The impact of assistance on poverty and food security in a protracted conflict context: the case of West Bank and Gaza Strip

This paper assesses what is the impact of assistance on the wellbeing of Palestinian households, using in an original way standard econometric techniques coupling the classical counterfactual framework of the impact evaluation analysis – specifically, using a difference-in-difference approach that allows the treatment of sample selection bias – with instrument variable econometric modelling – specifically a fixed effect IV model that gets rid of endogeneity problems. Using data from the last two rounds (2013 and 2014) of the Palestinian Socio-Economic and Food Security (SEFSec) survey, we estimate the impact of assistance to West Bank and Gaza Strip households on their poverty and food security status. Results suggest that whereas in the case of poverty reduction there is a clear positive impact of the intensity of assistance, in the case of food security results show mixed evidence. Specifically, the intensity of assistance affects positively the frequency of consumption of fruit, vegetable, cereals, tubers and pulses while it seems to have a negative impact on the consumption of other food groups such as meat, milk, oil and sugar.