Bosnia & Herzegovina: Social Audit of World Bank Cash Assistance Programme, 1997
Programme performance appeared to be better in urban areas and areas with fewer refugees. Communities where the programme performed the best were more likely to report events or interventions contributing to peace and stability. Targeting of the cash benefits was evaluated by comparing those who received cash benefits with those in the same communities who did not. In general the evidence indicated that the cash assistance was reaching those who were worse off than those not receiving it; more bought wheat flour and fewer had coffee in the household. Beneficiaries were also less likely to receive remittances and twice as likely as households in the reference sample to include a disabled person. They were also much less likely to have received wages in the previous month (8% compared with 37%). A household receiving cash benefit was more likely to report or to perceive food insecurity and was twice as likely to be receiving food aid.
Objectives of the assistance programme included building local institutional capacities to handle the aid. Although in heterogeneous ways, this was being achieved, at least until the BiH Federal Minister requested termination of the programme in favour of centralised management of the funds.