LEAVING
NO-0NE BEHIND
Ethiopia’s Productive Safety Net &
Household Asset Building Programmes
A C KNOW LED GE MENT S
This book was written by Judith Sandford and Matt Hobson.
The editor was Dominic Connolly.
The photography was completed by Sylwia Pecio,
who also designed the document.
Additional photographs are courtesy of Kelly Lynch/
Save the Children UK.
The authors would like to thank the following people for their insightful comments,
technical inputs and advice received during the development of this book:
HE Ato Mitiku Kassa, DRMFSS; Ato Berhanu Woldemichael and all colleagues working in
FSCD; Carlo DiChario, European Union; Stephen Sandiford, CIDA; Scott Hocklander,
USAID; Tesfu Kahsay, DFID; Ayuba Sani, Philippa Haden and Anne Holmes, IrishAid; Wout
Soer, Muderis Abdulahi, Ian Campbell, Sarah Coll-Black and Maniza Naqvi,
World Bank; Melaku Gebremichael, Begashaw Wukaw Woldu, Samrawit Girma Beyene and
Laura Campbell, PSNP & HABP Donor Coordination Team. In addition, the authors would
like to thank all Regions implementing the Productive Safety Net and Household Asset
Building Programmes, including government institutions and NGOs. Special thanks go to
Tsigabu Lemma, Reshid Salih, Fayessa Megerssa, Taye Tadesse, Abdulkader Adem, Nesibu
Getahun, and Gezahegn Endale for accompanying the photographer as she visited PSNP
and HABP woredas.
Finally, the authors would like to recognize the Government of Ethiopia at Federal,
Regional, Woreda and Kebele levels for its continued dedication to the PSNP and HABP,
and the thousands of communities that make the PSNP and HABP such inspirational and
transformative programmes.
© World Bank 2011
United Printers PLC.
TA BLE OF CON T EN TS
F OR E WOR D
.. ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... .. ... ... ... . 4-5
I N TR ODU CT ION .. ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 6-7
S H OR T HI ST OR Y OF F OOD SE CU R ITY I N ET H IOPI A ............................................................. 8-9
B IR TH OF TH E N EW F OOD SE C UR IT Y COA LITI ON . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10-11
D ELI VER I NG TH E PR OM IS E . ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 12-83
F i n d i n g & re a c h in g the p e o p le who need s upport ......................................................13-19
Food : ensuring people have enough to eat ..........................................................................20-29
As s et s : helping people to protect what th ey have & gain more .............................................30-37
M ark et s : making markets per form better ..........................................................................38-45
E n v i ron m e nt: securing the environment for people today & in the future .............................46-59
S oci al s er v ic e s: people getting the ser vices they need ....................................................60-67
L ocal & na tio n a l d e c isio n-m a k ing : making decisions that improve local livelihoods ...........68- 75
Co- ord i n a tio n: making the links with other Government initiatives .....................................76-83
GRADUATION
...................................................................................8 4 - 9 1
ETHIOPIA’S PRODUCTIVE SAFETY NET & HOUSEHOLD ASSET BUILDING PROGRAMMES
F ORE WOR D
Dear Readers
The Productive Safety Net Programme
(PSNP) has been working for more than 5
years. It has had dramatic transformative
effects on people and households in rural
areas of Ethiopia that were previously
suffering from regular food shortages.
Before the PSNP, emergency food aid
used to be given to these people – but this
often came late and did not always cover
household needs. While food aid did save
lives, it did not contribute to development
activities that could address underlying
causes of people going hungry.
4
LEAVING NO-ONE BEHIND
Today, thanks to PSNP, approximately
7.8 million people receive assistance in a
timely and predictable way that allows them
to feed themselves.
At the same time, people are able to
participate in initiatives that help to develop
the community, in exchange for support from
PSNP. Thanks to peoples' participation in the
PSNP:
vast areas of previously barren land
have been transformed into productive and
fertile areas, with more reliable supplies of
water for agriculture, livestock and people.
impacts on economic growth. It has promoted
approx. 9,000 kilometres of roads are
agricultural livelihoods, increased productive
built and maintained every year through
investments and increased market demand.
community labour, which links people to
All of these are critical to achieve inclusive
markets.
growth and transformation in Ethiopia.
hundreds more health clinics and
This book will provide you with insights to
schools are available in PSNP areas – all
the transformational effects of the PSNP and
built by local people, with local skills and
how the PSNP has put people first in the
local resources.
community - and in doing so moved
The PSNP has also enabled people to
thousands of communities from fragility
invest small amounts of money in their future,
towards stability.
rather than using the money to feed
We hope you enjoy reading,
themselves today.
PSNP, together with the Household Asset
Building Programme, has had significant
HE Ato Mitiku Kassa, Edmond Wega, Denis Thieulin *
5
* HE Ato Mitiku Kassa is the State Minister for Disaster Risk Management & Food Security in the Ministry of Agriculture.
Mr Wega and Mr Thieulin are the chairs of the PSNP donor working group for 2011.
INT R ODU CT ION
T
6
he majority of Ethiopians live in rural areas as farmers and pastoralists. They rely on agriculture and
livestock for their livelihoods. This is a
fragile existence. They are heavily dependent on unreliable rainfall to ensure
that their families are fed and clothed,
their livestock can graze and there is
enough seed for next year’s planting. This
dependence has failed them.
The rains are unpredictable and increasingly erratic. Much of Ethiopia’s soil is
prone to erosion and loss of fertility. And
conflict has created further complications for how millions of Ethiopians access food. This fragility has caused disaster for millions of families.
LEAVING NO-ONE BEHIND
In the past, these families were supported
by unpredictable food aid. Each family receiving this aid had an individual story of
tragedy: children dead or stunted in
growth, other family members sick or dying, livestock dead or sold, and families
disrupted by a frantic search for seasonal
employment.
The Government’s Food Security Programme represents a concerted effort to
give people and their families a different future. It has four components, two of which
are discussed in detail in this book:
The Productive Safety Net
Programme (PSNP) aims to relieve families of the short-term effects of their destitution. It ensures that there is food in the
household and frees up parents to make
Tigray, Ofla Woreda
Photo: Sylwia Pecio
investments in the future. It does this
through giving cash or food payments to
very poor households. Most of these payments go to people in return for their
work on improving their communities.
These activities, known as a ‘public works’,
include working on soil and water conservation, road building, and construction of
schools and clinics.
The Household Asset Building Programme (HABP) aims to provide longer
term solutions for these same families. It
helps families to diversify and increase
their incomes. It supports them to come
up with a plan to improve their livelihoods,
trains them in the skills they need to
make these improvements, and provides
them with information on where they can
borrow money to fund these changes.
ETHIOPIA’S PRODUCTIVE SAFETY NET & HOUSEHOLD ASSET BUILDING PROGRAMMES
Lessons from many different projects, implemented over time in Ethiopia, have contributed to the design of the PSNP and
HABP. Without drawing on these lessons,
the PSNP and HABP would not be as successful as they are today.
This book describes how the PSNP and
HABP work and how the Food Security Programme will provide families with the opportunity of a better future. It provides a
brief history of food security in Ethiopia and
the reforms which took place to make the
Food Security Programme possible. It then
describes how the expected results of the
Food Security Programme will be achieved
with the contribution of PSNP and HABP. Finally it considers how these efforts are
helping people to move out of poverty.
7
FOOD S E CUR IT Y IN E T HIOP IA
“Starving peasants appealed to Emperor Iyasu I, crying that
if he did not feed them they would die. In response the
Emperor and his nobles fed an uncountable number of the
destitute for two months.”
Description of the 1702 Famine
Richard Pankhurst, 1961
T
he history of humanity tells the story
of a struggle for survival. Ethiopia is
no exception. The earliest recorded
mention of famine in Ethiopia was in 250
BC. More than 19 episodes of severe food
shortage have been recorded in Ethiopia
since 1895. But it was the dramatic images of famines in 1972 and 1984 which
came to the world’s attention and have
(wrongly) made Ethiopia synonymous with
drought and famine.
The dependence of the vast majority of the
population on rain-fed agriculture and livestock-keeping, coupled with Ethiopia’s geographic location, means people are extremely
vulnerable to frequent years of poor rainfall.
