Productive Safety Net Program Research Articles

Comparative analysis of household food security and its determinants among Productive Safety Net Program (PSNP) beneficiary, graduated, and non-beneficiary in Northwestern Ethiopia

Comparative analysis of household food security and its determinants among Productive Safety Net Program (PSNP) beneficiary, graduated, and non-beneficiary in Northwestern Ethiopia

Does productive safety net program enhance livelihoods? Insights from vulnerable households in Wolaita zone, Ethiopia.

The impact of Productive Safety Net Programs (PSNPs) on food security, poverty, and livelihoods has been examined in several studies. While some studies found positive impacts on food security and agricultural productivity, there are still gaps in understanding the long-term effects of these programs on poverty reduction and food security. This study aims to investigate the impact of PSNP on the livelihood of beneficiaries based on indicators including access to basic services, income, expenditure on food, adaptive capacity, and dietary diversity. This article used quasi-experimental design and treatment effects model taking into account access to basic services, income, food expenditure, assets, adaptive capacity, and household dietary diversity as outcome variables of interest. 300 respondents were randomly selected from the population of safety net beneficiaries and non-beneficiaries in the study area. Out of the 300 respondents, 150 were selected as the treatment group, who were beneficiaries of the safety net program. The algorithms used in analysis include regression adjustment, inverse probability weighing and propensity score matching. The study's results reveal that the PSNP has no statistically significant impact on access to basic services and income based on all three algorithms, yet it does show a significant and negative effect on food expenditure and assets. The coefficients across all three models consistently demonstrate this negative impact, underscoring its statistical significance at the conventional significance level (p = 0.05). This suggests that the PSNP leads to a reduction in food expenditure. Furthermore, the analysis highlights substantial differences between PSNP members and non-members across all three variables, with non-members having higher mean values for assets. This difference is statistically significant at the 1% level, suggesting that membership in the PSNP has a tangible impact on asset ownership. The study's mixed findings emphasize the complexities of designing effective social protection programs that can adequately address the multifaceted nature of poverty.

Aspiring to more? New evidence on the effect of light-touch aspirations interventions in rural Ethiopia

ABSTRACT A growing literature in economics has analysed the effects of psychological interventions designed to boost individual aspirations as a strategy to increase households’ propensity to make long-term investments and thus reduce poverty. This paper reports on a randomised controlled trial evaluating a short video-based intervention designed to increase aspirations of adults in poor rural Ethiopian households who are beneficiaries of the Productive Safety Net Program, the main government safety net program in Ethiopia. Evidence from a sample of 5,258 adults from 3,220 households is consistent with the hypothesis that there are no significant effects of the intervention on self-reported aspirations for the household, educational investment in children, or savings nine months post-treatment. This suggests that the effect of light-touch aspirations treatments for extremely poor adults may be limited in this context.

Impact of urban productive safety net programme on poverty reduction and food security: Evidence from major cities of Eastern Ethiopia (Dire Dawa, Harar and Jigjiga)

AbstractDifferent social protection programs are designed in low‐income countries to eradicate poverty and improve the food security of poor people. Currently, the Urban Productive Safety Net Program (UPSNP) is designed to support those who are living in poverty and face food insecurity with predictable and reliable support through food, cash, or vouchers. However, limited empirical evidence has been presented about the significant impact of the program on the well‐being of households who participated in the program and the factors that affect the households' decision to participate in the program. Hence, this study aims to evaluate the impact of participation in UPSNP on well‐being using household survey data gathered from three main cities of Ethiopia: Dire Dawa, Harar, and Jigjiga in 2022. This study employed both propensity score matching (PSM) and endogenous switching regression (ESR) models to assess the impact of the UPSNP. The result shows that the probability of a household's participation decision is determined by the age of the household head, number of children, savings, house ownership, employment status of the household head, and shock. Furthermore, we found a consistently positive impact across models, indicating that participation in UPSNP reduces poverty and increases food security of households.

Combining social protection interventions for better food security: Evidence from female-headed households in Amhara region, Ethiopia.

