chronic food deficiency, rather than including indicators which reflect the provision of public
services to communities. A rural household food security index was developed from data on
acreage, production, income, expenditure on food, cropping patterns, demographic variables and
coping strategies. The variation in this composite index is shown in Figure 3. The results here
are very different from those shown in Figure 2. There is a high concentration of food insecure
EPAs in the south of the country.

 The degree of variation between these maps, all of which reflect some aspect of food
security, indicate the complexity of the causal factors influencing food security in Malawi, and
the importance of clear program design, in terms of objectives, what the intended impact of the
program is and who precisely are the intended beneficiaries and why. This will give better
guidance as to the appropriate indicators to use for targeting.

 Once the EPAs have been ranked, the
next stage is to identify beneficiaries within 44 /'
the EPAs. This will probably involve the COMPOSITE
district authorities in selecting the most
appropriate villages, and then local community EABILIY
structures to reach individual households.
This is the methodology suggested by WFP in
its most recent country strategy outline (WFP,
1994) and is similar to approaches used in
neighboring countries. Although it may
seem cumbersome and time consuming to
explain to communities and involve them in
the targeting process, the more communities
understand the purpose of projects the more
likely it is that they will reach the intended
beneficiaries. If this process is carried out in ,"
regular programs which address chronic food
insecurity, then the ground work will be in -
place for more effective delivery for
emergency programs.


Figure 3


E5