8
The environments in which people grow
their crops and keep their livestock also
provide challenges. Much of Ethiopia’s
agricultural land is found in the mountainous highlands, where steep slopes, wideranging temperatures and inaccessibility
impede farmers. Meanwhile, the people
who rely on livestock for their livelihood
and live in lowland areas suffer from high
temperatures, long dry seasons and few
permanent water sources.
LEAVING NO-ONE BEHIND
Adding to this situation are ever-increasing
populations on diminishing landholdings,
more pressure on common grazing land,
and a lack of technical innovation to improve agriculture.
In good years crop production can be substantial. But a lack of capacity for storage,
poor distribution to markets and the fall
in prices of grains because there is too
much being sold, prevent people from being able to earn more or save and store
food for bad times.
In years when the rains are late, or do not
come at all, crops fail. People are forced to
sell their main assets – livestock – for
rock-bottom prices just to be able to feed
themselves. Their remaining livestock
holdings are insufficient to allow them to
rebuild their herds through breeding.
Once livestock holdings fall below a certain threshold, the family is sucked into a
downward spiral from which it is almost
impossible to escape or recover.
For more than 30 years, the main response to drought was food aid. While
this aid did enable basic survival, it did
Photo: Sylwia Pecio
not help people to withstand future
droughts. Added to this was that food aid
arrived only when people had already entered the downward spiral. As a result,
people’s needs became more frequent as
their ability to withstand even small problems was steadily eroded. Consequently,
nearly 8 million people found themselves
in a situation of extreme fragility. Even
when rainfall was good they could not
take advantage of the rains to get enough
food for their families. They could not
grow enough food, they had no livestock
to sell and daily labouring was scarce and
poorly paid.
ETHIOPIA’S PRODUCTIVE SAFETY NET & HOUSEHOLD ASSET BUILDING PROGRAMMES
When given even a small chance, people in
Ethiopia do pull themselves out of poverty.
That is why the percentage of people in
Ethiopia living below the international
poverty line has decreased from 60.5% in
1995 to 39% in 2005. And while each year
some people become unable to feed their
families, a similar number, or more, succeed in exiting poverty.
So there is hope and there are opportunities in Ethiopia to be seized - but it is necessary to make sure that everyone has access to these opportunities and that
no-one is left behind.
9
T HE N EW F OOD
S ECU RIT Y COA LIT ION
B
10
y 2003, the failure of the emergency
response system was evident to
everyone in Ethiopia. From 1994 until 2004, between 2 and 14 million people
needed food aid every year. Discussion
about possible reform began in the 1990s,
but it was not until the early 2000s that the
idea became popular. A major crisis in lowland areas of the south and west of Ethiopia
in 1999-2000, followed by a widespread
drought affecting the whole country in
2002-2003, provided the Government and
donors with the impetus they needed.
In 2003, in an attempt to look at the underlying causes of food security, the Government launched a series of consultations
with donors, UN agencies and civil society.
These consultations led to the New Coalition for Food Security. There was broad
agreement amongst coalition members
that reform was needed, but the nature of
that reform was subject to disagreement.
The compromise was seen in the launch of
the Food Security Programme, the Government’s main instrument to operationalize
the New Coalition. The Food Security Programme consisted of three components,
with a fourth component added in 2009:
LEAVING NO-ONE BEHIND
1 A PSNP for very poor households;
2 Provision of agricultural and financial
services to the poor through the HABP;
3 Resettlement of families from land suffering from erosion and loss of soil fertility;
4 Provision of critical community-level infrastructure.
These four components are expected to result in the following:
People have enough to eat;
Families can retain the assets they
have and gain new ones;
Markets are boosted;
People can use social services when
they need them;
The natural environment is rehabilitated;
People now, and in the future, are
able to make the decisions that improve
livelihoods in the face of new challenges;
and
People have confidence to make investments and stand on their own two
feet.
How the PSNP and HABP contribute to
these results is described in the following
chapters.
Public Works client, Kombolcha, Oromiya Region
Photo: Sylwia Pecio
Public Works client, Berhaale, Afar Region
Photo: Sylwia Pecio
D ELIV ER ING T H E P ROMIS E
In addition, Ethiopia has traditional, closeknit communities in rural areas where
people know every detail of each other’s
lives. Everyone knows how many cattle his
or her neighbours have, whether they are
able to irrigate their crops and whether or
not they have enough food on the table.
These communities also share the view
that support should be targeted to the
poorest households.
L
ike any country, Ethiopia cannot provide support to everyone who wants it,
so it targets those who need it most.
But finding out who needs it most seems
almost impossible. There is neither a comprehensive set of information on how much
food or income each family has, nor any realistic way of getting it.
But important information is available. The
Government does know which districts have
suffered the most frequent droughts and
have repeatedly received food aid in the past.
So targeting starts from identifying these
districts and focusing the PSNP and HABP
here. Almost half of all rural districts have
repeatedly received food aid and are therefore included in the programme.
ETHIOPIA’S PRODUCTIVE SAFETY NET & HOUSEHOLD ASSET BUILDING PROGRAMMES
The PSNP harnesses this knowledge by setting up community committees who are responsible for finding out who is really in
need of cash and/or food - and of these families who can work and who cannot work.
The committee members agree among
themselves what are the main characteristics of families who do not have enough food
(not just this year but year-in-year-out). This
might include the fact that the family has little or no livestock, or few cash crops such as
coffee. Or it could be a family where the
grandparents are looking after the children
because both the parents died or the adults
in the family are disabled. The committee
members then consider and compare all the
people in their village and decide who should
be included in the programme.
13
14
Finally, the list of people who might be
included in the programme is read out
in a village meeting, which everyone
can attend. Anyone can make a suggestion for an adjustment and each
suggestion is discussed before the list
is finalized.
Even then, if someone feels that they
have been unfairly left out of the programme they can appeal, first to a local appeals committee. If that is not
successful they can appeal to the district government.
Hawsen Woreda, Tigray Region
Photo: Sylwia Pecio
C ASE ST U DI E S:
KEY FACT:
The PSNP has three ways of making sure the right
people are getting support:
People must live in the areas where there is
a history of support.
A community committee assesses
everyone’s poverty and proposes who should be
included in the programme.
The community verifies that those identified
are the poorest and those who most need support.
Involving the community in identifying the people
who really need support builds local ownership of
the programme and acceptance of the results.
Jemal Mohammed, Kalu District
In 2005 I left my parents’ house as I was getting married.
My parents gave me a calf as a wedding present, part of their
farm and 2 bags of grain to keep us going. We really
struggled; there just was not enough food. I was not even
able to plant the land my father had given me.
The community committee saw our circumstances and
decided that we should be part of the PSNP.
Zewdie Geletu, Adami Tulu District
I was selected for the PSNP because of the terrible drought.
Our village faced drought in 3 consecutive years. Because of
this I had nothing, all my livestock had gone and there were
no crops in the field. I had no oxen and used to work on
another man’s land for 2 days in return for borrowing his
oxen for 1 day.
15
Public Works client, Atsim Womberta, Tigray Region
Photo: Sylwia Pecio
D ELI VE R I NG TH E PR OMI S E
Support in exchange for work
T
he community committees do not
just find out who needs the food or
money that the programme can provide. They also check whether the selected
families will be able to work on community
development projects, called public works,
in exchange for the cash and/or food transfers. If they cannot, because of old age or
disability for example, families can get support from the PSNP for free.
To decide whether a family should be identified as a ‘working family’ is not always easy.
Most families have two parents who can
work enough days on public works projects
to earn the cash or food to feed their family.
But there are many exceptions: families
where one parent has died or is disabled, or
where the only adults are elderly and not
capable of hard physical work. And in other
families the mother may be heavily pregnant and physical work could put her and
the baby’s life in danger.
The committee decides what work each
family can or cannot do on the basis of programme rules: a family is entitled to 5 days
of work per family member; only adults are
ETHIOPIA’S PRODUCTIVE SAFETY NET & HOUSEHOLD ASSET BUILDING PROGRAMMES
eligible to work and no adult should have to
work more than 15 days a month. Days of a
family’s entitlement that cannot be worked
for by adult family members are still covered by the PSNP.
