LEAVING NO-0NE BEHIND - Coroflots3images.coroflot.com/user_files/individual_files/44533...LEAVING NO-ONE BEHIND 4 The Productive Safety Net Programme (PSNP) has been working for more

LEAVING NO-0NE BEHIND

Ethiopia’s Productive Safety Net & Household Asset Building Programmes

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.

AAC KNOW LED GE MENTS

ETHIOPIA’S PRODUCTIVE SAFETY NET & HOUSEHOLD ASSET BUILDING PROGRAMMES

FF 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 IOP I A . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .8 -9

B IR TH OF TH E N EW F OOD SE C UR IT Y COA L I T I ON . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 0 - 1 1

D EL I VER I NG TH E PR OM IS E . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 2 -83

F i nd i n g & r each i ng t he peop l e who need suppo r t . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 3 - 19

Food : ensu r i n g peop l e ha ve enough t o e a t . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20 -29

Asse t s : he l p i n g peop l e t o p r o t ec t wha t t he y ha ve & ga i n mo re . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30 -37

Ma rke t s : mak i ng ma rke t s pe r f o rm be t t e r . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 8 -45

En v i r onmen t : s ecu r i n g t he en v i r onmen t f o r p eop l e t oda y & i n t he f u t u r e . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46 -59

Soc i a l s e r v i c e s : peop l e g e t t i n g t he s e r v i c e s t he y need . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60-67

L oca l & na t i ona l d ec i s i on -mak i ng : mak ing dec is ions that improve loca l l i ve l ihoods . . . . . . . . . . . 68 - 75

Co -o r d i na t i on : mak i ng t he l i n k s w i t h o t he r Go ve rnmen t i n i t i a t i v e s . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76 -83

G R A D U A T I O N . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 4 - 9 1

TABLE OF CON TEN TS

LEAVING NO-ONE BEHIND

44

The Productive Safety Net Programme(PSNP) has been working for more than 5years. It has had dramatic transformativeeffects on people and households in ruralareas of Ethiopia that were previouslysuffering from regular food shortages.

Before the PSNP, emergency food aidused to be given to these people – but thisoften came late and did not always coverhousehold needs. While food aid did savelives, it did not contribute to developmentactivities that could address underlyingcauses of people going hungry.

Today, thanks to PSNP, approximately7.8 million people receive assistance in atimely and predictable way that allows themto feed themselves.

At the same time, people are able toparticipate in initiatives that help to developthe community, in exchange for support fromPSNP. Thanks to peoples' participation in thePSNP:

vast areas of previously barren landhave been transformed into productive andfertile areas, with more reliable supplies ofwater for agriculture, livestock and people.

F ORE WOR D

Dear Readers

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approx. 9,000 kilometres of roads arebuilt and maintained every year throughcommunity labour, which links people tomarkets.

hundreds more health clinics andschools are available in PSNP areas – allbuilt by local people, with local skills andlocal resources.

The PSNP has also enabled people toinvest small amounts of money in their future,rather than using the money to feedthemselves today.

PSNP, together with the Household AssetBuilding Programme, has had significant

impacts on economic growth. It has promotedagricultural livelihoods, increased productiveinvestments and increased market demand.All of these are critical to achieve inclusivegrowth and transformation in Ethiopia.

This book will provide you with insights tothe transformational effects of the PSNP andhow the PSNP has put people first in thecommunity - and in doing so movedthousands of communities from fragilitytowards stability.

We hope you enjoy reading,

* 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.

HE Ato Mitiku Kassa, Edmond Wega, Denis Thieulin *

The majority of Ethiopians live in ru-ral areas as farmers and pastoral-ists. They rely on agriculture and

livestock for their livelihoods. This is afragile existence. They are heavily de-pendent on unreliable rainfall to ensurethat their families are fed and clothed,their livestock can graze and there isenough seed for next year’s planting. Thisdependence has failed them.

The rains are unpredictable and increas-ingly erratic. Much of Ethiopia’s soil isprone to erosion and loss of fertility. Andconflict has created further complica-tions for how millions of Ethiopians ac-cess food. This fragility has caused dis-aster for millions of families.

In the past, these families were supportedby unpredictable food aid. Each family re-ceiving this aid had an individual story oftragedy: children dead or stunted ingrowth, other family members sick or dy-ing, livestock dead or sold, and familiesdisrupted by a frantic search for seasonalemployment.

The Government’s Food Security Pro-gramme represents a concerted effort togive people and their families a different fu-ture. It has four components, two of whichare discussed in detail in this book:

The Productive Safety Net Programme (PSNP) aims to relieve fami-lies of the short-term effects of their des-titution. It ensures that there is food in thehousehold and frees up parents to make


66

INTR ODU CT ION

investments in the future. It does thisthrough giving cash or food payments tovery poor households. Most of these pay-ments go to people in return for theirwork on improving their communities.These activities, known as a ‘public works’,include working on soil and water conser-vation, road building, and construction ofschools and clinics.

The Household Asset Building Pro-gramme (HABP) aims to provide longerterm solutions for these same families. Ithelps families to diversify and increasetheir incomes. It supports them to comeup with a plan to improve their livelihoods,trains them in the skills they need tomake these improvements, and providesthem with information on where they canborrow money to fund these changes.

Lessons from many different projects, im-plemented over time in Ethiopia, have con-tributed to the design of the PSNP andHABP. Without drawing on these lessons,the PSNP and HABP would not be as suc-cessful as they are today.

