Aid groups give more help to people in camps, not to the poorest people

Social assistance in the Central African Republic goes to people in displacement camps, regardless of how poor they are. This means many extremely vulnerable people outside camps get no help, even if they are poorer than those receiving aid.

Aid organizations often assume that people in official camps are the most vulnerable. This paper shows that this assumption is wrong. It means aid money is not reaching the people who need it most, and it might even encourage people to stay in camps longer to keep getting assistance.