Ethiopia introduced its flagship poverty-targeted social protection program, the Productive safety net program (PSNP), in 2005 and Community-Based Health Insurance (CBHI) in 2011. Although both programs operate in several districts with some overlaps, evidence is scarce on how these large-scale programs jointly affect the food security of vulnerable groups. This study examines the impacts of a combination of these programs on food security outcomes among female-headed households in a chronically food-insecure and drought-prone district. Cross-sectional data were collected from 365 female-headed households selected through multi-stage sampling technique and analyzed using Inverse-probability-weighted regression adjustment (IPWRA) strategy to assess the effect of the programs on food security. The results show that while 63.6% of sample households are enrolled in CBHI and 48.8% are beneficiaries of PSNP's conditional cash transfer (CCT) component, membership in both social protection programs was 38.9%. The IPWRA analysis finds that inclusion in the CCT combined with CBHI, on average, increased dietary diversity score by 0.918 (95% CI 0.779-1.057) and food consumption score by 0.576 (95% CI 0.464-0.688). It also reduced household food insecurity access scale by 8.658 (95% CI -9.775 - -7.541). In all assessments, a combination of CBHI and CCT always produced results of a larger magnitude than each of CBHI and CCT alone. The findings provide evidence of the potentials of integrating social protection programs to increase food security outcomes among the most vulnerable and marginalized groups in a developing country. In addition, the results have also useful implications to achieve sustainable development goals related to ending hunger and achieving food security among vulnerable groups.

The contribution of productive safety net program for households food security and asset building in drought prone woredas of northeast Ethiopia

Many developing countries are using various forms of social protection strategies to combat food insecurity. The Productive Safety Net Program (PSNP) is a major policy initiative launched by the Ethiopian government and partners to help millions of chronically food insecured rural people. The main objective of this research is to assess the contributions of PSNP to households’ food security and asset building in the selected drought prone woreda (district) of northeast Ethiopia. The research applied a cross sectional research design and a mixed research approach. The data was collected from 142 randomly selected household heads of three selected Kebeles (a small administrative unit) clustered into three agro-climatic zones of the woreda, using key informant interviews, focus group discussions, and document reviews. The methods used in the analysis were descriptive statistics (percentage and mean) and inferential statistics (chi-square, t-test, and binary logistic regression model). Twelve variables were selected to explain factors affecting the food security level of the PSNP beneficiary households. Out of these nine variables were identified as significant. The result revealed that the sample households that joined the PSNP have improved in food consumption status, livestock holding, housing conditions, and agricultural input utilization. The binary regression model depicted that household age, household size, education, farmland size, agricultural inputs and livestock as the main determinants. The result also revealed a lack of community participation in the decision-making, payment delays, a low level of gender awareness, and poor planning processes as the main challenges. Therefore, improving the management, revising the strategies particularly; the tools, guidelines and manuals of the PSNP is essential for best performance to address the food security challenges in general and the beneficiaries in particular.

Effect of Productive Safety Net Program On Livelihood of Smallholder Farmers in Ethiopia: Meta-Analysis

One way of mitigating smallholder farmers’ vulnerability to shocks is through expanding productive safety net program in rural area which highly affected with drought and climate change. The major aim of safety net program is to build asset accumulation and to reduce food insecurity. Several numbers of scholars have made investigation on PSNP to know the effect of it on livelihood outcome and the obtained results were contradicted (positive, negative and no effect). Hence, this meta-analysis was aimed to direct and quantify the effect of safety net program on livelihood outcome (food security, income, asset accumulation and livestock holding) from the literature with productive safety net program. Based on inclusion and exclusion criterion, 20 studies published from 2011 to 2022 were included during this meta-analysis. Random effect model was used to evaluate the effect size of productive safety net intervention on farmer’s outcome in Ethiopia. Results of random effect model confirmed that program intervention were positive and significant effect on food security. Therefore, policy makers and other stakeholders should expand productive safety net program in rural areas which exaggerated with natural disaster in Ethiopia.

