Household targeting in practice: The Nicaraguan Red de Protección Social

Abstract This article describes the details underlying the targeting of a Nicaraguan anti‐poverty program, emphasising the rationale for how it was designed and implemented. It offers, by way of example, a guide for targeting in an anti‐poverty program, and highlights some of the potential tradeoffs. It then goes on to present a quantitative assessment of how well the program was able to target poor households. A combination of ad hoc and statistical procedures led to targeting that was effective, with undercoverage rates of 10 per cent or below and leakage rates of 15 per cent or below. This was in spite of the fact that the targeting methodologies used were imprecise at both the household and geographic levels. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.