The following are 3 typical examples of the
kinds of families that the community committees have to assess:
Two-parent family: Most PSNP
households are two-parent families with
three to four children, which means a
maximum of 25-30 days of work. The two
parents can easily cover the work requirement by working between 10 and 15 days
each. So all the PSNP payments are
earned through working on the programme.
Two parents but with a pregnant
mother: Many PSNP households are
young families, still in their childbearing
years. It is therefore very likely that there
will be times when the mother is pregnant.
A family of five could give 25 days of work
in a month, but if the husband did all this
work there would be no time to do anything on the family farm. This is why the
limit of 15 days per adult was set. Money
or food payments for three of the family
members will be provided in return for
17
public works, but the remaining two
family members will get their support
without a labour contribution.
Elderly couple: Sadly, the elderly
make up a relatively high proportion of
the poor. Given their hard and fragile
lives, few have managed to save money
for their old age. An elderly couple may
often be looking after a grandchild;
maybe the parents died or divorced. UnLEAVING NO-ONE BEHIND
less the grandchild is an adult, this family
will receive all their money and food payments without taking part in public works.
Around 85% of PSNP payments are paid for
participation in public works, the remaining
15% are provided to families for free because of their circumstances.
D ELI VE R I NG TH E PR OMI S E
Summary;
The PSNP & HABP are reaching the
people who most need support
Independent data confirm that the areas
covered by the safety net are among themost likely areas to be in need in Ethiopia.
PSNP clients, Oromiya Region
Photo: Sylwia Pecio
KEY FACT:
Different families can provide different
amounts of labour. Often it is the poorest
families who can offer least. Including both
those who can work in exchange for PSNP
payments, and those who cannot,
acknowledges this reality and ensures
equity among households.
ETHIOPIA’S PRODUCTIVE SAFETY NET & HOUSEHOLD ASSET BUILDING PROGRAMMES
Studies show that most people living in the
communities where PSNP and HABP work
understand how people are selected for the
programme and believe that the poorest
families are included. Studies also confirm
that people who have been chosen for the
programme have less income and fewer
assets, such as livestock, than those not included in the programme. This shows that
those in the PSNP really are the poorer
families in the community.
KEY FACT:
Having the Government and communities
identify those people who really need
support means that the right people are
reached, and that both officials and
community members are satisfied that a
correct process was completed.
19
DELIVERING THE PROMISE
T
he first priority of the PSNP is to reliably provide money or food to the
people who do not have enough to eat.
While most of the families targeted by the
PSNP grow some of their food, they also
buy an equal amount. They are able to buy
more food through the sale of cash crops,
the offspring from their livestock and
through casual labour.
20
But each year there is a period of up to six
months when they do not have enough food.
This period arrives when they have already
eaten what is left of last year’s harvest, they
have no more livestock offspring to sell, casual labour work is scarce because it is not
harvesting season and the money that they
earn from whatever casual labour is available just is not enough to buy sufficient food
(not helped by the fact that food prices often
rise at this time).
LEAVING NO-ONE BEHIND
Therefore families do not need help to get
food every month of the year; they just need
support through the hungry season.
It is one of those twists of fate that the hungry season in most areas coincides with the
planting and sowing season, which is the
time when people need to work the hardest
to produce the crops for the next year. During this hungry season, without help, they
are reduced to eating one or - if lucky - two
meals a day, and those meals will only be a
tiny portion of injera or kita (local breads)
accompanied by boiled wild greens, including stinging nettles. And not every family
member will eat equally. Often, mothers in
the family will eat the least so that their
husbands and children have enough.
PSNP clients, Afar Region
Photo: Sylwia Pecio
The PSNP provides 50 birr or 15kg of cereal
for each household member each month
for six months to meet this gap. The
amount of money is expected to have an
equal value to the amount of food provided.
When the price of food rises, the PSNP
cash payment also rises.
The value of this support is obviously much
less if it comes once people have already reduced their meal or sold their last sheep. It
is critical that people receive the money or
food before they become hungry. Providing
cash and food every month to 7.9 million
people over a six-month period in a country
with few banks, poor roads and limited
warehouses to store food takes tremendous
effort and resources.
ETHIOPIA’S PRODUCTIVE SAFETY NET & HOUSEHOLD ASSET BUILDING PROGRAMMES
The Ministry of Agriculture, the Ministry of
Finance, banks and the agency responsible
for food distribution all work together to
come up with an annual plan for making
sure that money and food get to the districts
on time. At district level cashiers have been
recruited to manage the paperwork which
ensures that the payment in cash or food
can be accounted for. Community leaders inform families when their payments will be
ready for collection and make sure payment
days proceed efficiently and smoothly.
KEY FACT:
In the PSNP, households receive an average
of $137 per year spread over six months. The
payments are timed so that families receive
them before or during the hungry season.
21
PSNP client identifies themselves to collect payment
Receiving cash and/or food
T
he purpose of the PSNP is to make
sure people have enough to eat, especially at times of the year when food is
scarce. Payments to those most affected
during this time may be made as either food
or money or both. The point of these payments is the same: to make sure people enrolled in the PSNP have sufficient food.
However, circumstances mean that the best
way of achieving this differs.
22
Most people receive wages as money. We
use this to buy food and purchase all the
other things we need and want. We would be
appalled if our employers announced they
were to pay us in food! How would we carry
it home? Would they pay us the food we
wanted to eat or something else? And what
about those other expenses we have: school
uniforms and exercise books, medicines
prescribed by the doctor, transport costs, a
new spade for digging in the garden?
Things are no different for those living in ruLEAVING NO-ONE BEHIND
PSNP clients show their Client Cards
ral Ethiopia. But a Government trying to ensure that people have enough to eat does
not have the luxury of time and resources to
find out what food everyone would prefer.
And managing such a complex combination
of items would be almost impossible. Realistically, they have to provide a standard, limited range of foods: usually just wheat or
maize, sometimes combined with lentils or
dried beans, and oil.
Even with these food items, once the cost of
shipping (if imported) or trucking the food to
rural areas has been added, the cost to the
Government is usually much more than the
value of the food handed over to people in
the PSNP.
Because of this, cash is usually chosen as
the best way of supporting targeted families. Cash enables people to buy their own
food locally and has the added value of
being flexible – people can vary their diet,
as well as pay for other essential household items.
Photos: Sylwia Pecio
PSNP client signs to receive payment
Sometimes though, it is not possible to
give people cash. There are parts of
Ethiopia where nobody is growing enough
food to sell. This means there are only
meagre amounts of locally produced crops
that find their way to the market. Often, the
roads are so terrible and communication so
difficult that not enough food can make its
way there through traders. Other areas are
affected by security concerns and have so
few banks - which are located far away in
town centres - that providing cash would
mean moving significant amounts of money
long distances through areas where bandits may be operating.
All of the payments are made in food in
those areas with security concerns and no
banks. In areas where there is low production and poor markets, it is common to use a
mixture of food and money. Money is provided for the first three payments - where
there still is some food in the markets and
prices have not risen too high - but as food
becomes scarcer and prices rise, payments
are made directly in food.
ETHIOPIA’S PRODUCTIVE SAFETY NET & HOUSEHOLD ASSET BUILDING PROGRAMMES
PSNP client receives cash payment
23
PSNP clients, Afar Region
Photo: Sylwia Pecio
DE LI VER I NG T HE P R OMI SE
The PSNP responds if there is a
drought or other emergency
E
thiopia is prone to frequent periods
of drought, along with outbreaks of
crop and livestock disease, floods
and even earthquakes. People in Ethiopia
are affected by what is happening in the
global economy too: the economic downturn, soaring fuel prices or hikes in the
cost of food. These events affect all
Ethiopians.
In these circumstances, the people in the
PSNP might need more months of support to help them through an extended
hungry season. Neighbours of PSNP families – who are not in the PSNP themselves - may be at risk of losing everything unless they also receive support
quickly.
The PSNP has two ways which help to ensure a quick response:
Contingency funds. These funds can
be immediately released (usually as
cash) to add people to the programme
or increase the number of months people receive support. The local governETHIOPIA’S PRODUCTIVE SAFETY NET & HOUSEHOLD ASSET BUILDING PROGRAMMES
ment authorities (region and district
level) manage these funds.