Assessment of Development Intervention gaps on livelihoods of pastoralist in Selected District: The Case of West Hararge zone Selected Stakeholders

The study was to assess development interventions gaps on pastoralist economic development in West Hararge Zone, Ethiopia. The qualitative and quantitative data surveys were employed, and data were collected from 160 respondents. In doing, the maximum likelihood estimation of logit model was applied to identify development stakeholders, and used descriptive statistics to know how much beneficiaries were benefited from intervention. In addition, SWOT analyses were applied to the extent of stakeholder’s intervention. Finally, to develop way of recommendation to each stakeholder; the researchers were used Spearman’s rank analysis as (Charles Edward Spearman, 1863-1945) to assess the rank of stakeholders contribution. Therefore, the result of the study shows; among stakeholders of pastoralist development, the sectors rank awarded based on their participations’ contribution to pastoral development were positively follows; education sectors of government [1], productive safety net program [2], cooperative Oromia promotion; Busa Gonofa sector institution3, pastoral development government sector [4], water sector of government [5], and care Ethiopia non-government organization [6].

Barriers to appropriate complementary feeding and the use of ultra-processed foods: A formative qualitative study from rural Oromia, Ethiopia.

Children's consumption of ultra-processed foods (UPF) is increasing in Ethiopia, but relatively little is known about the specific feeding practices that underlie this pattern. The objective of this study was to explore patterns of consumption of UPF by infants and young children within a broader context of inappropriate complementary feeding practices in extremely poor households in rural Oromia, Eastern Ethiopia. A formative qualitative study was conducted using semistructured interview questionnaires developed drawing on a socioecological model. A total of 16 focus group discussions with mothers (45 respondents), fathers (21 respondents)and grandmothers (23 respondents) of children aged 6-23 months in households that were beneficiaries of the Productive Safety Net Program were conducted, along with four key informant interviews with health workers. Qualitative transcripts were complemented with field notesbefore qualitative content analysis was applied. The key findings suggest that UPF were widely provided to infants and young children as part of a pattern of suboptimal complementary feeding, including both early and late initiation of complementary foods. In particular, UPF (including juice, biscuitsand lipid-based nutrient supplements) were diluted with or dissolved in water and fed to infants via bottle, often before the recommended age of initiation of 6 months. Mothers and caregivers reported that they perceived the products to be affordably priced and packaged, ready to use and convenient given their time constraints. The level of consumption of UPF and its effects on infant and young child feeding feeding practices and children's nutritional status in rural Ethiopia should be further explored.

One for all and all for one: Increasing the adaptive capacity of households and communities through a public work programme

This article uncovers the mechanisms shaping the impact of the public work component of Ethiopia’s Productive Safety Net Programme (PSNP) on beneficiaries and communities’ food security and vulnerability to various shocks. Using three waves of a national representative household survey, this study provides quantitative evidence on the pathways through which the social protection intervention affects direct beneficiaries and their community peers. The empirical findings show that the PSNP beneficiaries are less likely to be food insecure and to experience harvest losses in the aftermath of droughts. Notably, the beneficial effects of the programme partially spill over to the direct participants’ community peers. This is likely to be due the nature of the public works implemented through the programme, such as the integrated community-based watershed development, including soil and water conservation measures and rangeland management in pastoral areas. Additionally, no significant impacts have been found when households self-report stresses unrelated to droughts. Our findings are expected to inform the debate on the effectiveness of the PSNP and other adaptive social protection programmes. From a policy perspective, they suggest the explicit integration of environmental and climate considerations into the design of social protection interventions targeting poor agricultural households highly vulnerable and exposed to weather shocks.

Social Protection and Foundational Cognitive Skills during Adolescence: Evidence from a Large Public Works Program.

