Does geographic targeting of nutrition interventions make sense in cities?Evidence from Abidjan and Accra

Although most developing country cities are characterized by pockets of sub standard housing and inadequate service provision, it is not known to what degree low incomes and malnutrition are confined to specific neighborhoods. This analysis uses representative household surveys of Abidjan and Accra t o quantify small-area clustering in service provision, demographic characte ristics, consumption, and nutrition. Both cities showed significant cluster ing in housing conditions but not in nutrition, while income was clustered in Abidjan but less so in Accra. This suggests that neighborhood targeting of poverty-alleviation or nutrition interventions in these and similar citi es could lead to undercoverage of the truly needy. (C) 1999 Elsevier Scienc e Ltd. All rights reserved.