This book describes how the PSNP andHABP work and how the Food Security Pro-gramme will provide families with the op-portunity of a better future. It provides abrief history of food security in Ethiopia andthe reforms which took place to make theFood Security Programme possible. It thendescribes how the expected results of theFood Security Programme will be achievedwith the contribution of PSNP and HABP. Fi-nally it considers how these efforts arehelping people to move out of poverty.


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Tigray, Ofla Woreda

Photo: Sylwia Pecio

The history of humanity tells the storyof a struggle for survival. Ethiopia isno exception. The earliest recorded

mention of famine in Ethiopia was in 250BC. More than 19 episodes of severe foodshortage have been recorded in Ethiopiasince 1895. But it was the dramatic im-ages of famines in 1972 and 1984 whichcame to the world’s attention and have(wrongly) made Ethiopia synonymous withdrought and famine.

The dependence of the vast majority of thepopulation on rain-fed agriculture and live-stock-keeping, coupled with Ethiopia’s geo-graphic location, means people are extremelyvulnerable to frequent years of poor rainfall.

The environments in which people growtheir crops and keep their livestock alsoprovide challenges. Much of Ethiopia’sagricultural land is found in the mountain-ous highlands, where steep slopes, wide-ranging temperatures and inaccessibilityimpede farmers. Meanwhile, the peoplewho rely on livestock for their livelihoodand live in lowland areas suffer from hightemperatures, long dry seasons and fewpermanent water sources.

Adding to this situation are ever-increasingpopulations on diminishing landholdings,more pressure on common grazing land,and a lack of technical innovation to im-prove agriculture.

In good years crop production can be sub-stantial. But a lack of capacity for storage,poor distribution to markets and the fallin prices of grains because there is toomuch being sold, prevent people from be-ing able to earn more or save and storefood for bad times.

In years when the rains are late, or do notcome at all, crops fail. People are forced tosell their main assets – livestock – forrock-bottom prices just to be able to feedthemselves. Their remaining livestockholdings are insufficient to allow them torebuild their herds through breeding.Once livestock holdings fall below a cer-tain threshold, the family is sucked into adownward spiral from which it is almostimpossible to escape or recover.

For more than 30 years, the main re-sponse to drought was food aid. Whilethis aid did enable basic survival, it did


88

FOOD SE CUR I T Y IN E TH IOP IA“Starving peasants appealed to Emperor Iyasu I, crying thatif he did not feed them they would die. In response theEmperor and his nobles fed an uncountable number of thedestitute for two months.”

Description of the 1702 Famine

Richard Pankhurst, 1961

not help people to withstand futuredroughts. Added to this was that food aidarrived only when people had already en-tered the downward spiral. As a result,people’s needs became more frequent astheir ability to withstand even small prob-lems was steadily eroded. Consequently,nearly 8 million people found themselvesin a situation of extreme fragility. Evenwhen rainfall was good they could nottake advantage of the rains to get enoughfood for their families. They could notgrow enough food, they had no livestockto sell and daily labouring was scarce andpoorly paid.

When given even a small chance, people inEthiopia do pull themselves out of poverty.That is why the percentage of people inEthiopia living below the internationalpoverty line has decreased from 60.5% in1995 to 39% in 2005. And while each yearsome people become unable to feed theirfamilies, a similar number, or more, suc-ceed in exiting poverty.

So there is hope and there are opportuni-ties in Ethiopia to be seized - but it is nec-essary to make sure that everyone has ac-cess to these opportunities and thatno-one is left behind.


99

Photo: Sylwia Pecio


110

THE N EW F OOD

SECU R I T Y COAL I T ION

By 2003, the failure of the emergencyresponse system was evident toeveryone in Ethiopia. From 1994 un-

til 2004, between 2 and 14 million peopleneeded food aid every year. Discussionabout possible reform began in the 1990s,but it was not until the early 2000s that theidea became popular. A major crisis in low-land areas of the south and west of Ethiopiain 1999-2000, followed by a widespreaddrought affecting the whole country in2002-2003, provided the Government anddonors with the impetus they needed. In 2003, in an attempt to look at the under-lying causes of food security, the Govern-ment launched a series of consultationswith donors, UN agencies and civil society.These consultations led to the New Coali-tion for Food Security. There was broadagreement amongst coalition membersthat reform was needed, but the nature ofthat reform was subject to disagreement.

The compromise was seen in the launch ofthe Food Security Programme, the Govern-ment’s main instrument to operationalizethe New Coalition. The Food Security Pro-gramme consisted of three components,with a fourth component added in 2009:

1 A PSNP for very poor households; 2 Provision of agricultural and financialservices to the poor through the HABP;3 Resettlement of families from land suf-fering from erosion and loss of soil fertility; 4 Provision of critical community-level in-frastructure.

These four components are expected to re-sult 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 rehabili-

tated;People now, and in the future, are

able to make the decisions that improvelivelihoods in the face of new challenges;and

People have confidence to make in-vestments and stand on their own twofeet.

How the PSNP and HABP contribute tothese results is described in the followingchapters.

PPublic Works client, Kombolcha, Oromiya Region

Photo: Sylwia Pecio

Public Works client, Berhaale, Afar Region

Photo: Sylwia Pecio


113

Like any country, Ethiopia cannot pro-vide support to everyone who wants it,so it targets those who need it most.

But finding out who needs it most seemsalmost impossible. There is neither a com-prehensive set of information on how muchfood or income each family has, nor any re-alistic way of getting it.

But important information is available. TheGovernment does know which districts havesuffered the most frequent droughts andhave repeatedly received food aid in the past.So targeting starts from identifying thesedistricts and focusing the PSNP and HABPhere. Almost half of all rural districts haverepeatedly received food aid and are there-fore included in the programme.

