Cash, food, or vouchers? An application of the Market Information and Food Insecurity Response Analysis Framework in urban and rural Kenya

Michelson, Hope; Lentz, Erin; Mulwa, Richard; Morey, Mitchell; Cramer, Laura; McGlinchy, Megan; Barrett, Chris

doi:10.1007/s12571-012-0177-0

Cited by 14 publications

(5 citation statements)

References 4 publications

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“…The fact that, despite being inadequate, the number of healthy portions of fruits and vegetables in the food-aid correlated with a better habitual recipient diet suggests that food-aid composition may have behavioral or educational benefits beyond their inherent nutritional and economic value. The literature shows that food, vouchers, and cash transfers are not simply fungible; although they increase the recipients' purchasing power to the same extent, they can influence behavior differently, depending on factors such as the degree of poverty and accessibility and availability of nutritious food (36–39). The more the responsibility of food banks for hunger relief in affluent countries increases, the more information we need on how food aid composition influences recipient dietary behavior.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Food-Aid Quality Correlates Positively With Diet Quality of Food Pantry Users in the Leket Israel Food Bank Collaborative

et al. 2018

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Introduction: In many affluent countries, including Israel, networks of food banks and pantries have increasing responsibility to alleviate endemic poverty and food insecurity. While they may relieve acute hunger, their long-term influence on health and well-being is poorly understood.Methods: An exploratory cross-sectional telephone survey assessed both adequacy and quality of food aid provided via food pantries in the Leket Israel food bank network, in relation to recipients' dietary needs and health. The quality of food baskets and recipient diets were given a Healthy Portions Score (HPS) to measure compliance with Government guidelines for a “Basic Healthy Food Basket,” and a Nutrient Density Score (NDS) to capture how well the food achieved the recommended dietary allowance (RDA) for vital macro and micronutrients. A total of 105 pantry users were surveyed from 16 pantries around the country.Results: The basket HPS correlated positively and highly significantly with dietary quality (individual NDS) after adjusting for gender, marital status and country of birth (standardized β = 0.22, p = 0.03). Nearly half (46%) reported food insecurity with hunger. Two thirds were overweight or obese, and anemia, cardiovascular and metabolic disease were prevalent. The average food basket provides 30% of energy, 55% of protein, 50% of fiber, but only 33% or less of the household requirement for most minerals and vitamins. Only 60% of participants met their estimated energy requirements, and the intake of many essential micronutrients was well below the RDA. Fruits and vegetable portions contributed by Leket Israel correlated positively with the dietary quality (individual NDS) after adjustment for the same covariates (Standardized β = 0.20, p = 0.04).Discussion: A structured telephone survey proved a feasible method to study the impact of food-aid quality on the nutrition and health of food pantry users in an affluent country. Food baskets with fruits, vegetables and higher quality nutrition were correlated with healthier diets among the recipients. Data correlating food-aid quality and recipient diet and health is essential to effective policy making.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Food-Aid Quality Correlates Positively With Diet Quality of Food Pantry Users in the Leket Israel Food Bank Collaborative

et al. 2018

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“…While this assumption is likely to be conservative (cash and vouchers may be faster and less expensive than LRP), the optimal mix of cash, food or vouchers to deliver food assistance is a multi-faceted problem that includes the impact on local food prices, consumers and producers in urban and rural areas [7], and is beyond the scope of the present study. A range of studies have questioned whether in-kind food aid deliveries disrupt recipient food markets, to the detriment of local producers, or even help prolong civil conflict [2, 32–34].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Although the U.S. is the world’s largest provider of food assistance [3] and recently increased its use of cash-based food assistance [4], it is one of the few countries (along with Brazil and China, although they provide much less food aid than the U.S. [5]) that provides the majority of its assistance via transoceanic shipments of commodity-based in-kind food aid [2]. Other countries rely on local and regional procurement (LRP), where food is bought in the recipient country (local) or a neighboring country (regional) and then delivered to the target recipients [6], and direct delivery of cash or vouchers to the target recipients [7]. LRP provides more timely (62% delay reduction) and less costly (>50% reduction) delivery than transoceanic shipments [8].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Assessing the Impact of U.S. Food Assistance Delivery Policies on Child Mortality in Northern Kenya