A Risk Financing Facility. This fund
can be rapidly released if local conditions
(rainfall, for example) are extremely bad
and if contingency funds are exhausted.
These funds might be used for payments
in money or the purchase of food for distribution depending on what is needed.
These instruments allow an active and
much faster response by Government
than the traditional emergency response.
Both can be used at any time (rather than
waiting for the usual annual humanitarian appeal). Neither instrument requires
an anxious period of passive “waitingand-seeing” if any donors decide to respond to the crisis.
KEY FACT:
Being able to quickly expand the programme
during times of crisis ensures that people
who need support unexpectedly can get it
quickly.
25
Increasing the amount of
locally produced food
26
A
t present the amount of food
grown in Ethiopia is not enough to
feed everyone. Ethiopia is therefore dependent on imported food,
whether in the form of food aid or commercial imports. Ethiopia is a landlocked country with no surplus-producing neighbours and the nearest ports
are affected by conflict and political disagreements. So the cost of imported
food is high.
LEAVING NO-ONE BEHIND
Market produce in Dire Dawa
Photos: Sylwia Pecio
These factors, together with the cost of
transporting heavy food items along poor
quality roads, means that the price of food
can fluctuate dramatically in Ethiopia. Food
in PSNP areas can easily be twice the price
of food in areas where large amounts of
food are grown. To make matters worse,
supplies can be interrupted - particularly
during the annual rainy season, which coincides with the hungry months.
Poor farmers worry about this and are eager to receive support to increase production. This support might be in the form of
new, higher-yielding varieties of crops, or
ETHIOPIA’S PRODUCTIVE SAFETY NET & HOUSEHOLD ASSET BUILDING PROGRAMMES
fertilizer or advice on better crop management.
The HABP provides this
support. The HABP provides training in crop
production, including
how to get the most out
of new seeds or fertilizer. It also advises
farmers - who often do
not have any savings where they can borrow
money to buy such
seeds and fertilizer.
27
PSNP client, Amhara Region
Photo: Kelly Lynch
D ELI VE R I NG TH E PR OMI S E
Summary
The PSNP & HABP ensures
people have enough to eat by...
...Providing money and food
to poor families...
...Providing more and better food to
eat and...
M
S
oney and food is being provided to
poor families who need to buy food.
In fact, in 2010 nearly US$80 million and 273 million kg of food were distributed to 7.9 million people. Fortunately 2010
was a relatively good year for food production, and therefore it was not necessary to
trigger additional funding through the Risk
Financing Facility. However, around a third
of the contingency funds
were used. This
helped to make
sure that people
who became unable to feed their
families in the
course of the
year were
brought into
the programme
on a temporary
basis.
ETHIOPIA’S PRODUCTIVE SAFETY NET & HOUSEHOLD ASSET BUILDING PROGRAMMES
tudies show that the PSNP has
helped people to significantly
shorten the time they go hungry.
People being supported by the PSNP report that they are eating better food and
more regular meals than they were before
the programme.
...Increasing the amount of locally
produced food.
29
T
here is an increase in locally produced food. The food that PSNP and
HABP households grow themselves
is lasting longer through the year. Just after
the programme started, drought-affected
PSNP households said on average that
there were more than four months in a year
when they had run out of home-produced
food. By 2010 this had decreased to just
over two and a half months.
DE LI VER I N G T HE P R OMI SE
O
ne of the most common reasons
why the poorest households do not
have enough food is that they do not
have the assets that help them do this.
More than cash, in rural Ethiopia productive
assets determine people’s wealth, for the
following reasons:
30
Ploughing the land - rather than working it by hand - allows farmers to plant
more cereals and produce more harvest. In
Ethiopia, ploughing the land means owning
or being able to borrow oxen.
Sheep and goats act as people’s bank
accounts (current or checking accounts)
in rural Ethiopia. Larger livestock (like
camels and ox) act as people’s investment
accounts. But unlike bank accounts, the
interest rates can be very high - doubling
LEAVING NO-ONE BEHIND
your savings each year as the sheep give
birth to lambs. However, only having one or
two sheep puts you at risk of losing your
savings. Sheep easily get sick and die. The
minimum number of sheep or goats for a
family in the agricultural highlands of
Ethiopia should be around ten. In the drier,
hotter lowlands, the minimum is greater,
between 40 and 50 sheep or goats.
Photos: Sylwia Pecio
In some areas, trees (including fruit
trees and coffee) are important ways of
earning income. So the number of trees
you have can make the difference between
poverty and wealth. But also being able to
irrigate these trees (maybe using a pump
in a small well) makes a huge difference.
ETHIOPIA’S PRODUCTIVE SAFETY NET & HOUSEHOLD ASSET BUILDING PROGRAMMES
But the poorest have very little in the way of
assets. They are likely to have no oxen, only
one or two sheep, and if
they have any trees they
will not have any irrigation and so the harvest
will be minimal.
Preventing households from
having to sell their assets
P
32
ayments of cash and food go to the
very poor through the PSNP to prevent people from going hungry. But
there are other reasons for making sure
that payments are not late. This is to avoid
the things families will do when they do not
have enough food.
In addition to cutting meals and eating food
with little nutritional value, people may be
forced to borrow money at high interest
rates, take their children out of school, or
sell one of their only animals. And the sale
of a breeding sheep means more than just
the loss of that particular sheep: it is the
LEAVING NO-ONE BEHIND
loss of all the lambs that sheep might have
given birth to, which would have provided
income long into the future.
Farmers know this: they will try to avoid selling animals as much as they can. Timely payments from the PSNP really help them. If
payments arrive on time, farmers do not have
to decide whether to eat today or protect assets for tomorrow.
Cash payments also ensure that farmers
have money available if their animals become sick. With the money they can afford
treatment, or even vaccines that might
stop the animal from becoming sick in the
first place.
income sources, such as beehives, weaving
equipment or maybe even a shop.
PSNP client, Tigray Region
While families need to have the money to
buy these assets, they also need to know
how to get the best out of them. The HABP
helps families to do both.
Photos: Sylwia Pecio
KEY FACT:
Timely payments from the PSNP make sure
that people are not forced to sell productive
assets in order to feed their families.
Households increasing their assets
To achieve this, the HABP aims to ensure
there are three ‘development agents’ for
each group of villages. These development
agents are Government staff who have completed a diploma which has provided them
with basic knowledge and skills in their field.
It is the development agents who work with
poor families on a day-to-day basis to build
their assets and their skills.
33
I
t is not enough just to ensure that people
do not have to sell their livestock or other
assets. If that is all that can be done, then
people will need PSNP payments forever.
People need to be in a position to get enough
food themselves without assistance. This
means that families need to have more assets.
Poor people need more of the assets that many
rural people own - livestock, fruit trees and irrigation. They also need different assets for new
ETHIOPIA’S PRODUCTIVE SAFETY NET & HOUSEHOLD ASSET BUILDING PROGRAMMES
Development agents provide families with
information about where they can borrow
money from – usually a local micro-finance institution or a village level savings
and credit cooperative. They also provide
group training on how to get the best out
of any new assets. The development
agents make regular visits to the family to
check how they are getting on, and help
them to overcome any difficulties they
might be experiencing.
DE LI VER I N G T HE P R OMI SE
The family firm and business plans
A
one-off investment is not likely to
eliminate a family’s poverty. In disaster-prone rural Ethiopia, it is usually best not to have all your eggs in one
basket. Instead, a combination of three to
five activities can both give you a reasonable income and also ensure that if one activity faces a problem, the income from the
others can help you to keep going.
Of course, it is necessary to make the right
investments! There is no point in a family
keeping bees if there is no-one who wants
to buy and eat honey, or growing crops
which are not suitable to the climate.
34
So before a family embarks on an investment, the development agents help them
to come up with a business plan for what
could be called the ‘family firm’. In producing the business plan, people have to
think about:
Whether all the activities are feasible
given rainfall, temperature and soil type;
Whether the income they will earn
from each activity is more than the investment;
Whether there are enough people
who want to buy the product they intend
to produce;
Whether there is any opportunity for
activities to complement each other or to
benefit from other investments taking
place in the area. For example, orchards
and bee-keeping complement each other
because the fruit trees offer pollen and
nectar to the bees, and the bees ensure
that the flowers are fertilized and there is
high production of fruit.