In addition, Ethiopia has traditional, close-knit communities in rural areas wherepeople know every detail of each other’slives. Everyone knows how many cattle hisor her neighbours have, whether they areable to irrigate their crops and whether ornot they have enough food on the table.These communities also share the viewthat support should be targeted to thepoorest households.

The PSNP harnesses this knowledge by set-ting up community committees who are re-sponsible for finding out who is really inneed of cash and/or food - and of these fam-ilies who can work and who cannot work.The committee members agree amongthemselves what are the main characteris-tics of families who do not have enough food(not just this year but year-in-year-out). Thismight include the fact that the family has lit-tle or no livestock, or few cash crops such ascoffee. Or it could be a family where thegrandparents are looking after the childrenbecause both the parents died or the adultsin the family are disabled. The committeemembers then consider and compare all thepeople in their village and decide who shouldbe included in the programme.

D EL IV ER ING TH E P ROMISE

Finally, the list of people who might beincluded in the programme is read outin a village meeting, which everyonecan attend. Anyone can make a sug-gestion for an adjustment and eachsuggestion is discussed before the listis finalized.

Even then, if someone feels that theyhave been unfairly left out of the pro-gramme they can appeal, first to a lo-cal appeals committee. If that is notsuccessful they can appeal to the dis-trict government.

114

CC ASE ST U DIE S :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 theirfarm and 2 bags of grain to keep us going. We really struggled; there just was not enough food. I was not evenable 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 DistrictI was selected for the PSNP because of the terrible drought.Our village faced drought in 3 consecutive years. Because ofthis I had nothing, all my livestock had gone and there wereno crops in the field. I had no oxen and used to work on another man’s land for 2 days in return for borrowing hisoxen for 1 day.

15

Hawsen Woreda, Tigray Region

Photo: Sylwia Pecio

KEY FACT:The PSNP has three ways of making sure the rightpeople are getting support:

People must live in the areas where there isa history of support.

A community committee assesseseveryone’s poverty and proposes who should beincluded in the programme.

The community verifies that those identifiedare the poorest and those who most need support.

Involving the community in identifying the peoplewho really need support builds local ownership ofthe programme and acceptance of the results.

PPhoto: Sylwia Pecio

Public Works client, Atsim Womberta, Tigray Region

SSupport in exchange for work

The community committees do notjust find out who needs the food ormoney that the programme can pro-

vide. They also check whether the selectedfamilies will be able to work on communitydevelopment projects, called public works,in exchange for the cash and/or food trans-fers. If they cannot, because of old age ordisability for example, families can get sup-port from the PSNP for free.

To decide whether a family should be identi-fied as a ‘working family’ is not always easy.Most families have two parents who canwork enough days on public works projectsto earn the cash or food to feed their family.But there are many exceptions: familieswhere one parent has died or is disabled, orwhere the only adults are elderly and notcapable of hard physical work. And in otherfamilies the mother may be heavily preg-nant and physical work could put her andthe baby’s life in danger.

The committee decides what work eachfamily can or cannot do on the basis of pro-gramme rules: a family is entitled to 5 daysof work per family member; only adults are

eligible to work and no adult should have towork more than 15 days a month. Days of afamily’s entitlement that cannot be workedfor by adult family members are still cov-ered by the PSNP.

The following are 3 typical examples of thekinds of families that the community com-mittees have to assess:

Two-parent family: Most PSNPhouseholds are two-parent families withthree to four children, which means amaximum of 25-30 days of work. The twoparents can easily cover the work require-ment by working between 10 and 15 dayseach. So all the PSNP payments areearned through working on the pro-gramme.

Two parents but with a pregnantmother: Many PSNP households areyoung families, still in their childbearingyears. It is therefore very likely that therewill be times when the mother is pregnant.A family of five could give 25 days of workin a month, but if the husband did all thiswork there would be no time to do any-thing on the family farm. This is why thelimit of 15 days per adult was set. Moneyor food payments for three of the familymembers will be provided in return for


17

D EL IVE R ING TH E PROMIS E

public works, but the remaining twofamily members will get their supportwithout a labour contribution.

Elderly couple: Sadly, the elderlymake up a relatively high proportion ofthe poor. Given their hard and fragilelives, few have managed to save moneyfor their old age. An elderly couple mayoften be looking after a grandchild;maybe the parents died or divorced. Un-

less the grandchild is an adult, this familywill receive all their money and food pay-ments without taking part in public works.

Around 85% of PSNP payments are paid forparticipation in public works, the remaining15% are provided to families for free be-cause of their circumstances.



119


KEY FACT:Different families can provide differentamounts of labour. Often it is the poorestfamilies who can offer least. Including boththose who can work in exchange for PSNPpayments, and those who cannot,acknowledges this reality and ensuresequity among households.

Summary;

The PSNP & HABP are reaching thepeople who most need support

Independent data confirm that the areascovered by the safety net are among the-most likely areas to be in need in Ethiopia.

Studies show that most people living in thecommunities where PSNP and HABP workunderstand how people are selected for theprogramme and believe that the poorestfamilies are included. Studies also confirmthat people who have been chosen for theprogramme have less income and fewerassets, such as livestock, than those not in-cluded in the programme. This shows thatthose in the PSNP really are the poorerfamilies in the community.

PSNP clients, Oromiya Region

Photo: Sylwia Pecio

KEY FACT:Having the Government and communitiesidentify those people who really needsupport means that the right people arereached, and that both officials andcommunity members are satisfied that acorrect process was completed.

The first priority of the PSNP is to reli-ably provide money or food to thepeople who do not have enough to eat.

