4 Improving Targeting Outcomes through Attention to Delivery Systems Margaret Grosh, Phillippe Leite, Emil Tesliuc, Nina Rosas, and Priyanka Kanth
Introduction Delivery systems are important for reducing errors of exclusion and inclusion, and for ensuring good implementation and dynamism. The importance of “implementation” in the context of targeting is suggested by Coady, Grosh, and Hoddinott (2004) and written about more explicitly by Devereaux et al. (2017) and Leite et al. (2017) and in a great deal of the program or country-specific case literature. Lindert et al. (2020) go far in codifying knowledge and improving a shared language around delivery systems. The volume also underscores the commonalities in delivery systems and their workings across many programs. Governments have made significant strides in this field in recent years, but a substantial need for improvement still exists, especially with respect to inclusion and dynamism. This chapter focuses on delivery systems before discussing the choice of targeting methods, to emphasize the importance of implementation of different elements of the delivery chain for improving targeting performance, especially lowering errors of exclusion. No matter how aptly selected the targeting method is, it cannot deliver good outcomes without good implementation of each step of the delivery chain. Indeed, understanding how 203