It is only after a plan has been produced
and checked that a family is encouraged to
embark on their schemes by taking part in
training provided by the HABP and borrowing money.
KEY FACT:
The HABP provides people with information
on where they can borrow money to buy
assets and advice on how to get the most out
of their new assets. Development agents play
an important role: providing this information
and advice but also by helping families to
produce a business plan to make their ‘family
firm’ successful.
Miller, Tigray Region
Photo: Sylwia Pecio
36
C AS E ST U D I ES:
Amare Berhe , Adi Hutsa Kebele
“While there were some years when the crops did not do
so well, the money I received through the safety net
programme meant I never had to sell anything. If I had
not joined the PSNP I would have had to sell my livestock.”
Jemal Mohammed , Kalu district
“Just after I joined the PSNP I heard from the development agent that I could receive support in growing fruit
trees. I took his advice and planted 10 orange trees .
Since then the development agent has continued to help
me and now I get around 450kg of oranges a year. A year
later I borrowed money to buy 2 oxen. Now I can plough
my own land and get a good crop. Now I have my cropland, my orange trees, a cow and also a small area of irrigated land, enough to grow vegetables 3 times a year.
The sale of vegetables and oranges gives me enough
money to buy food to cover the gap between one harvest
and the next. In fact the oranges are available for harvest just at the peak of the hungry season and bring in
money just when I need it most .”
Photo: Sylwia Pecio
Summary:
37
Protecting existing assets
Building new assets
T
T
he approach is working for protecting existing assets of poor families. A recent evaluation showed
that the number of PSNP families having
to sell animals because they urgently
need cash decreased from 51% in 2006
to 34% in 2010 – a significant reduction.
ETHIOPIA’S PRODUCTIVE SAFETY NET & HOUSEHOLD ASSET BUILDING PROGRAMMES
he HABP is just beginning. However, there
are already three development agents in
most groups of villages, an increase from
the one or two available 5 years ago. People already say that they now receive better support
than they did in the past and families have already
started developing plans for their ‘family firms’.
DE LI VER I N G T HE P R OMI SE
P
46
eople in rural Ethiopia are heavily
reliant on the environment. They depend on the soil to make their crops
grow, on wild grassland to feed their livestock, on forests for fuel for cooking and
heating, and springs, streams and rivers
for drinking water, irrigation and water for
their animals.
But this environment is under threat.
Ethiopia’s long dry seasons followed by
heavy rains means that, across the entire
country, 1.3 billion metric tonnes of fertile
soil are lost each year – the soil is simply
washed away. Grassland and forests have
been cleared for agriculture as the number
of people has increased.
LEAVING NO-ONE BEHIND
The pressure is simply too intense on what
remains of the forests and grasslands. The
grass on the remaining spare land is
quickly eaten by free roaming livestock and
goes back to bare soil, increasing the erosion from heavy rainfall. In the absence of
Public Works client, Oromiya Region
Photo: Sylwia Pecio
alternative sources of fuel, the remaining
trees are quickly being cut down.
The PSNP asks that able-bodied adults
earn their payments by working on projects
that benefit the community. Because of the
ETHIOPIA’S PRODUCTIVE SAFETY NET & HOUSEHOLD ASSET BUILDING PROGRAMMES
severe threat the environment is under,
most of these projects relate to environmental conservation.
DE LI VER I N G T HE P R OMI SE
The community identifies
the public works project
C
ommunities themselves identify
projects that will support them. They
do so using a watershed approach.
Using this approach, the community produces a map of the watershed on which
they draw key features such as streams,
springs or roads, different areas of land
use such as forests, grazing or farmland,
and any problem areas (for example, any
places where the erosion is very severe).
T HE W AT ER S HED APPR O AC H:
A watershed is an area of land which drains water into a shared stream or river. Rain that falls in that watershed will all end up in the same place, as well as any soil it collects along the way as it travels over the
ground. Anything which affects the flow of water in the higher parts of a watershed has impacts downstream.
For example, if an irrigation dam is built upstream that will mean there is less water for people to use downstream. A flood and accompanying erosion upstream will have to work its way down through the watershed
bringing more damage as it comes.
48
By using watersheds as the planning unit, community planning teams can ensure that a project in one area
(like an irrigation dam) does not cause problems downstream. They can also plan to cure downstream problems (such as flooding) at their source (on the hill or mountain tops).
But more than that, by looking at the watershed as a whole, the community can find projects that support
each other. A drainage channel collecting water from a planned and much-needed road can be used to direct
water to irrigate cropland. And, as a result of the work planned for the hilltops (tree planting, soil and water conservation), the amount of water soaking into the earth below will increase, and the springs which will
then appear lower down the hillside can then be developed to provide clean, drinkable water.
LEAVING NO-ONE BEHIND
Public Works client, Oromiya Region
Photo: Sylwia Pecio
D E LI VER I N G T HE P R OMI SE
50
LEAVING NO-ONE BEHIND
Watershed map developed by the community
Photos: Sylwia Pecio
Public Works client, Afar Region
Communities understand their
own problems...
T
he community also discuss the problems they are facing (for example,
that the springs and streams dry up,
that there is a shortage of firewood, that
their crops are affected by pests). They use
the map to analyse these problems so they
understand what causes them. For instance, if a spring dries up, the cause may
be that the lack of grass and trees on the
hills means that the rain runs off quickly
into the rivers and little is absorbed into the
underlying soil and stored to be released
throughout the year.
....and identify solutions.
T
he community can then propose solutions to the causes of its problems.
The solutions may include planting
trees and vegetation and conserving trees
on the hills. Both of these activities will increase the supply of firewood, increase the
ETHIOPIA’S PRODUCTIVE SAFETY NET & HOUSEHOLD ASSET BUILDING PROGRAMMES
Public Works client, Tigray Region
amount of livestock feed and allow water to
be absorbed into the earth. The community
then prioritises the solutions and develops
a workplan of what will be achieved
through the PSNP ‘public works’.
KEY FACT:
By treating a watershed as a whole, the
impact of community projects is enhanced.
Each community project reinforces another,
maximising benefits for those living in the
watershed.
51
52
PSNP - public works projects
O
nce the plans have been finalised, it
is possible to start the work. The
work is timetabled to fit in with the
season when people do not need to spend
so much time working on their farms.
This is usually after the harvest but before the rains start again.
By working at this time, people receive
most of their PSNP payments before the
LEAVING NO-ONE BEHIND
hunger season arrives. This helps them to
have enough money or food to carry them
through their seasonal food shortages.
People are organised into work teams in
their local area. The teams work on
projects to create public works. Essentially the public works are building assets for the entire community. They may
include soil and water conservation
structures, and pond construction,
among other things.
Public Works clients, Afar Region
Photo: Sylwia Pecio
Most of the work is done on communal land,
creating assets which benefit everyone.
Work on private land is not included, as only
the owners would benefit. There is one exception – if continuing soil and water conservation over a stretch of private land is
critical to protecting the whole watershed,
then communities can agree to include that
work if it is for ‘the common good’.
As the projects are local, the people do not
have to travel long distances to work. Once
ETHIOPIA’S PRODUCTIVE SAFETY NET & HOUSEHOLD ASSET BUILDING PROGRAMMES
they have completed a month’s worth of
work, the payroll is sent to the district
office and they receive their payment.
C ASE ST U DI E S:
Fetiha , Alaba District
“I am really happy that I no longer need the
safety net programme, but I will really miss
taking part in the public works. I enjoyed making a difference to my local community and I
will miss the socialising and the sense of solidarity with my fellow workers.”
53
Rehabilitating hillsides
54
I
n all parts of Ethiopia, land has been severely damaged through erosion and
farmers taking more away from the land
than they are giving back. Land productivity
has subsequently declined. Rain no longer
soaks into hillsides and so springs and
streams have disappeared or dry up during
the dry season.