While most of the families targeted by thePSNP grow some of their food, they alsobuy an equal amount. They are able to buymore food through the sale of cash crops,the offspring from their livestock andthrough casual labour.

But each year there is a period of up to sixmonths when they do not have enough food.This period arrives when they have alreadyeaten what is left of last year’s harvest, theyhave no more livestock offspring to sell, ca-sual labour work is scarce because it is notharvesting season and the money that theyearn from whatever casual labour is avail-able just is not enough to buy sufficient food(not helped by the fact that food prices oftenrise at this time).

Therefore families do not need help to getfood every month of the year; they just needsupport through the hungry season.

It is one of those twists of fate that the hun-gry season in most areas coincides with theplanting and sowing season, which is thetime when people need to work the hardestto produce the crops for the next year. Dur-ing this hungry season, without help, theyare reduced to eating one or - if lucky - twomeals a day, and those meals will only be atiny portion of injera or kita (local breads)accompanied by boiled wild greens, includ-ing stinging nettles. And not every familymember will eat equally. Often, mothers inthe family will eat the least so that theirhusbands and children have enough.


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DELIVERING THE PROMISE

The PSNP provides 50 birr or 15kg of cerealfor each household member each monthfor six months to meet this gap. Theamount of money is expected to have anequal value to the amount of food provided.When the price of food rises, the PSNPcash payment also rises.

The value of this support is obviously muchless if it comes once people have already re-duced their meal or sold their last sheep. Itis critical that people receive the money orfood before they become hungry. Providingcash and food every month to 7.9 millionpeople over a six-month period in a countrywith few banks, poor roads and limitedwarehouses to store food takes tremendouseffort and resources.

The Ministry of Agriculture, the Ministry ofFinance, banks and the agency responsiblefor food distribution all work together tocome up with an annual plan for makingsure that money and food get to the districtson time. At district level cashiers have beenrecruited to manage the paperwork whichensures that the payment in cash or foodcan be accounted for. Community leaders in-form families when their payments will beready for collection and make sure paymentdays proceed efficiently and smoothly.


221

PSNP clients, Afar RegionPhoto: Sylwia Pecio

KEY FACT:In the PSNP, households receive an averageof $137 per year spread over six months. Thepayments are timed so that families receivethem before or during the hungry season.

RReceiving cash and/or food

The purpose of the PSNP is to makesure people have enough to eat, espe-cially at times of the year when food is

scarce. Payments to those most affectedduring this time may be made as either foodor money or both. The point of these pay-ments is the same: to make sure people en-rolled in the PSNP have sufficient food.However, circumstances mean that the bestway of achieving this differs.

Most people receive wages as money. Weuse this to buy food and purchase all theother things we need and want. We would beappalled if our employers announced theywere to pay us in food! How would we carryit home? Would they pay us the food wewanted to eat or something else? And whatabout those other expenses we have: schooluniforms and exercise books, medicinesprescribed by the doctor, transport costs, anew spade for digging in the garden? Things are no different for those living in ru-

ral Ethiopia. But a Government trying to en-sure that people have enough to eat doesnot have the luxury of time and resources tofind out what food everyone would prefer.And managing such a complex combinationof items would be almost impossible. Real-istically, they have to provide a standard, lim-ited range of foods: usually just wheat ormaize, sometimes combined with lentils ordried beans, and oil.

Even with these food items, once the cost ofshipping (if imported) or trucking the food torural areas has been added, the cost to theGovernment is usually much more than thevalue of the food handed over to people inthe PSNP.

Because of this, cash is usually chosen asthe best way of supporting targeted fami-lies. Cash enables people to buy their ownfood locally and has the added value ofbeing flexible – people can vary their diet,as well as pay for other essential house-hold items.


22

PSNP client identifies themselves to collect payment PSNP clients show their Client Cards

Sometimes though, it is not possible togive people cash. There are parts ofEthiopia where nobody is growing enoughfood to sell. This means there are onlymeagre amounts of locally produced cropsthat find their way to the market. Often, theroads are so terrible and communication sodifficult that not enough food can make itsway there through traders. Other areas areaffected by security concerns and have sofew banks - which are located far away intown centres - that providing cash wouldmean moving significant amounts of moneylong distances through areas where ban-dits may be operating.

All of the payments are made in food inthose areas with security concerns and nobanks. In areas where there is low produc-tion and poor markets, it is common to use amixture of food and money. Money is pro-vided for the first three payments - wherethere still is some food in the markets andprices have not risen too high - but as foodbecomes scarcer and prices rise, paymentsare made directly in food.


PPSNP client signs to receive payment PSNP client receives cash payment

23

Phot

os: S

ylw

ia P

ecio

PPSNP clients, Afar RegionPhoto: Sylwia Pecio

TThe PSNP responds if there is adrought or other emergency

Ethiopia is prone to frequent periodsof drought, along with outbreaks ofcrop and livestock disease, floods

and even earthquakes. People in Ethiopiaare affected by what is happening in theglobal economy too: the economic down-turn, soaring fuel prices or hikes in thecost of food. These events affect allEthiopians.

In these circumstances, the people in thePSNP might need more months of sup-port to help them through an extendedhungry season. Neighbours of PSNP fam-ilies – who are not in the PSNP them-selves - may be at risk of losing every-thing unless they also receive supportquickly.

The PSNP has two ways which help to en-sure a quick response:

Contingency funds. These funds canbe immediately released (usually ascash) to add people to the programmeor increase the number of months peo-ple receive support. The local govern-

ment authorities (region and districtlevel) manage these funds.

A Risk Financing Facility. This fundcan be rapidly released if local conditions(rainfall, for example) are extremely badand if contingency funds are exhausted.These funds might be used for paymentsin money or the purchase of food for dis-tribution depending on what is needed.

