Effectiveness of Food Assistance Programs in Bangladesh

Rinku Murgai and Salman Zaidi

Journal of Developing Societies, 2005, vol. 21, issue 1-2, 121-142

Abstract: Bangladesh boasts a wide array of targeted food assistance programs that strive to achieve a number of important developmental objectives. Findings from the 2000 Household Income and Expenditure Survey suggest that these programs are reasonably well-targeted towards the poor. Most of the pro-poor targeting is due to targeting the poor within communities rather than central actions to target poor areas. However, any definitive conclusions about the ‘pro-poor’ nature of spending on these programs are clouded by the survey findings which suggest that a large share of the total resources devoted to these programs disappear before reaching their intended beneficiaries. If these ‘unaccounted-for’ benefits are in fact appropriated by the non-poor, the incidence of spending on these programs would likely be pro-rich. Greater efforts to channel a higher share of resources to regions with greater need of assistance and to improve monitoring systems to reduce leakage from the system are likely to yield high dividends.

Keywords: Bangladesh; benefit incidence; food assistance; poverty (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2005
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:sae:jodeso:v:21:y:2005:i:1-2:p:121-142

DOI: 10.1177/0169796X05053069

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