- Organise a safe and efficient distribution.
- Carry out post-distribution monitoring and measure outcomes.
- Link emergency, recovery and coordination with the cluster.
1Organising a distribution
A distribution must be prepared: validated lists, beneficiary cards, safe site with shade and water, trained team, crowd management, prior information on the date, contents and complaints mechanism. On the day: identity check, handover of the basket or transfer, signature or fingerprint, priority for vulnerable people, stock counts at the start and end of the day.
Reconciliation between planned, distributed and remaining quantities is done the same day. Any discrepancy is explained and reported. Commodity tracking, from the port to the beneficiary's hands, protects against diversion.
2Post-distribution monitoring and outcomes
Post-distribution monitoring (PDM) surveys a sample of households a few weeks later: did they receive the right quantity? How did they use it? Did they face security problems or abuse? Has their consumption improved?
Outcome indicators (FCS, rCSI, coping strategies) are tracked against the baseline, as well as market prices. The results, including complaints, are used to adjust targeting, transfer values and organisation.
3From relief to recovery
As soon as possible, the response seeks to protect and rebuild livelihoods: seeds and tools before the rainy season, livestock vaccination and feed, cash for work to rehabilitate useful infrastructure, support for small businesses, savings groups. The seasonal calendar guides the timing of each intervention.
The link with nutrition, water and national social protection is essential: where a national safety net system exists, humanitarian assistance can build on it or prepare the transition (“humanitarian-development nexus”).
4The Food Security cluster
The Food Security cluster is co-led globally by WFP and FAO. It coordinates analysis (IPC, joint assessments), 4W mapping, harmonisation of food baskets and transfer values, prevention of duplication and advocacy.
It works with the Cash Working Group (CWG) and the Nutrition and WASH clusters. For an NGO, taking part means sharing its areas and figures, aligning its transfer values with those agreed and avoiding assisting the same households twice.
Before the rains
Farming area after a poor harvest
You are a livelihoods project manager.
The rains are expected in a month. Households have eaten their seeds. Your budget allows either three months of transfers, or two months of transfers plus seeds and tools.
Decision 1 of 3What do you choose?
Decision 2 of 3Which seeds do you distribute?
Decision 3 of 3How do you measure the outcome?
Key takeaways
Combine immediate assistance with livelihoods protection, at the right time of the season, and measure the outcomes.
Exercise: the response calendar
For an agropastoral area hit by drought (IPC Phase 4 during the lean season, from June to September), build a twelve-month calendar: food assistance, seed and livestock support, cash for work, monitoring and gradual exit. Specify the monitoring indicators.
Key points
- Distribution: validated lists, safe site, priority to the vulnerable, same-day stock reconciliation.
- PDM: quantities, use, problems, effects on consumption.
- Recovery: seeds, livestock, cash for work, savings, following the seasonal calendar.
- Link with national safety nets.
- Cluster co-led by WFP and FAO: IPC, 4W, harmonised transfer values, no duplication.
Further reading: course references
- Sphere Association (2018). The Sphere Handbook: minimum standards in food security and nutrition. spherestandards.org/fr/manuel-2018
- IPC Global Partnership (2021). IPC Technical Manual, Version 3.1. www.ipcinfo.org
- World Food Programme (2021). Consolidated Approach for Reporting Indicators of Food Security (CARI). www.wfp.org/publications/consolidated-approach-reporting-indicators-food-security-cari-guidelines
- WFP and FAO (2024). Global Food Security Cluster. fscluster.org
- LEGS Project (2023). Livestock Emergency Guidelines and Standards (LEGS). www.livestock-emergency.net
Daily quiz
3 questions to check what you have learned. Answer them all to complete the day.