These instruments allow an active andmuch faster response by Governmentthan the traditional emergency response.Both can be used at any time (rather thanwaiting for the usual annual humanitar-ian appeal). Neither instrument requiresan anxious period of passive “waiting-and-seeing” if any donors decide to re-spond to the crisis.

KEY FACT:Being able to quickly expand the programmeduring times of crisis ensures that peoplewho need support unexpectedly can get itquickly.

25

DE L IVER ING T HE P ROMISE



IIncreasing the amount of locally produced food

At present the amount of foodgrown in Ethiopia is not enough tofeed everyone. Ethiopia is there-

fore dependent on imported food,whether in the form of food aid or com-mercial imports. Ethiopia is a land-locked country with no surplus-produc-ing neighbours and the nearest portsare affected by conflict and political dis-agreements. So the cost of importedfood is high.

26

These factors, together with the cost oftransporting heavy food items along poorquality roads, means that the price of foodcan fluctuate dramatically in Ethiopia. Foodin PSNP areas can easily be twice the priceof food in areas where large amounts offood are grown. To make matters worse,supplies can be interrupted - particularlyduring the annual rainy season, which coin-cides with the hungry months.

Poor farmers worry about this and are ea-ger to receive support to increase produc-tion. This support might be in the form ofnew, higher-yielding varieties of crops, or

fertilizer or advice on better crop man-agement.

The HABP provides thissupport. The HABP pro-vides training in cropproduction, includinghow to get the most outof new seeds or fertil-izer. It also advisesfarmers - who often donot have any savings -where they can borrowmoney to buy suchseeds and fertilizer.

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Market produce in Dire DawaPhotos: Sylwia Pecio

PPSNP client, Amhara Region

Photo: Kelly Lynch

SSummary

The PSNP & HABP ensures people have enough to eat by...

...Providing money and food to poor families...

Money and food is being provided topoor families who need to buy food.In fact, in 2010 nearly US$80 mil-

lion and 273 million kg of food were distrib-uted to 7.9 million people. Fortunately 2010was a relatively good year for food produc-tion, and therefore it was not necessary totrigger additional funding through the RiskFinancing Facility. However, around a thirdof the contingency fundswere used. Thishelped to makesure that peoplewho became un-able to feed theirfamilies in thecourse of theyear werebrought into the programmeon a temporarybasis.

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...Providing more and better food toeat and...

Studies show that the PSNP hashelped people to significantlyshorten the time they go hungry.

People being supported by the PSNP re-port that they are eating better food andmore regular meals than they were beforethe programme.

...Increasing the amount of locallyproduced food.

There is an increase in locally pro-duced food. The food that PSNP andHABP households grow themselves

is lasting longer through the year. Just afterthe programme started, drought-affectedPSNP households said on average thatthere were more than four months in a yearwhen they had run out of home-producedfood. By 2010 this had decreased to justover two and a half months.


One of the most common reasonswhy the poorest households do nothave enough food is that they do not

have the assets that help them do this.More than cash, in rural Ethiopia productiveassets determine people’s wealth, for thefollowing reasons:

Ploughing the land - rather than work-ing it by hand - allows farmers to plantmore cereals and produce more harvest. InEthiopia, ploughing the land means owningor being able to borrow oxen.

Sheep and goats act as people’s bankaccounts (current or checking accounts)in rural Ethiopia. Larger livestock (likecamels and ox) act as people’s investmentaccounts. But unlike bank accounts, theinterest rates can be very high - doubling

your savings each year as the sheep givebirth to lambs. However, only having one ortwo sheep puts you at risk of losing yoursavings. Sheep easily get sick and die. Theminimum number of sheep or goats for afamily in the agricultural highlands ofEthiopia should be around ten. In the drier,hotter lowlands, the minimum is greater,between 40 and 50 sheep or goats.


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DE L IVER IN G T HE P ROMISE

In some areas, trees (including fruittrees and coffee) are important ways ofearning income. So the number of treesyou have can make the difference betweenpoverty and wealth. But also being able toirrigate these trees (maybe using a pumpin a small well) makes a huge difference.

But the poorest have very little in the way ofassets. They are likely to have no oxen, onlyone or two sheep, and ifthey have any trees theywill not have any irriga-tion and so the harvestwill be minimal.


PPhotos: Sylwia Pecio


332

Preventing households fromhaving to sell their assets

Payments of cash and food go to thevery poor through the PSNP to pre-vent people from going hungry. But

there are other reasons for making surethat payments are not late. This is to avoidthe things families will do when they do nothave enough food.

In addition to cutting meals and eating foodwith little nutritional value, people may beforced to borrow money at high interestrates, take their children out of school, orsell one of their only animals. And the saleof a breeding sheep means more than justthe loss of that particular sheep: it is the

loss of all the lambs that sheep might havegiven birth to, which would have providedincome long into the future.

Farmers know this: they will try to avoid sell-ing animals as much as they can. Timely pay-ments from the PSNP really help them. Ifpayments arrive on time, farmers do not haveto decide whether to eat today or protect as-sets for tomorrow.

Cash payments also ensure that farmershave money available if their animals be-come sick. With the money they can affordtreatment, or even vaccines that mightstop the animal from becoming sick in thefirst place.


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Households increasing their assets

It is not enough just to ensure that peopledo not have to sell their livestock or otherassets. If that is all that can be done, then

people will need PSNP payments forever.People need to be in a position to get enoughfood themselves without assistance. Thismeans that families need to have more assets.

