reduce targeting error? Although most of the literature suggests that community-based targeting works best in slow-onset emergencies with no conflict or displacement, participatory approaches to targeting assistance have been attempted in complex emergencies, either directly (through elected relief committees) or indirectly (often through unelected but representative leaders).

The population of Southern Sudan was caught in a civil war from 1983 to 2005. During the war, several major famines led to a massive food aid intervention by the World Food Programme—intervention that continues to the present.Much of this food was delivered to vulnerable people by air drops, with the actual targeting of assistance on the ground left to local leaders and traditional authorities. In the post-war era, however, the food aid program is shifting.There is still a general distribution modality for dealing with emergencies, and it has been adapted to accommodate the large flow of returned refugees and displaced people, going home after years or decades of being gone. But the post-war targeting of food assistance is more administratively managed, and less participatory—contrary to what much of the literature suggests.

Several examples provide ample evidence to suggest that participatory methods could improve targeting and reduce targeting error in the post-war era—as well as address some salient protection concerns—where authorities and chiefs are willing to promote this approach.

The report is available to download from the Tufts website.