1.4 Structure

Chapter 2 looks at the basic principles that should underlie any information gathering exercise needed to inform a humanitarian assistance programme. It is followed by a chapter on the rationale for counting and identifying beneficiaries including a look at the linkages between numbers and distribution. Chapter 4 considers registration as the main tool for developing a more detailed profile of a population.

Chapter 5 considers other methods of quantitative estimation of populations. Chapter 6 considers methods other than registration for obtaining a social, cultural, economic and political profile of target populations. Finally Chapter 7 looks at determinants that individually, and in combination, shape actual practice in counting and identifying beneficiary populations. For this purpose, case study examples have been grouped into ‘typical’ scenarios to help the reader visualise situations with which they may be confronted in the course of their work.