A journey through Tigray Region 20 years
ago would have taken you in and out of rocky,
barren hills where only the toughest blade of
grass would grow and the occasional
LEAVING NO-ONE BEHIND
twisted, thorny bush. Travel through those
same areas today and you will think you are
in a different place. The same barren, rocky
hills are covered in knee-high grass shaded
by a range of bushes and trees.
The change has been brought about by the
hard work of the people through the PSNP.
First the hills were terraced with knee-high
rock walls designed to trap any remaining
soil and the water which was bringing it
down the slope. Between each row of
stones, a series of horseshoe-shaped enclosures were built and planted with a tree
seedling in each. The horseshoe of stones
Hillside terracing in Ahferom Woreda, Tigray Region
Photo: Sylwia Pecio
held the precious soil and trapped rainwater, giving these seedlings a chance of life.
Those living around the hillside agreed not
to cut firewood or let their animals graze
on the re-emerging grasses, ensuring that
the plants survived. Once or twice a year
they would go into these areas to cut the
grass to feed their animals.
Not all parts of Ethiopia are as rocky as
Tigray. In other places these low walls,
known as bunds, are made with earth
planted with grasses selected because
their roots will knit the soil together. But
the commitment to protect the hillsides
ETHIOPIA’S PRODUCTIVE SAFETY NET & HOUSEHOLD ASSET BUILDING PROGRAMMES
from livestock and the trees from being cut
remains the same.
In many areas these terraces are not
enough to prevent soil erosion. Gullies have
been formed and the lines of stone or soil
are not strong enough to withstand the torrents of water which run into the gullies after a rainstorm. To prevent this, larger
stone and cement, or wood and mud check
dams are built at regular intervals down
the gulley. Eventually a series of damp, fertile terraces form. These terraces are ideal
for thirsty fruit trees, the produce of which
can fetch high prices.
55
Summary:
The environment has been
rehabilitated and improved
O
ne of the main goals of the PSNP is
to address environmental degradation, as this is a main reason why
poor households cannot produce more
LEAVING NO-ONE BEHIND
food. Each year, the PSNP initiates approximately 34,000 public works projects.
Around 65,000 hectares of hillside are protected through soil and water conservation
and 240 million trees are planted each year.
And around 1,000 springs are protected
and 42,000 livestock ponds dug, lined and
walled. As already mentioned, the changes
Farmland terracing in Ofla Woreda, Tigray Region
Photo: Sylwia Pecio
can be dramatic. Not only are protected
hillsides covered in trees and grasses, but
new springs have come to life at the bottom
of hills providing clean reliable water.
livestock feed produced in enclosed areas
has doubled.
A study looking at the impact of public
works estimated that the amount of soil
saved as a result of the PSNP is around 58
million tonnes a year and the amount of
KEY FACT:
Public works can be used to transform
degraded environments, breathing new life
into exhausted landscapes.
ETHIOPIA’S PRODUCTIVE SAFETY NET & HOUSEHOLD ASSET BUILDING PROGRAMMES
DE LI VER I N G T HE P R OMI SE
A
s a parent or a family member, we
share many of the same concerns as
people in living in rural Ethiopia. We
worry about where our children will go to
school, we want to know where to take them if
they fall ill and we need to borrow money to
expand businesses.
60
Sadly, the difficulties people in rural Ethiopia
face accessing these services are much
greater than ours. Children have to walk long
distances to squeeze into overcrowded classrooms. The distance they have to travel to get
medical treatment is often even greater.
But the number of facilities and the distances
between them are not the only issue; people
also lack the money to cover even the basic
costs of using services. While schools are free,
children need money for clothes and exercise
LEAVING NO-ONE BEHIND
books. There is no point in going to the nearest
clinic or health post unless you have money to
buy the medicines they prescribe. And even if
you travel to the nearest bank or micro-finance institution, they might not lend you
money because they will worry about whether
or not you can repay.
Health and education
T
he PSNP helps families send children to school and get medical help.
The PSNP builds schools and clin-
School built by PSNP, Hul Barag Woreda, SNNP Region
Photo: Sylwia Pecio
ics. The money paid to PSNP households
enables them to use these services.
The public works planning process helps
communities think through all the things
they need. So classrooms and health clinics
are also included as public works projects.
However, it is not enough just to build these
facilities; it is also important to staff them. So
when communities make a request that construction of a classroom or clinic be included
in the public works, the local education and
health offices check whether they will have
ETHIOPIA’S PRODUCTIVE SAFETY NET & HOUSEHOLD ASSET BUILDING PROGRAMMES
the budget to pay for nurses or teachers.
They also make sure that these facilities are
spaced throughout the district rather than
concentrated in neighbouring villages.
But it is not enough for the facilities just to
exist: people need to have some money to
use them. The payments they receive from
the PSNP (sometimes in return for building
the facilities) help them to cover at least basic expenses.
61
DE LI VER I N G T HE P R OMI SE
People are getting the
social services they need
I
n 2010, 70 health posts and 572 classrooms were constructed by PSNP
households in return for PSNP payments. The new classrooms mean that
children have more space in which to learn
and the health posts mean that people do
not have to travel so far to see a nurse and
get basic medical treatment. People are
using some of their PSNP money to pay for
medical treatment and to buy the materials
they need for school.
62
Because of the PSNP, families have more
money to pay for school books. Children no
longer have to look for paid employment
and families no longer have to migrate during the hungry season to look for work.
As a result, PSNP households say that they
are now able to send more of their children
to school and these children stay in school
for longer and reach higher grades.
LEAVING NO-ONE BEHIND
KEY FACT:
Use of health services and school attendance
has increased because of the support
provided by the PSNP. PSNP payments allow
people to cover the cost of school-books and
drugs, and mean that children no longer have
to look for paid employment. Public works
build and improve health and education
facilities so they can serve more people.
Photo: Sylwia Pecio
DE LI VER I N G T HE P R OMI SE
Financial services
T
he scale, scope and depth of poverty
in rural areas of Ethiopia means that
people generally do not need or want
a bank account to save their money. Most of
the people in the PSNP do not have much,
if any, spare cash. If they do have cash, they
usually ‘invest’ in more livestock or store
the cash in the household. There is very little culture of savings in rural Ethiopia.
64
However, the success of HABP’s support to
families’ businesses depends on people being able to save money with, and borrow
money from, reputable sources and at reasonable interest rates. But there are not very
many financial institutions in rural Ethiopia.
The banks that do exist are often based in
urban areas and not interested in lending to
PSNP and HABP households. If you are a
financial institution, it takes less time and
effort to make one big loan to an urban
business than use the same money to
make 50 small loans to individual farmers.
Plus, if that urban business fails to repay
the money you can take the stock and even
the shop in repayment. The 50 farmers do
LEAVING NO-ONE BEHIND
not have anything that you can easily take
and sell if they fail to repay.
There are some financial institutions that
have specialised in working with rural customers. Micro-finance institutions and
some cooperatives provide loans to farmers in areas where they work. But these
micro-finance institutions and cooperatives
do not work everywhere. So there are many
people whose only chance to borrow money
is from local money-lenders who charge
exorbitant interest rates.
In the past 5 years, development agents
have tried to fill this gap. But they have
been trained in agriculture and environmental management, not to manage loans
and repayments. They are not always able
to make the right decisions about whether
a loan is really viable, and their many work
priorities mean that they do not follow-up
repayments with farmers. The result is that
repayments have been low and this means
the money is not there to lend to new farmers in the future.
h
a
s
f
Are
t
u
m
i
Ay
Rural savings & credit co-operative
client, Ofla Woreda, Tigray Region
Photo: Sylwia Pecio
DE LI VER I N G T HE P R OMI SE
Making financial services
work for the poor
S
ome micro-finance institutions already have special ways of working
with poor rural households. They do
not have individual agreements with each
poor person; they have an agreement with
a group of poor people who know and trust
each other. This group takes the loan and
collectively guarantees repayment. If one
person fails to repay, the other group members have to take on their debt. As group
members are usually friends and neighbours, this helps to stop people from deciding not to repay their loan.
66
The guarantee means that the microfinance institution is willing to lend money
to people who do not have collateral. Farmers are successfully repaying the loans,
making sure that the money is available for
future borrowers. The HABP is working to
make this approach more available to more
people in more areas.