Many low- and middle-income countries have introduced public works programs (PWPs) to fight poverty. This paper provides the first evidence that children from families who benefit from PWPs show increased foundational cognitive skills. The results, based on unique tablet-based data collected as part of a long-standing longitudinal survey, show positive associations between participation in the Productive Safety Net Programme (PSNP) in Ethiopia during childhood with long-term memory and implicit learning, and suggestive evidence for working memory. These associations appear to be strongest for children whose households were still PSNP participants in the year of data collection. Evidence suggests that the association with implicit learning may be operating partially through children's time reallocation away from unpaid labor responsibilities, while the association with long-term memory may in part be due to the program's success in remediating nutritional deficits caused by early-life rainfall shocks.

English

English

Examining the effect of demographic and socioeconomic factors on household food insecurity in Lideta subcity, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

Food security and vulnerability assessments in Ethiopia have traditionally focused on rural regions. In contemporary policy discussions, urban food security has garnered significant attention. Notably, there is a lack of empirical substantiation of urban food security and its impact on the livelihoods of city dwellers as they grapple with escalating food prices. The present study aims to determine the extent of household food insecurity and identify correlated factors among 692 households in three randomly selected Woredas (districts) within Lideta sub-city, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Six Ketenas (villages) were selected using a probability proportional-to-size technique from three Woredas between February and March of 2023. Data were collected through a validated survey administered by trained individuals, and household income and expenditure were used to measure food insecurity access. Chi-square (χ2) and logistic regressions were used to identify factors associated with food insecurity in the region. The overall prevalence of household food insecurity in the study area was found to be 66.5%. Regression results indicate that seven of the hypothesized nine demographic and socioeconomic determinants of household food insecurity significantly influence the probability of experiencing food insecurity (p < 0.05). Household food expenditure, household dependency ratio, age, sex, educational status of the household head, access to savings and credit, and the urban productive safety net program were identified as significant determinants of urban household food insecurity. This study underscores that food insecurity in Ethiopia is not limited to rural areas but also affects urban regions, mainly due to high urban poverty rates. Strategies to reduce household size, improve the household dependency ratio, and enhance socioeconomic factors can empower households to build resilience against food insecurity. Policymakers should adopt measures to stabilize the food insecurity improve living standards, and enhance the economic capabilities of urban households.

Assessing climate change-induced poverty of mixed crop-livestock smallholders in Wolaita zone

Climate changes manifest itself through increased temperature, a more variable rainfall and more extreme events. As a matter of fact, smallholder farmers who produce climate-sensitive crop-livestock species are among the most affected to it due to reliance on rainfall, inadequate use of irrigation, and weak adaptive capacity. Accordingly, there are little evidences that reveals climate change is causing multi-dimensional poverty among mixed crop-livestock smallholders. Thus, this study was aimed at analyzing climate change-induced multidimensional poverty and its factors which contribute to it. Thus, data from households on socio-economic and environmental issues and thirty years rainfall and temperature data were collected. At the meantime, multi-dimensional poverty index, probit model, parametric test were applied to analyze data along with descriptive statistics. Accordingly, eleven variables showed statistically significant differences between poor and non-poor. Furthermore, the temperature in the study area was increased but rainfall trend decreased overtime. Since the livelihood of smallholder farmers is extremely dependent on rain-fed agriculture, the change in these climatic parameters negatively affected their livelihood. On the other hand, using a multidimensional-based measure of poverty; the estimates show that 82% of the sample households were multi-dimensionally poor. The incidence of poverty was highest in Abala Gefeta village (89%) followed by Bossa Wanche (80%) and Abala Shoya (84%). The result of probit regression estimation procedure revealed that variables such as access to climate information, productive safety net program and off/non-farm income at (1%), credit amount gained at (5%), sex, utilizing improved agricultural technologies and livestock holding at (10%) affects climate change-induced poverty negatively and significantly. Therefore, it is concluded that climate change-induced poverty of crop-livestock smallholders would be reduced through improving agricultural technology utilization by the farmers and providing timely climatic information and putting early warning system in place.

