Field Exchange - Issue 8; Special Focus: Food Aid Targeting

Land-mark dates like a new millennium often make us think about the past as well as the future. Field Exchange 8 is also in reflective mood and includes a specially written article that re-visits some of the worst man-made famines of the last hundred years. This piece, which was mainly written by Fiona Watson, is based on eye-witness accounts and contains harrowing and emotive snap-shots of European, Asian and African famines spanning the entire century. 

This last Field Exchange of the millennium is also a special focus edition. Recent emergencies in southern Sudan, Angola and Kosovo have once again raised the practical and political difficulties of targeting food aid to the forefront of humanitarian agency agendas.

Field Exchange 8 carries a special focus editorial on targeting as well as summaries of two recent studies on targeting emergency food aid in eastern Africa. There is also a study on using coping strategy information as a proxy for identifying food insecure households in Greater Accra, Ghana. UNHCR has contributed an article about working through local implementing partners during the Kosovo crisis. The piece describes and examines the targeting strategies used to reach the most needy returnees with food aid following repatriation from the camps. A list of key references on targeting has been included at the end of the newsletter.