Poor people need more of the assets that manyrural people own - livestock, fruit trees and irri-gation. They also need different assets for new

income sources, such as beehives, weavingequipment or maybe even a shop.

While families need to have the money tobuy these assets, they also need to knowhow to get the best out of them. The HABPhelps families to do both.

To achieve this, the HABP aims to ensurethere are three ‘development agents’ foreach group of villages. These developmentagents are Government staff who have com-pleted a diploma which has provided themwith basic knowledge and skills in their field.It is the development agents who work withpoor families on a day-to-day basis to buildtheir assets and their skills.

Development agents provide families withinformation about where they can borrowmoney from – usually a local micro-fi-nance institution or a village level savingsand credit cooperative. They also providegroup training on how to get the best outof any new assets. The developmentagents make regular visits to the family tocheck how they are getting on, and helpthem to overcome any difficulties theymight be experiencing.

PSNP client, Tigray Region

Photos: Sylwia Pecio

KEY FACT:Timely payments from the PSNP make surethat people are not forced to sell productiveassets in order to feed their families.

TThe family firm and business plans

Aone-off investment is not likely toeliminate a family’s poverty. In dis-aster-prone rural Ethiopia, it is usu-

ally best not to have all your eggs in onebasket. Instead, a combination of three tofive activities can both give you a reason-able income and also ensure that if one ac-tivity faces a problem, the income from theothers can help you to keep going.

Of course, it is necessary to make the rightinvestments! There is no point in a familykeeping bees if there is no-one who wantsto buy and eat honey, or growing cropswhich are not suitable to the climate.

So before a family embarks on an invest-ment, the development agents help themto come up with a business plan for whatcould be called the ‘family firm’. In pro-ducing the business plan, people have tothink about:

Whether all the activities are feasiblegiven rainfall, temperature and soil type;

Whether the income they will earnfrom each activity is more than the in-vestment;

Whether there are enough peoplewho want to buy the product they intendto produce;

Whether there is any opportunity foractivities to complement each other or tobenefit from other investments takingplace in the area. For example, orchardsand bee-keeping complement each otherbecause the fruit trees offer pollen andnectar to the bees, and the bees ensurethat the flowers are fertilized and there ishigh production of fruit.

It is only after a plan has been producedand checked that a family is encouraged toembark on their schemes by taking part intraining provided by the HABP and borrow-ing money.

KEY FACT:The HABP provides people with informationon where they can borrow money to buyassets and advice on how to get the most outof their new assets. Development agents playan important role: providing this informationand advice but also by helping families toproduce a business plan to make their ‘familyfirm’ successful.

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MMiller, Tigray Region

Photo: Sylwia Pecio

336 C AS E ST U D IES :Amare Berhe, Adi Hutsa Kebele

“While there were some years when the crops did not doso well, the money I received through the safety netprogramme meant I never had to sell anything. If I hadnot joined the PSNP I would have had to sell my live-stock.”

Jemal Mohammed, Kalu district“Just after I joined the PSNP I heard from the develop-ment agent that I could receive support in growing fruittrees. I took his advice and planted 10 orange trees .

Since then the development agent has continued to helpme and now I get around 450kg of oranges a year. A yearlater I borrowed money to buy 2 oxen. Now I can ploughmy own land and get a good crop. Now I have my crop-land, my orange trees, a cow and also a small area of ir-rigated land, enough to grow vegetables 3 times a year.

The sale of vegetables and oranges gives me enoughmoney to buy food to cover the gap between one harvestand the next. In fact the oranges are available for har-vest just at the peak of the hungry season and bring inmoney just when I need it most.”


337Summary:

Protecting existing assets

The approach is working for pro-tecting existing assets of poor fam-ilies. A recent evaluation showed

that the number of PSNP families havingto sell animals because they urgentlyneed cash decreased from 51% in 2006to 34% in 2010 – a significant reduction.

Photo: Sylwia Pecio

Building new assets

The HABP is just beginning. However, thereare already three development agents inmost groups of villages, an increase from

the one or two available 5 years ago. People al-ready say that they now receive better supportthan they did in the past and families have alreadystarted developing plans for their ‘family firms’.

People in rural Ethiopia are heavilyreliant on the environment. They de-pend on the soil to make their crops

grow, on wild grassland to feed their live-stock, on forests for fuel for cooking andheating, and springs, streams and riversfor drinking water, irrigation and water fortheir animals.

But this environment is under threat.Ethiopia’s long dry seasons followed byheavy rains means that, across the entirecountry, 1.3 billion metric tonnes of fertilesoil are lost each year – the soil is simplywashed away. Grassland and forests havebeen cleared for agriculture as the numberof people has increased.

The pressure is simply too intense on whatremains of the forests and grasslands. Thegrass on the remaining spare land isquickly eaten by free roaming livestock andgoes back to bare soil, increasing the ero-sion from heavy rainfall. In the absence of


446


alternative sources of fuel, the remainingtrees are quickly being cut down.

The PSNP asks that able-bodied adultsearn their payments by working on projectsthat benefit the community. Because of the

severe threat the environment is under,most of these projects relate to environ-mental conservation.



Public Works client, Oromiya Region

TThe community identifies the public works project

Communities themselves identifyprojects that will support them. Theydo so using a watershed approach.

Using this approach, the community pro-duces a map of the watershed on whichthey draw key features such as streams,springs or roads, different areas of landuse such as forests, grazing or farmland,and any problem areas (for example, anyplaces where the erosion is very severe).


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T HE W AT ERS HED APPRO AC H :A watershed is an area of land which drains water into a shared stream or river. Rain that falls in that water-shed will all end up in the same place, as well as any soil it collects along the way as it travels over theground. 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 down-stream. A flood and accompanying erosion upstream will have to work its way down through the watershedbringing more damage as it comes.

