FEDERAL DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF ETHIOPIA
MINISTRY OF AGRICULTURE (MoA)
PRODUCTIVE SAFETY NET PROGRAM
PUBLIC WORKS
PSNP Design Process Facts
 Chronic food insecurity has been a noticeable
feature of rural Ethiopia in the past years,
 The reasons for chronic poverty and CFI in the
country are:
 Dramatic variations in the climate(RF);
 Repeated environmental shocks;
 Poor farming system-unwise use of land & forest resources;
 Subsistence farming on small fragmented plots of degraded
land,
 For a long time the response to CFI problem had
been emergency food aid through an emergency
appeals approach (emergency relief).
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 The emergency relief approach had limited
effectiveness at protecting productive assets;
and mitigating drought shocks.
 There was an urgent need to look for an
approach that would give sustainable and longterm solution to the problem (by the GOE &
donors)
 In 2005, the strategy of distributing food aid in
CFI areas is revised (Emergency appeals were
replaced with a standing safety net programme
“The PSNP” as a response to the situation.
Objective of PSNP
To provide transfers to the food
insecure households in chronically
food insecure woredas in a way that
prevents asset depletion at the
household level and creates asset
at the community level.
PSNP Components
1.
Direct Support
Ensure supports to households who lack labour,
have no other means of support, and who are
chronically food insecure
2. Public Works
Able bodied households targeted for PSNP will
participate in PW ,and they will be paid for their
labor spent in PW’s
Area Coverage
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Covers food insecure woredas/districts
in drought prone areas
- 8 regions
- 319 woredas/districts
Covers chronically food insecure
households
- recently > Five million
beneficiaries
Targeting
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Targeting is the process by which
chronically food insecure households
are selected to participate in public
works or receive direct support.
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PSNP combines administrative and
community based targeting approaches
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Administrative targeting encompasses
determining the number of PSNP clients
in a specific geographic settings.
Community – based approaches is used
for the identification of HH’s by the
community FSTF , and the verification
of clients in a public meeting in which
the entire PSNP client list is read out
and discussed
Targeting criteria and process
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The household should be the member
of that community
The HH should be CFI who faced
continuous food shortage for at least 3
consecutive years or above , and
HH who suddenly become more food
insecure as a result of a severe loss of
assets and are therefore unable to meet
their food needs
PSNP resources
Cash & Food
 Follows cash first principle
 Transfer size: Wage rate equivalent
to 3 kg of grain per day/person for 5
days a Month, for 6 months/ year.
 Preference of beneficiaries
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Type and amount of transfer
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Transfers are provided to households on a
monthly basis for six consecutive months.
All PSNP beneficiaries receive the same transfer
regardless of whether they participate in Public
Works or Direct Support
The cash and food transfers are set at the level
required to smooth household consumption or fill
the food gap
Households are provided transfers of cash, food,
or a temporal mix of both resources.
The mix of cash and food resources tends to be
used in a way that addresses the seasonal rise
in food prices
Public works

Public works are labour-intensive
community-based sub-projects
designed to address the underlying
causes of chronic food insecurity
through the provision of employment for
chronically food insecure people who
have labour.
Principles of PSNP PW’s
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Labor –based
Participation
Predictability
Proximity
Integration
Water shade approach
Follows ESMF guideloine
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Major Public Works Activities
- Soil and water conservation activities
- SSI
- Water harvesting schemes
- Water supply schemes
- Afforestation
- Infrastructure development , and
- Construction of social services
Main achievements of PSNP
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The PSNP has demonstrated the value
of a shift away from a humanitarian
response to more development oriented
approach in addressing food gap.
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More than seven million people have
received PSNP transfers enabling them
to meet their consumption needs,
reducing the risk they faced and
providing them with alternative options to
protect selling of productive asset
15
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So far measurable changes have been
recorded in the livelihood of the program
beneficiaries because of the
implementation of the Safety net program
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Countless worthwhile public work projects
have been undertaken that have built
community infrastructure; social services
and protected the natural environment
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PSNP public works have led to important
improvements in rural infrastructure and
watershed development.
PSNP public works participants have
constructed over 39,000 km of road and
maintained an additional 83,000 km,
thereby linking rural communities to small
towns where they can access inputs,
markets, and services.
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Public works have also contributed to
improved access to education and
health services through the construction
of over 5,000 health posts and
construction/rehabilitation of 4,300
school rooms
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In terms of watershed development,
PSNP participants have constructed
600,000 km of soil and stone bunds,
which enhance water retention and
reducing soil and water run-off; and
protected 644,000 ha of land in area
enclosures, which increases soil fertility
and carbon sequestration.
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Moreover, public works have supported
livelihoods through the development of
water infrastructure for household and
agricultural use through the construction
or rehabilitation of over 208,000 ponds,
the development of 8,100 springs, the
construction of over 55,000 hand-dug
wells, and the construction or
rehabilitation of 8,300 km of canals.
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PSNP has a large contribution to climate
change adaptation. PSNP is building
resilience and raising production within
rain-fed agriculture. Through its watershed
rehabilitation activities it is restoring local
aquifers and springs as well as enabling
the restoration of degraded lands.
Graduation
The ultimate goal of the program is
graduation

“A household will be graduate when, in
the absence of receiving PSNP transfers,
it can meet its food needs for all 12
months and is able to withstand modest
shocks.”
Contd..
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Progress towards graduation:
- More than 3.4 million program
beneficiaries became food self
sufficient who were food insecure
in 2006
Institutional Arrangement
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Sharing of responsibility and coordination of activities between multiple
actors
NRMD responsible for public works in
PSNP
EWRD responsible for RFM
AED responsible for HABP
MoFED is responsible for cash resource
management
Coordination
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Use of country systems, existing GOE
structure
Program is aligned with national priorities
Avoids parallel implementations structures
One pooled account and channel for FM
Agreed performance targets
MoU to define roles and responsibilities
Government and donors coordination
mechanisms (JSOC, JTC, DWGs, DCT, JRIS,
RRT, FSTF at district and community levels)
Jointly agreed M&E systems (reviews,
studies…)
Social Protection Policy of Ethiopia
The social protection policy document
has been developed for the country and
it is endorsed by the council of
Ministers .
Vision
 To see all Ethiopians enjoy social and
economic wellbeing ,security and social
justice
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focus areas of the SP policy
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Promote Social Safety net.
Employment generation and livelihood
promotion.
Promote social insurance.
Addressing inequalities of access to social
services.
Addressing violence and abuse and
providing legal protection and support.
The Social Protection Policy aims
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Protect the poorest citizens from economic and
social deprivation
Prevent deprivations that would otherwise result
from shock
Promote asset and human capital of poor
households, boosting their income earning
potential
Transform the situation of the most vulnerable
and powerless , by empowering them and
protecting them from abuse and exploitation
Challenges
- Capacity
- Staff turnover
- Delay in resource transfer
- Quality of some of the PW’
Thank You