et al. 2016

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The U.S. is the main country in the world that delivers its food assistance primarily via transoceanic shipments of commodity-based in-kind food. This approach is costlier and less timely than cash-based assistance, which includes cash transfers, food vouchers, and local and regional procurement, where food is bought in or nearby the recipient country. The U.S.’s approach is exacerbated by a requirement that half of its transoceanic food shipments need to be sent on U.S.-flag vessels. We estimate the effect of these U.S. food assistance distribution policies on child mortality in northern Kenya by formulating and optimizing a supply chain model. In our model, monthly orders of transoceanic shipments and cash-based interventions are chosen to minimize child mortality subject to an annual budget constraint and to policy constraints on the allowable proportions of cash-based interventions and non-US-flag shipments. By varying the restrictiveness of these policy constraints, we assess the impact of possible changes in U.S. food aid policies on child mortality. The model includes an existing regression model that uses household survey data and geospatial data to forecast the mean mid-upper-arm circumference Z scores among children in a community, and allows food assistance to increase Z scores, and Z scores to influence mortality rates. We find that cash-based interventions are a much more powerful policy lever than the U.S.-flag vessel requirement: switching to cash-based interventions reduces child mortality from 4.4% to 3.7% (a 16.2% relative reduction) in our model, whereas eliminating the U.S.-flag vessel restriction without increasing the use of cash-based interventions generates a relative reduction in child mortality of only 1.1%. The great majority of the gains achieved by cash-based interventions are due to their reduced cost, not their reduced delivery lead times; i.e., the reduction of shipping expenses allows for more food to be delivered, which reduces child mortality.

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“…Vouchers are valid only for selected items in selected stores. Thus, there can be disruptions to the value chain of voucher-admissible commodities (Michelson et al 2012). Prices may spike due to limited supply, and harm non-beneficiaries or supplies may run out and harm both groups.…”

Section: Upper-level Model: the Agency's Perspectivementioning

confidence: 99%

Food Aid Modality Selection Problem

Sahinyazan

Rancourt

Verter

2021

Production and Operations Management

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Aid agencies implement food aid programs to alleviate chronic hunger. These agencies can choose direct, in‐kind distribution of food commodities, or they can provide cash or vouchers. To determine which aid modality to use for distributing aid, organizations currently use decision trees or other guidelines. In this study, we present a novel mathematical formulation to determine the optimal approach for allocating modalities and quantities of aid to beneficiaries, while also considering the beneficiaries’ needs and preferences. This also enables aid agencies to estimate the benefits of their programs for all stakeholders (i.e., beneficiaries, local retailers, and the organization) and help them design more tailored programs. The proposed model has three objectives to assess potential solutions: program costs, beneficiaries’ nutrition levels, and economic contributions to the local economy. The beneficiaries’ consumption behavior is incorporated into the model through a bilevel optimization structure to capture and prevent inefficient cash use by beneficiaries. We validate the model using data from the World Food Programme’s operations in Garissa County, Kenya. We analyze how robustly our solution handles possible variations in different cost parameters, including food commodity prices and operational costs. Finally, we demonstrate how to use the model to evaluate policies intended to improve program outcomes, such as educating beneficiaries about nutrition or fortifying grains available locally. Our results show that a modality’s effectiveness depends on the population and market characteristics, and no modality should be presumed superior to another without in‐depth analyses.

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Cash, food, or vouchers? An application of the Market Information and Food Insecurity Response Analysis Framework in urban and rural Kenya

Cited by 14 publications

References 4 publications

Food-Aid Quality Correlates Positively With Diet Quality of Food Pantry Users in the Leket Israel Food Bank Collaborative

Food-Aid Quality Correlates Positively With Diet Quality of Food Pantry Users in the Leket Israel Food Bank Collaborative

Assessing the Impact of U.S. Food Assistance Delivery Policies on Child Mortality in Northern Kenya

Food Aid Modality Selection Problem

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