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 prob-lems (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 supporteach other. A drainage channel collecting water from a planned and much-needed road can be used to directwater to irrigate cropland. And, as a result of the work planned for the hilltops (tree planting, soil and wa-ter conservation), the amount of water soaking into the earth below will increase, and the springs which willthen appear lower down the hillside can then be developed to provide clean, drinkable water.

PPublic Works client, Oromiya Region

Photo: Sylwia Pecio

DDE L IVER IN G T HE P ROMISE

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Watershed map developed by the community

CCommunities understand theirown problems...

The community also discuss the prob-lems they are facing (for example,that the springs and streams dry up,

that there is a shortage of firewood, thattheir crops are affected by pests). They usethe map to analyse these problems so theyunderstand what causes them. For in-stance, if a spring dries up, the cause maybe that the lack of grass and trees on thehills means that the rain runs off quicklyinto the rivers and little is absorbed into theunderlying soil and stored to be releasedthroughout the year.

....and identify solutions.

The community can then propose so-lutions to the causes of its problems.The solutions may include planting

trees and vegetation and conserving treeson the hills. Both of these activities will in-crease the supply of firewood, increase the

amount of livestock feed and allow water tobe absorbed into the earth. The communitythen prioritises the solutions and developsa workplan of what will be achievedthrough the PSNP ‘public works’.

KEY FACT:By treating a watershed as a whole, theimpact of community projects is enhanced.Each community project reinforces another,maximising benefits for those living in thewatershed.


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Phot

os: S

ylw

ia P

ecio

Public Works client, Afar Region Public Works client, Tigray Region


PPSNP - public works projects

Once the plans have been finalised, itis possible to start the work. Thework is timetabled to fit in with the

season when people do not need to spendso much time working on their farms.This is usually after the harvest but be-fore the rains start again.

By working at this time, people receivemost of their PSNP payments before the

hunger season arrives. This helps them tohave enough money or food to carry themthrough their seasonal food shortages.

People are organised into work teams intheir local area. The teams work on projects to create public works. Essen-tially the public works are building as-sets for the entire community. They mayinclude soil and water conservationstructures, and pond construction,among other things.

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Most of the work is done on communal land,creating assets which benefit everyone.Work on private land is not included, as onlythe owners would benefit. There is one ex-ception – if continuing soil and water con-servation over a stretch of private land iscritical to protecting the whole watershed,then communities can agree to include thatwork if it is for ‘the common good’.

As the projects are local, the people do nothave to travel long distances to work. Once

they have completed a month’s worth ofwork, the payroll is sent to the district office and they receive their payment.

CC ASE ST U DIE S :Fetiha, Alaba District

“I am really happy that I no longer need thesafety net programme, but I will really misstaking part in the public works. I enjoyed mak-ing a difference to my local community and Iwill miss the socialising and the sense of soli-darity with my fellow workers.”

Public Works clients, Afar Region

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Photo: Sylwia Pecio

RRehabilitating hillsides

I n all parts of Ethiopia, land has been se-verely damaged through erosion andfarmers taking more away from the land

than they are giving back. Land productivityhas subsequently declined. Rain no longersoaks into hillsides and so springs andstreams have disappeared or dry up duringthe dry season.

A journey through Tigray Region 20 yearsago would have taken you in and out of rocky,barren hills where only the toughest blade ofgrass would grow and the occasional

twisted, thorny bush. Travel through thosesame areas today and you will think you arein a different place. The same barren, rockyhills are covered in knee-high grass shadedby a range of bushes and trees.

The change has been brought about by thehard work of the people through the PSNP.First the hills were terraced with knee-highrock walls designed to trap any remainingsoil and the water which was bringing itdown the slope. Between each row ofstones, a series of horseshoe-shaped en-closures were built and planted with a treeseedling in each. The horseshoe of stones


54

held the precious soil and trapped rainwa-ter, giving these seedlings a chance of life.Those living around the hillside agreed notto cut firewood or let their animals grazeon the re-emerging grasses, ensuring thatthe plants survived. Once or twice a yearthey would go into these areas to cut thegrass to feed their animals.

Not all parts of Ethiopia are as rocky asTigray. In other places these low walls,known as bunds, are made with earthplanted with grasses selected becausetheir roots will knit the soil together. Butthe commitment to protect the hillsides

from livestock and the trees from being cutremains the same.

In many areas these terraces are notenough to prevent soil erosion. Gullies havebeen formed and the lines of stone or soilare not strong enough to withstand the tor-rents of water which run into the gullies af-ter a rainstorm. To prevent this, largerstone and cement, or wood and mud ch eckdams are built at regular intervals downthe gulley. Eventually a series of damp, fer-tile terraces form. These terraces are idealfor thirsty fruit trees, the produce of whichcan fetch high prices.


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Photo: Sylwia Pecio

Hillside terracing in Ahferom Woreda, Tigray Region

SSummary:

The environment has beenrehabilitated and improved

One of the main goals of the PSNP isto address environmental degrada-tion, as this is a main reason why

poor households cannot produce more

food. Each year, the PSNP initiates approx-imately 34,000 public works projects.

Around 65,000 hectares of hillside are pro-tected through soil and water conservationand 240 million trees are planted each year.And around 1,000 springs are protectedand 42,000 livestock ponds dug, lined andwalled. As already mentioned, the changes


can be dramatic. Not only are protectedhillsides covered in trees and grasses, butnew springs have come to life at the bottomof hills providing clean reliable water.

