Ethiopia: Social Security in Drought Areas. The Productive Safety Net Programme

The Productive Safety Net Programme (PSNP) is a social security system that benefits a current total of around eight million extremely poor and food-insecure people in drought-affected Woredas (counties) in Ethiopia. Primarily, public works are promoted within the framework of food / cash for work . The work carried out by both men and women focuses primarily on soil and water conservation measures. In addition, there are unconditional cash payments or direct support for people who are unable to work, as well as a small amount of non-repayable financial support for setting up a business. The money and food transfers are accompanied by numerous advisory services such as preparing households for agricultural or livestock-oriented small investments and access to bank loans. This Good Practice paper presents the realisation of the PSNP and deals with the effects of the programme and existing challenges. On the one hand, the PSNP is a good example of social security. Objectives, structure, the comprehensive implementation organisation at the Woreda level and the targeting of people in need are exemplary and can serve as a model for other countries. Furthermore, the programme provides important survival aid for millions of poor and food-insecure households. On the other hand, despite funding by the Ethiopian government, World Bank and a dozen other donors, financial resources of the programme remain completely inadequate. Due to lack of money, neither the majority of the extremely poor and food-insecure people in rural areas can be included in the measures, nor are the individual payments sufficient to sustainably lift the actual beneficiaries out of vulnerability. The latter is therefore only possible for those who receive one-off payments and are able to invest and manage the money and additional loans skilfully.