Analysis of drought coping strategies in northern Ethiopian highlands

One of the most detrimental concerns brought on by a changing climate that annually affects many people's lives is drought. Proactive and reactive drought coping and adapting mechanisms enable farmers to be resilient against climate–induced drought and improve the drylands' current disaster preparedness and early warning systems. The aim of this study was to assess proactive and reactive farmers' drought coping strategies at household level in Raya Valley in southern Tigray, Ethiopia. Agro–climatological based 246 households were sampled from the lowlands, midlands and highlands of the study area. The most effective drought coping mechanisms were discovered using a multinomial logit model. The study area had endured mild to extremely severe drought in the last three decades. The association between the various drought severity and household heads were significant (chi2 = 9.861, df = 3, p < 0.05). Proactive drought coping measures included collecting and storing pasture, conserving soil and water, weather prediction information to adjust saving and farming practices. Livestock feeding with roasted cactus cladode, small business loans, livestock selling, productive safety–net program, and food consumption reduction were the major reactive drought coping strategies. The proactive and reactive drought coping strategies identified in this study should be used to improve the existing disaster preparedness and early warning systems in the face of climate and weather extreme related impacts of climate variability and change.

Exploring spatial patterns, and identifying factors associated with insufficient cash or food received from a productive safety net program among eligible households in Ethiopia: a spatial and multilevel analysis as an input for international food aid programmers

BackgroundIn low-income countries, households’ food insecurity and the undernutrition of children are the main health problems. Ethiopia is vulnerable to food insecurity and undernutrition among children because its agricultural production system is traditional. Hence, the productive safety net program (PSNP) is implemented as a social protection system to combat food insecurity and enhance agricultural productivity by providing cash or food assistance to eligible households. So, this study aimed to explore spatial patterns of households’ insufficient cash or food receiving from PSNP, and identify its associated factors in Ethiopia.MethodsThe 2019 Ethiopian Mini Demographic and Health Survey dataset was used. A total of 8595 households were included in this study. Data management and descriptive analysis were done using STATA version 15 software and Microsoft Office Excel. ArcMap version 10.7 software was used for spatial exploration and visualization. SaTScan version 9.5 software was used for spatial scan statistics reports. In the multilevel mixed effect logistic regression analysis, explanatory variables with a p-value of less than 0.05 were considered significant factors.ResultsOverall, 13.5% (95% CI: 12.81–14.27%) of the households’ level beneficiaries received cash or food from PSNP. The spatial distribution of households’ benficiaries received cash or food from PSNP was not random, and good access to cash or food from PSNP was detected in Addis Ababa, SNNPR, Amhara, and Oromia regions. Households’ heads aged 25–34 (AOR:1.43, 95% CI: 1.02, 2.00), 35–44 (AOR: 2.41, 95% CI: 1.72, 3.37), and > 34 (AOR: 2.54, 95% CI: 1.83, 3.51) years, being female (AOR: 1.51, 95% CI: 1.27,1.79), poor households (AOR: 1.91, 95% CI:1.52, 2.39), Amhara (AOR:.14, 95% CI: .06, .39) and Oromia (AOR:.36, 95% CI:.12, 0.91) regions, being rural residents (AOR:2.18, 95% CI: 1.21,3.94), and enrollment in CBHS (AOR: 3.34, 95% CI:2.69,4.16) are statistically significant factors.ConclusionsHouseholds have limited access to cash or food from the PSNP. Households in Addis Ababa, SNNPR, Amhara, and Oromia regions are more likely to receive benefits from PSNP. Encouraging poor and rural households to receive benefits from the PSNP and raise awareness among beneficiaries to use the benefits they received for productivity purposes. Stakeholders would ensure the eligibility criteria and pay close attention to the hotspot areas.

