The rise of new food assistance instruments, including local and regional procurement, cash, and vouchers, has surpassed increase in understanding of the tradeoffs among and impacts of these options relative to traditional food aid. Response choices rarely appear to result from systematic...

This document provides the Decision Tree Tool itself for the analysis of response options - cash, local purchase or imported food aid. The framework is kept simple for ease of communication: a sequence of specific questions to be answered, each matched with data needs and diagnostic tools...

This paper attempts to build on that framework to develop practical tools for field decision makers, although these decision tools are related specifically to the question of a food access shortfall at the household level, which may be related to a food availability shortfall at market, regional...

Food aid is no longer the only, or even the dominant, response to widespread food insecurity. Donors, governments, NGOs and recipient communities exhibit rapidly growing interest in and experimentation with cash-based alternatives, both in the form of direct cash distribution to food insecure...