5.6 Diversity among family groups

In line with its Commitments to Women and its concern to ensure that family food requirements are met, WFP increasingly arranges for ration cards to be issued based on principles such as the following:

• For monogamous families comprising a husband, wife and their dependents, or a single parent/guardian and her/his dependents:

• the wife, or the single parent, is registered as the ration card holder. She/he may be given the opportunity to designate another family member to collect the household’s ration on her/his behalf.
• In polygamous settings where a man has more than one wife:
  • each wife is registered as a ration card holder for herself and her dependents
  • the husband is either included as a member of one of these units or registered as an individual ration card holder, according to his choice
  • This applies in all polygamous settings regardless of whether the husband shares his time among separate households formed by each wife and her dependents, or heads a joint family household in which all wives and dependents cook and eat together.
• Individuals living alone are registered as individual ration card holders.
• For households that are not based on family ties, efforts are made to issue the ration cards in the name of women.