DISTRIBUTION OPERATIONAL GUIDANCE/TOOLKIT: 6. Beneficiary selection, verification, and registration
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Staff working on assessment, beneficiary selection/verification/validation
Field staff working on assessment, beneficiary selection, verification, and validation should have strong communication skills, as well as a clear understanding of the humanitarian principles to enable a dialogue with communities and avoid potential tensions and conflicts within communities. These staff should receive PSEA training and work closely with the Protection team to identify possible protection concerns within the community. Read more about staff induction and trainings in Build a distribution team entry. |
How to communicate with beneficiaries
When approaching a community or an individual, communicate clearly:
Consider the following points when conducting interviews or focus group discussions:
Explain the distribution programme whenever possible:
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Key considerations for beneficiary selection, verification, and validation
- Factors such as scale of damage, number of affected populations, and available resources will determine if distributions provide blanket or targeted coverage. Blanket coverage refers to the delivery the assistance to all households in a selected affected community – often used at the onset of a crisis. Targeted coverage refers to the delivery of assistance only to a select group, e.g. the most vulnerable households.
- Based on the number of families that can be reached with the available resources, IOM defines its target groups and areas of intervention and develops the beneficiary selection criteria/Vulnerability index to address needs of most vulnerable affected populations.
- When planning a targeted distribution, a system to select beneficiaries will enhance effectiveness and promote an equitable and impartial response. Beneficiary selection can be sensitive and can result in creating tensions within the community, so it is important that it is transparent and clearly communicated.
- The selection of beneficiaries requires close coordination with local authorities and should reflect the guidance and recommendations provided by relevant clusters/sector/working group namely Shelter, CCCM, Protection, Cash Working Group, etc.
- Lack of official documentation is one of the biggest protection issues that may occur during beneficiary selection/registration. When necessary, work with the protection team and coordinate with the Protection Cluster to resolve the issues. If documentation is required, provide several options depending on the context, e.g. photo ID (passport, military ID, drivers ’license, etc.), birth certificate, family book, etc.
- Average family size and composition of the families may vary. Based on the specific needs assessed, consider allocating additional items. For example, in a context where a standard kit is designed for households with five family members, for beneficiaries with more than seven family members, 2 x NFI kits or 2 x tents can be distributed.
- To avoid inequalities and tensions, above variations should be explained to ALL beneficiaries before the distribution. On the other hand, DO NOT exclude families with less than five family members.
Resources | File Format | Language |
Sample Vulnerability index NOTE: This document include most commonly used vulnerability indicators, and the format enables scoring vulnerability of each beneficiary household. Modify the indicators and the scoring weight based on actual programme context. (Modified from the document developed by IOM Philippines in 2016) |
Word | EN |
Beneficiary Registration - Verification Form
(Modified from documents developed in IOM Afghanistan in 2023, IOM Argentina, IOM Ethiopia, IOM Guyana, IOM Trinidad and Tobago, and IOM Yemen) |
Excel |
EN |
KOBO XLSForm | EN |
Data protection
Be aware that any personal Identifiable Information collected can be sensitive. If it falls into the wrong hands, it can threaten the safety of those that you aim to assist. Training on data protection for staff and data protection clauses should be in the contracts of any service provider and there should be measures in place to limit the access to data.
Collect as little data as necessary and make sure that any data collected is necessary, useful and used only for its intended purpose.
Resources | File Format | Language |
IOM data protection principal | EN | |
IOM Data Protection Manual | EN/FR/Armenian |
Accessing KOBO The IOM Enterprise Kobo can be accessed via:
You can refer to the Kobo user guide for a more detailed “how-to” guide. For assistance on account creation or validation of KOBO Forms, contact DTM coordinator in country or contact: dtmsupportservices@iom.int |
Standard procedure for beneficiary selection and verification
Below steps are examples of the beneficiary selection process, and need to be adapted to the context before deploying the team to the field.
Step 1. Identify target areas of intervention |
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Step 2. Clarify beneficiary selection criteria |
Beneficiary selection should be based and conducted applying a selection criteria/vulnerability index. Where possible and appropriate, communicate with the target community to clarify the selection criteria considering following points:
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Step 3. Compile an initial list of beneficiaries |
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Step 4. Verify the initial list |
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Step 5. Field validation |
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Step 6. Finalize and share the beneficiary list with complaints and feedback mechanisms |
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Contacts
For more information, please contact the Shelter and Settlements Unit in Geneva: ShelterSupport@iom.int.
Please also find the contact information to the IOM Shelter Reference Group: ShelterReferenceGroup@iom.int.