Implications and acceptability of targeting

Targeting scarce resources to the very poorest can lead to resentment from other sections of the population. Arguing for the poor: elites and poverty in developing countries argues that aid donors and other external agents could work with developing country elites, who often have some self-interest in reducing poverty, in defining national anti¬poverty strategies.

Acceptance by the local population is also important for targeting. BRAC's experience of working with the very poor found that villagers were more sympathetic to people who had experienced an unexpected shock than to those who were always poor. Widows, mothers who had been abandoned with young children and people who had lost everything due to a business reverse or major illness were considered to be deserving of assistance.

The politics of poverty reduction pose special problems for donor agencies whose mandate includes addressing the needs of the very poor. Key questions are how can issues of reaching the very poor be raised up the political agenda in a politically acceptable fashion in low and middle-income countries? What intervention strategies targeted to the extreme poor can be integrated into national government services, and which are better conceptualised as community initiatives or philanthropic efforts?