But people need other financial services not
just loans. They need a safe place to save
money, they need to be able to send and reLEAVING NO-ONE BEHIND
ceive money from relatives, and they may
want to insure their livestock or their crops.
HABP is supporting financial institutions to
develop new services to meet these needs.
HABP also provides information and advice.
A key focus of this information and advice
will be the value of regular savings. Savings
mean that there is money available in case
of sudden hardship and to fund a new business venture. The HABP also helps people
to get in the habit of regularly putting
money aside. This habit can help people to
repay loans they take.
Photos: Sylwia Pecio
Creating new institutions
W
here no financial institutions exist, the HABP supports local people to create their own. People
may choose to form a simple village association that encourages people to save,
and loan money when necessary. Sometimes people create a larger, more formal
rural savings and credit cooperative. Either way, the HABP provides people with
the information they need to set up and
run the association, including the creation
of organisation rules and the election of a
management committee.
Village savings and loans associations are
virtually cost-free to run but the loans they
provide are only small.
The Government of Ethiopia plans to create at least one rural savings and credit
cooperative in each kebele (or group of vilETHIOPIA’S PRODUCTIVE SAFETY NET & HOUSEHOLD ASSET BUILDING PROGRAMMES
lages) by 2015. Rural savings and credit
cooperatives are legally registered. It is,
therefore, possible for HABP to provide
them with capital that allows them to
make larger loans.
The HABP will also help micro-finance institutions to set up new branch offices by
providing them with grants to cover establishment costs and the training of staff.
67
KEY FACT:
The HABP is working to increase the
number people supported by financial
institutions. The HABP helps financial
institutions to have rules that allow the poor
to borrow money and encourage them to
save. Also, the HABP is working to increase
the number of small-scale financial
institutions and branches of existing
larger-scale micro-finance institutions.
Community watershed planning process
vary. Therefore, even when there is one
national programme, it needs to be able to
react to what people actually need locally.
Planning where it really matters
M
68
A
lthough many countries of the
world have safety nets and are interested in programmes that can
move people out of poverty, what works in
one country will not have the same effect
in another.
This is even true within one country: the
environmental protection measures
needed in mountainous areas are very different from those needed in flat, lowland
areas; the crops that people can grow will
be different and access to markets will
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any of the most important decisions about what the PSNP and
HABP are going to do are made by
communities and programme households:
HABP households draw up their own
business plans and in doing so, let the development agents and the technical staff
know what advice and help they need.
Community targeting groups in the
PSNP decide who will be in the safety net
programme.
Community planning groups in the
PSNP decide what public works the programme will build.
People are helping themselves.
The PSNP and HABP are part of a commitment by Government to change how planning in the rural areas is done, so now it re-
Photos: Sylwia Pecio
Completed watershed plan
flects people’s needs and their abilities and
really can change their lives for the better.
The family and community level plans feed
into plans at village and then district level.
At district level decisions are made on how
to support these plans: for instance, how
many corrugated iron sheets are needed,
how much cement has to be bought, and
what kind of field visits the district staff
will have to make, and how often.
Plans are also checked to make sure that
the ideas put forward by communities will
work: will there really be markets for
what is produced through the household
business plans? And have the soil and
water conservation ideas been organised
in a way which will prevent erosion? Community plans are also fine-tuned so they
make sense at a district level: that one
road connects a series of villages (rather
than each village having a separate road)
and that health posts are distributed
throughout the district.
ETHIOPIA’S PRODUCTIVE SAFETY NET & HOUSEHOLD ASSET BUILDING PROGRAMMES
Planning for the PSNP and HABP is part of
the general planning that happens in each
district. These district plans cover everything that will happen there, whether it is to
do with education, health, agriculture, business, roads, or the environment. By joining
up plans, the Government ensures that activities of different programmes and ministries can complement each other. Health
posts built by the PSNP are staffed by the
Ministry of Health. The new tarmac road
brings new market opportunities which can
be exploited.
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This also empowers local Government authorities at district level to their
responsibilities to local citizens. This improves performance at the local
level and reduces
the burden on Federal Government.
PSNP client, Chefra Woreda, Afar Region
Photos: Sylwia Pecio
DE LI VER I N G T HE P R OMI SE
PSNP, HABP & Agricultural Growth
Programme
PSNP, HABP & National Nutrition
Programme
T
F
Although it does not work in the same areas
as PSNP and HABP, the Agricultural Growth
Programme’s research on crop varieties and
livestock breeds will provide advice to PSNP
and HABP households.
PSNP & HABP are tackling these causes:
Food: PSNP transfers are increasing
the amount of food there is to eat and
HABP is increasing income and crop production.
Looking after children: Pregnant and
breastfeeding women receive transfers
and attend health and nutrition education
classes without working in PSNP.
Illness: PSNP public works are being
used to protect sources of drinking water,
construct health clinics and PSNP transfers allow people to pay for health care.
he Agricultural Growth Programme
expects to increase crop yields and animal production and create employment. These are very similar objectives to
the HABP. While the PSNP and HABP work
in the poorest areas, the Agricultural Growth
Programme works in those areas where
there is a history of good production. Surprisingly, sometimes these areas are next to
each other.
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The Agricultural Growth Programme provides technical advice and seeds, amongst
other things, so that farmers can develop
activities that will create employment for
others. For instance, increased fruit production may create employment in canning
factories, dried-fruit preparation and jammaking. These newly created jobs give poor
farmers a different way to earn money.
LEAVING NO-ONE BEHIND
ifty percent of Ethiopia’s children are
under-nourished. Malnutrition is not
caused by any one thing. Instead, it is
the result of a mixture of what children eat,
how well they are looked after and whether
they get sick.
In addition, the National Nutrition Programme ensures vaccination against illnesses, provides Vitamin A and iodine (essential micro-nutrients) and treats childhood
illnesses such as diarrhoea and measles.
Revitalized watershed now used by the community for cultivating vegetables
Photo: Sylwia Pecio
PSNP, HABP & managing the
risk of a disaster
E
80
thiopians continue to live in an environment when the next drought,
flood or outbreak of crop or livestock
disease is just around the corner. There is
also a real chance that disasters may become more common because of climate uncertainties.
The Government is taking steps to move
from a situation where they can only respond to a problem with blunt instruments
(such as food aid) to a situation where they
can actively manage and prevent disasters.
The public works element of the PSNP aims
to tackle the increased risk of a disaster afLEAVING NO-ONE BEHIND
fecting people’s lives and livelihoods. The
public works aim to increase irrigation so
effects of droughts are not so severe, improve soil and water conservation measures
so that water lasts longer and agricultural
production becomes stronger and increase
employment outside of agriculture so fewer
people rely on only one risky income.
All PSNP districts have now prepared contingency plans: they already know what they
are going to do the minute a crisis strikes.
And PSNP districts have contingency funds
that allow them to start a response quickly,
while other funding is organised.
These contingency plans and quick financing mean that emergency responses, when
they are needed, are more effective.
Reclaimed land, Wukro Woreda, Tigray Region
Photo: Sylwia Pecio
PSNP & climate change adaptation
C
limatic uncertainty remains one of
the greatest threats to PSNP households. This is why the PSNP public
works programme is designed to rejuvenate
the agricultural resource base and mitigate
the negative impacts of climate change.
PSNP public works have focused on soil and
water conservation activities, along with
roads and irrigation. By promoting, financing
and implementing ways of managing the
land better, the PSNP has proven to contribute to environmental transformation at
scale in Ethiopia and mitigate negative impacts of climate change. For this reason, it
has been referred to as the biggest climate
change adaptation programme in Africa.
ETHIOPIA’S PRODUCTIVE SAFETY NET & HOUSEHOLD ASSET BUILDING PROGRAMMES
A study of the PSNP public works concluded that soil and water conservation activities are dramatically reducing surface
runoff, increasing infiltration, raising
groundwater levels, enhancing spring
yields, increasing stream base flows and
wood and herbaceous vegetation cover. Additionally, the number of domestic water
supplies has doubled. All of this increases
households resilience to climate change.
