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Revolution: From Food Aid to Food Assistance — Instruments
project manager. At the time of project planning, cash programming was a new activity for WFP, which did not have the necessary in-house technical expertise to implement a cash pilot project in Sri Lanka. The relevant skills were therefore sought from outside. An Oxfam GB officer who had been working in tsunamiaffected Sri Lanka was seconded as the CTPP manager, and Oxfam also provided technical assistance through a food security and livelihoods adviser. 4.2 Cash has not been mainstreamed owing to political instability Despite the positive impacts of cash transfers on beneficiaries’ food consumption and livelihoods, cash transfers have not been mainstreamed into WFP operations in Sri Lanka owing to political and security challenges. The security situation deteriorated drastically in July 2006, when the 2002 ceasefire agreement between LTTE and the Government of Sri Lanka was effectively abandoned, peace talks failed and regular outbreaks of fighting in the north-east caused large-scale displacements. This deterioration of the political and security situation, coupled with embargoes and closures of main transport routes significantly hampered goods movement and trade in conflict-affected areas, resulting in food shortages and rising costs for basic commodities. This had serious impacts on the food security and humanitarian situation of the civilian population. In response to needs, WFP launched GFDs, as cash was deemed inappropriate. However, it is believed that WFP Sri Lanka will consider including cash and vouchers in its portfolio as soon as the security situation allows it.
1
The difference-in-difference method, normally used when beneficiary selection is non-random, was used to measure programme impact. The rationale behind this was that randomization at the community rather than the beneficiary level resulted in statistically significant differences in the demographic profiles of the two treatment groups.
2
Review of the results from the evaluation draws extensively on Sharma, 2006a.
3
Expenditures refer to what people spend their money on, and consumption to the quantity of certain food items that people consume.
4
The baseline survey coincided with the Muslim Ramadan and the Hindu Diwali holidays. It is therefore not surprising that there was a decrease in food consumption between the baseline and the follow-up surveys. Nevertheless, the randomized design of the cash pilot guarantees that the observed differences in calorie intake and other outcome variables between food- and cash-receiving households can be unambiguously attributed to the receipt of cash transfers.
5
It is worth keeping in mind, however, that households’ behaviour may differ from what they report.