Multi-Tier Targeting of Social Assistance : The Role of Intergovernmental Transfers

Albania provides a small amount of
social assistance to nearly 20 percent of its population
through a system that allows some community discretion in
determining distribution. This study investigates how well
this social assistance program is targeted to the poor.
Relative to other safety net programs in low-income
countries, social assistance in Albania is fairly well
targeted. Nevertheless, the system is hampered by the
absence of a clear, objective criterion to determine the
size of the grants from the central government to communes
as well as limited information that could be used to
implement this criterion. Substantial gains in targeting
could be achieved if the central government better allocated
transfers to local governments, even holding local targeting
at base levels.