The PSNP is not only attempting to reverse
the damage to the land done so far. It also
aims to avoid any unintended contributions
to climate change in the future. In particular, public works are screened for possible
negative environmental impacts, thereby
ensuring that these subprojects do not unintentionally contribute to climate change.
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PSNP client, Tigray Region
Photo: Sylwia Pecio
D ELI VE R I NG TH E PR OMI S E
Social protection
S
ocial protection is a term used to describe a range of strategies and programmes aimed at ensuring a minimum standard of livelihood for all people
in a country. This includes safety nets such
as the PSNP, old age pensions, fuel and
food subsidies, disability benefits and unemployment insurance schemes. Such
programmes are needed everywhere, but
are particularly important in poor countries where many people are vulnerable to
droughts and sudden market price rises,
as well as other problems in the household, such as death and sickness.
The PSNP payments to the poorest households help to protect the most vulnerable
people, especially those who are elderly,
disabled, pregnant women or children.
When payments are delivered on time,
studies show that the PSNP has a significant impact on protecting income and assets in the household. This is because
people have confidence that they will receive the payment – the reliability of the
payment acts as a form of insurance if
things go wrong.
ETHIOPIA’S PRODUCTIVE SAFETY NET & HOUSEHOLD ASSET BUILDING PROGRAMMES
The PSNP acts as a social protection instrument to ensure people have enough to eat
and do not have to sell assets to buy food.
In addition to the PSNP, the Government is
involved in a number of small-scale social
protection programmes:
Pensions are available for staff who
have provided more than ten years of service to the Government. Recent legislation
has opened up the pension service to people who work for private organisations.
Schools in a number of areas offer a
school feeding programme that ensures
all students at the school get at least one
good meal a day, improving their ability to
study and providing an incentive for children to stay at school.
The Government has periodically
made bulk sales of wheat or maize to stabilise food prices which were quickly increasing.
So far, there has not been an effort to link up
all these programmes to make sure that all
Ethiopians can receive support when they
need it. The Government is now drafting a
social protection policy and strategy that will
help define how the above programmes and
services will evolve in the future.
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GR A DU AT ION
T
he aim of the PSNP and HABP is to
work together to move families out of
poverty. To get families to a position
where they have enough food today and
have confidence they will be able to do so
tomorrow. And not just today and tomorrow,
but next year and the year after. This is important for the families who have been living in poverty - but it is also valuable for the
country as a whole.
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People living in poverty cannot make the
contributions they want to make to the
country’s growth. This is because:
They cannot buy as much as other
people and so do not create demand for
goods and services. So other people who
supply these goods and services - their
neighbours and fellow countrymen - also
cannot make as much money.
They cannot produce as much as
other people because they cannot make
the best use of their land and labour.
They cannot buy seed for crops with
higher yields, or the fertilizer which will
increase the amount of grain produced.
They cannot buy the oxen, which will
plough the land, increasing production.
The effort they could put into agricultural
LEAVING NO-ONE BEHIND
activities is diverted to casual labour, collecting and selling firewood, etc.
Their children get pulled out of
school and so do not complete education.
This in turn means that they do not earn
as much, produce as much or buy as
much when they become adults.
They pay little in the way of tax,
which can fund social & Government
services. And their low purchasing power
also means that others have less income
that can be taxed.
Poor people tend to be malnourished. Malnourished children become
adults who contribute less to the country’s economy.
Photo: Sylwia Pecio
Photo: Sylwia Pecio
What is graduation?
spare for any small problems.
J
The second level of graduation is when
households no longer need the special
support that HABP provides. At this level
of graduation, families are expected to be
able to feed themselves in all but the
worst years.
86
ust as students graduate out of university when they have successfully
completed their degree, households
in the Food Security Programme can
graduate out of the programme.
Two levels of graduation have been defined. The first is when households in the
PSNP leave the programme because their
families have enough to eat - without the
PSNP money - and have a little bit to
LEAVING NO-ONE BEHIND
Photo: Sylwia Pecio
How do you graduate?
F
programmes provide additional infrastructure,
87
give people new opportunities (whether
through resettlement or employment in neighbouring agricultural areas), improve nutrition,
manage risk and continue to make sure there
is support for those who need it.
The other programmes that the PSNP and
HABP coordinate with also play a role. These
But also playing their part are the broader economic growth and urbanisation initiatives in
Ethiopia. Increased employment opportunities
and accompanying urbanisation are providing
people with futures outside rain-fed agriculture will also help the move out of poverty.
amilies can graduate when they can access sufficient food without selling their
livestock or other assets and when they
have increased their assets and their income.
In rural Ethiopia, an essential part of graduation is a protected and improved environment.
This is exactly what the PSNP and HABP are
trying to achieve.
ETHIOPIA’S PRODUCTIVE SAFETY NET & HOUSEHOLD ASSET BUILDING PROGRAMMES
Photo: Sylwia Pecio
When does a family graduate?
E
very family in the PSNP understands that they are expected to
leave the programme when they can
meet their family’s food needs.
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For some families, this knowledge is enough
and they ask to be taken off the programme
when they are ready. They may want to
spend more time working on their land or
get more involved in business activities. Or
they hope that other members of their community who they know are poorer than them
will now be able to take part in the PSNP.
In addition, local government staff and community committees review the list of people
enrolled in the PSNP at the end of each year.
Because these people are their neighbours –
LEAVING NO-ONE BEHIND
who live, eat and breathe side-by-side with
them - they have a strong sense of which
members of the PSNP are doing well. Those
who have shown strong increases in assets
since they joined the programme are fully
assessed. All the assets which they own are
listed. Those who now own enough livestock,
fruit trees and irrigated land to provide sufficient food for the family are chosen to become graduates. The ‘graduates’ are informed and if they disagree with the decision
they can appeal.
Once the list of graduates is confirmed, the
list is posted at the village centre. Many villages and districts believe that graduation is
worth celebrating and hold ceremonies to
recognise graduates’ achievements. They are
given certificates and some may receive rewards or even gifts of farm tools.
Photo: Sylwia Pecio
Graduation is working
G
raduation from the PSNP and HABP
has been slow – but that is because
getting people out of poverty is hard
work and takes a long time!
Despite this, in recent years as programme
benefits are beginning to be realised and
people’s hard work and investment are paying off, the numbers of graduates has increased.
Because of the rejuvenation of the land and
the access that people now have to finance,
markets, business advice and social services there are real success stories.
However, despite all of the good intentions
and hard work, not everyone will be able to
ETHIOPIA’S PRODUCTIVE SAFETY NET & HOUSEHOLD ASSET BUILDING PROGRAMMES
sustainably graduate in rural Ethiopia.
A safety net and complementary programmes are likely to be needed for some
time to come.
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C ASE ST U DI ES :
Jemal Mohammed , Kalu District
“I was at a meeting of safety net households. The
Government staff were telling us that if our lives
have improved and we can now feed our families
we should volunteer to leave the PSNP. I thought
about this and informed the kebele that I was
willing to graduate. They came and looked at the
different things I have - the orange trees, the animals - and they approved my graduation.
For me graduation means that I can provide
enough food for my family and I can do that because of the crops I produce and my vegetable
garden. Now this is possible, my wife and I can
focus on our own land rather than doing the hard
work involved in public works.
Before I joined the programme I had nothing. A
small bit of land and just the calf my parents
gave me as a wedding present. Now I have two
oxen, a cow, ten orange trees and a small area of
irrigated land for vegetables. Although I still
have to buy food, the money I earn from selling
oranges and vegetables is more than enough.”
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Ababu Dinin , Wogedi District
“For me graduation means being able to eat
properly, having a good house and owning
things like livestock. The local development
agent came to my house and asked me about
the different things I owned: the animals, what
crops I was producing, things like that. The development agent said that my status was good
and I was ready to graduate.
Now I own 2 oxen and 5 sheep, and I produce
teff, chickpeas, vegetables and wheat. My wife
and I have also set up a small bar selling locally brewed beer and soft drinks.
The difference between when I started the
PSNP and now is the distance between the
earth and the sky.” .”
LEAVING NO-ONE BEHIND
LEAVING
NO-0NE BEHIND
Ethiopia’s Productive Safety Net &
Household Asset Building Programmes