Evaluating the impact of productive safety net program on rural household food security achievement: Endogenous switching regression modeling approach

The Ethiopian government, together with other organizational partners, developed the Rural Productive Safety Net Program (PSNP) to combat food insecurity. Therefore, this article aimed to examine the impact of a rural PSNP on household food security in the market district. By the probability sampling technique, 380 sample households and two rural PSNP technicians used as the primary data source, while secondary data were collected from the national report. The analysis was carried out with the help of descriptive analysis and econometric models. The study used Endogenous Switching Model (ESM) to analyze and examine the impacts of a rural PSNP on food security and identify factors that affect household participation in rural PSNP. Ten explanatory variables were included in the model to identify the determinant variable, of which seven are significant. The significant variable found to determine households’ participation in rural PSNP is age, livestock unit, labor force, cultivated land, off-farm income, and credit access by a level of confidence of 5% and 1%, respectively. The study findings showed that participation in rural PSNP only increases current consumption smoothing rather than future consumption, after graduating member households turn back into their previous living standards. Currently, food insecurity is one of the main challenges in the study area that requires immediate intervention to alleviate the problem. The PSNP is one of the integrated programs with the aim of helping food-insecure rural households become food-secure ones. Based on the finding, the study recommends that the program cash transfer should be increased and complementary community investment should be introduced. The limitation of some targeting criteria is an observed problem of the program in the study area. Due to certain criteria, poor households were excluded. Therefore, an adjustment of the criteria that had been taken to exclude poor households is necessary.

The Impact of Ethiopian Productive Safety Net Program on Children's Educational Aspirations and Attainments

Abstract The Productive Safety Net Program (PSNP) was launched by the government of Ethiopia in 2005 to support food-insecure rural households. In this paper, we evaluate the impact of PSNP on children's educational aspirations and actual attainments. We use longitudinal data from the Ethiopian sample of the Young Lives' survey and by means of a differences-in-differences, individual fixed-effects estimator, we find that the program increases both educational aspirations and actual attainment of children. In our preferred specification, the immediate effect (after 3 years) of the program is to increase by 1.05 years of educational aspirations and by about 0.35 years actual education of children. Furthermore, there is evidence that the program has significant effect even in the long run (after 6 years). The results point to broad and long-lasting positive effects on children education of a program designed primarily to relieve chronically poor households from food insecurity.

COVID-19 Disruptions of Food Systems and Nutrition Services in Ethiopia: Evidence of the Impacts and Policy Responses.

Since its first case of COVID-19 on March 13, 2020, Ethiopia has exerted efforts to curb the spread of SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19) without imposing a nationwide lockdown. Globally, COVID-19 related disruptions and mitigation measures have impacted livelihoods and food systems, nutrition, as well as access and use of health services. To develop a comprehensive understanding of the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on food systems, health services, and maternal and child nutrition and to synthesize lessons from policy responses to the COVID-19 pandemic in Ethiopia. We conducted a review of literature and 8 key informant interviews across government agencies, donors, and non-governmental organizations (NGOs), to map the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on the food and health systems in Ethiopia. We summarized policy responses and identified recommendations for future actions related to the COVID-19 pandemic and other future emergencies. The impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic were felt across the food system and include limited agriculture inputs due to travel restrictions and closed borders restricting trade, reduced in-person support by agriculture extension workers, income losses, increases in food prices, and the reduction in food security and dietary diversity. Maternal and child health services were disrupted due to fear of contacting COVID-19, diversion of resources, and lack of personal protective equipment. Disruptions eased over time due to the expansion of social protection through the Productive Safety Net Program, and the increased outreach and home service provision by the health extension workers. Ethiopia experienced disruptions to food systems and maternal and child nutrition services due to the COVID-19 pandemic. However, by expanding existing social protection programs and public health infrastructure and leveraging partnerships with non-state actors, the extent of the impact of the pandemic was largely minimized. Nevertheless, vulnerabilities and gaps remain and there is a need for a long-term strategy that considers the potential for future pandemics and other shocks.

Cash plus programming and intimate partner violence: a qualitative evaluation of the benefits of group-based platforms for delivering activities in support of the Ethiopian government’s Productive Safety Net Programme (PSNP)

ObjectivesIntimate partner violence (IPV) is a public health challenge but there is evidence that cash and cash ‘plus’ interventions reduce IPV. An increasingly popular design feature of these kind of...