ty, but also help to predict both positive and negative consequences of interventions. One of the potential negative consequences of poorly managed food aid is the impact of food aid on local markets, says Maxwell. We are making progress toward better market analysis that may limit, if not eliminate, the negative effects of food aid programming on these markets.

One way to preserve the integrity of markets is to employ the best-practice standards of targeting humanitarian assistance better. As food aid is a scarce resource, targeting allows for maximum impact by ensuring that proper quantities of food aid reach appropriate beneficiaries at appropriate times, says Maxwell. In addition to providing aid for those who need it, good targeting helps to prevent the unintended consequences of food aid displaced trade or production incentives, or labor market distortions by not providing food aid for those who dont need it. Maxwell discusses various methods of targeting that identify vulnerable populations and involving those populations in both the identification of appropriate interventions, and the targeting of these interventions. Later this year Maxwell and Helen Young, PhD, research director of Nutrition and Livelihoods at FIC and professor at the Friedman School, along with FIC researcher John Burns, will begin new research on involving communities in targeting in complex emergencies.

Maxwell acknowledges that implementing best-practice standards is a difficult process. Improving analysis and tying this analysis to improved program design, implementation and monitoring or evaluation sounds like straightforward, good programming in any kind of humanitarian or developmental intervention but given the myriad of contextual factors, local government restrictions and donor politics, not to mention complex logistical considerations and the relative inflexibility of food as a resource it is often anything but a straightforward exercise to improve prog
'"/>

Contact: Siobhan Gallagher
siobhan.gallagher@tufts.edu
617-636-6586
Tufts University, Health Sciences
20-Jun-2007

Page: 1 2 3
Related medicine news :

1. Early-childhood intervention may improve well-being through young adulthood
2. U of M report says early-childhood intervention improves well-being through young adulthood
3. Health reform bills could improve quality and efficiency, but fall short of national plan
4. Program announced to improve care in developing areas for patients with blood disorders
5. LSUHSC awarded designation resulting in improved patient safety and outcomes
6. When minority patients have insurance and a medical home, their health care improves
7. Columbia dentists to improve oral health in sub-Saharan Africa
8. ACP supports improved access to information on relative strengths and weaknesses
9. Sleep Slide-Rule improves childrens understanding of the importance of sleep
10. Borderline personality disorder shows improvements with intensive psychotherapy
11. Performance-related financial incentives for hospitals not linked with improved quality of care