Journal of International Development
November 2014 Volume 26, Issue 8 Pages 1097–1196
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/jid.v26.8/issuetoc
Special Issue: Policy Arena: Papers from DSA Conference, University of Birmingham, November 2013

Research Article
HOW IS DISASTER AID ALLOCATED WITHIN POOR COMMUNITIES? RISK SHARING AND SOCIAL HIERARCHY
Yoshito Takasaki*
Article first published online: 7 JAN 2014
DOI: 10.1002/jid.2985
Abstract
How disaster aid is allocated within poor communities is little understood. Using original post-disaster survey data in rural Fiji that capture household-level traditional kin status, cyclone damage and aid allocations over post-disaster phases, this paper demonstrates that allocations are driven by informal risk-sharing institutions and social hierarchies. On one hand, in response to a disaster with moderate severity, private risk sharing can strongly make up limited aid, making targeting aid on damage appear weak as a result. On the other hand, local elites can dominate not only aid allocation for given damage but also the targeting on damage.

SA Conference 2013 Special Issue
THE SHORT- AND LONG-TERM EFFECTS OF DEVELOPMENT PROJECTS: EVIDENCE FROM ETHIOPIA
Ivica Petrikova*
Article first published online: 5 NOV 2014
DOI: 10.1002/jid.3035
Abstract
This paper examines the short-term and long-term impact of development projects on recipients’ wellbeing in Ethiopia. Specifically, it compares the effects of five types of development projects—unconditional and conditional direct transfers, agricultural and social-infrastructure knowledge transfers, and credit projects—on children’s nutrition and on household consumption and income levels. The main finding is that knowledge transfers have the largest positive impact on children’s nutritional status and household consumption, in both the short and the long term. The impact of direct transfers on children’s health is also positive but less significant, whereas the effect of credit projects is here undetectable.