This report is an output of a consultancy to review the process of developing protocols for targeting cash and food assistance to Syrian refugees in Lebanon, Egypt and Jordan during 2014. Under the auspices of the High Level Meeting between WFP and UNHCR (May 2014) and the WFP and UNHCR Joint Action Plan on cash and vouchers (2014), WFP and UNHCR made a commitment to explore methods and mechanisms for ensuring complementary targeting of multi-sector cash and food assistance. Both agencies have dedicated considerable time and expertise to joint activities on targeting in Lebanon, Jordan, Egypt (among other countries). The main objective of the consultancy is to document the process, capture the viewpoints and reflections of the people involved, and to examine emerging issues and lessons which should be considered in future guidance and operations.
This work is also part of a larger project under the planned lessons learned on the “Building Blocks of CBIs in MENA region” planned for 2015, and is intended to feed into the development of targeting guidance for UNHCR country offices. A major goal of the work done on targeting in the MENA region during 2013 and 2014 was to improve understanding of economic vulnerability for the targeting of cash assistance. This is a relatively new approach in refugee contexts. The development of economic targeting criteria in the Syria Crisis has received significant assistance from the World Bank, in leading UNHCR through methods of econometric analysis (i.e. identifying reliable predictors of consumption poverty through statistical analysis), applying a proxy means test (PMT) approach well-tested in poverty-reduction programmes. On the other hand, the analysis and targeting of food insecurity has benefited from decades of experience and methodology development by the Vulnerability Analysis and Mapping (VAM) Unit of WFP.