A study looking at the impact of publicworks estimated that the amount of soilsaved as a result of the PSNP is around 58million tonnes a year and the amount of

livestock feed produced in enclosed areashas doubled.



Farmland terracing in Ofla Woreda, Tigray Region

KEY FACT:Public works can be used to transformdegraded environments, breathing new lifeinto exhausted landscapes.

As a parent or a family member, weshare many of the same concerns aspeople in living in rural Ethiopia. We

worry about where our children will go toschool, we want to know where to take them ifthey fall ill and we need to borrow money toexpand businesses.

Sadly, the difficulties people in rural Ethiopiaface accessing these services are muchgreater than ours. Children have to walk longdistances to squeeze into overcrowded class-rooms. The distance they have to travel to getmedical treatment is often even greater.

But the number of facilities and the distancesbetween them are not the only issue; peoplealso lack the money to cover even the basiccosts of using services. While schools are free,children need money for clothes and exercise

books. There is no point in going to the nearestclinic or health post unless you have money tobuy the medicines they prescribe. And even ifyou travel to the nearest bank or micro-fi-nance institution, they might not lend youmoney because they will worry about whetheror not you can repay.

HHealth and education

The PSNP helps families send chil-dren to school and get medical help.The PSNP builds schools and clin-


60


ics. The money paid to PSNP householdsenables them to use these services. The public works planning process helpscommunities think through all the thingsthey need. So classrooms and health clinicsare also included as public works projects.

However, it is not enough just to build thesefacilities; it is also important to staff them. Sowhen communities make a request that con-struction of a classroom or clinic be includedin the public works, the local education andhealth offices check whether they will have

the budget to pay for nurses or teachers.They also make sure that these facilities arespaced throughout the district rather thanconcentrated in neighbouring villages.

But it is not enough for the facilities just toexist: people need to have some money touse them. The payments they receive fromthe PSNP (sometimes in return for buildingthe facilities) help them to cover at least ba-sic expenses.


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Photo: Sylwia Pecio

School built by PSNP, Hul Barag Woreda, SNNP Region

PPeople are getting the social services they need

In 2010, 70 health posts and 572 class-rooms were constructed by PSNPhouseholds in return for PSNP pay-

ments. The new classrooms mean thatchildren have more space in which to learnand the health posts mean that people donot have to travel so far to see a nurse andget basic medical treatment. People areusing some of their PSNP money to pay formedical treatment and to buy the materialsthey need for school.

Because of the PSNP, families have moremoney to pay for school books. Children nolonger have to look for paid employmentand families no longer have to migrate dur-ing the hungry season to look for work.

As a result, PSNP households say that theyare now able to send more of their childrento school and these children stay in schoolfor longer and reach higher grades.

KEY FACT: Use of health services and school attendancehas increased because of the supportprovided by the PSNP. PSNP payments allowpeople to cover the cost of school-books anddrugs, and mean that children no longer haveto look for paid employment. Public worksbuild and improve health and educationfacilities so they can serve more people.


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Photo: Sylwia Pecio

FFinancial services

The scale, scope and depth of povertyin rural areas of Ethiopia means thatpeople generally do not need or want

a bank account to save their money. Most ofthe people in the PSNP do not have much,if any, spare cash. If they do have cash, theyusually ‘invest’ in more livestock or storethe cash in the household. There is very lit-tle culture of savings in rural Ethiopia.

However, the success of HABP’s support tofamilies’ businesses depends on people be-ing able to save money with, and borrowmoney from, reputable sources and at rea-sonable interest rates. But there are not verymany financial institutions in rural Ethiopia.

The banks that do exist are often based inurban areas and not interested in lending toPSNP and HABP households. If you are afinancial institution, it takes less time andeffort to make one big loan to an urbanbusiness than use the same money tomake 50 small loans to individual farmers.Plus, if that urban business fails to repaythe money you can take the stock and eventhe shop in repayment. The 50 farmers do

not have anything that you can easily takeand sell if they fail to repay.

There are some financial institutions thathave specialised in working with rural cus-tomers. Micro-finance institutions andsome cooperatives provide loans to farm-ers in areas where they work. But thesemicro-finance institutions and cooperativesdo not work everywhere. So there are manypeople whose only chance to borrow moneyis from local money-lenders who chargeexorbitant interest rates.

In the past 5 years, development agentshave tried to fill this gap. But they havebeen trained in agriculture and environ-mental management, not to manage loansand repayments. They are not always ableto make the right decisions about whethera loan is really viable, and their many workpriorities mean that they do not follow-uprepayments with farmers. The result is thatrepayments have been low and this meansthe money is not there to lend to new farm-ers in the future.


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ArefsahAyimut

Photo: Sylwia Pecio

RRural savings & credit co-operativeclient, Ofla Woreda, Tigray Region

MMaking financial serviceswork for the poor

Some micro-finance institutions al-ready have special ways of workingwith poor rural households. They do

not have individual agreements with eachpoor person; they have an agreement witha group of poor people who know and trusteach other. This group takes the loan andcollectively guarantees repayment. If oneperson fails to repay, the other group mem-bers have to take on their debt. As groupmembers are usually friends and neigh-bours, this helps to stop people from decid-ing not to repay their loan.

The guarantee means that the micro-finance institution is willing to lend moneyto people who do not have collateral. Farm-ers are successfully repaying the loans,making sure that the money is available forfuture borrowers. The HABP is working tomake this approach more available to morepeople in more areas.

But people need other financial services notjust loans. They need a safe place to savemoney, they need to be able to send and re-

ceive money from relatives, and they maywant to insure their livestock or their crops.HABP is supporting financial institutions todevelop new services to meet these needs.

HABP also provides information and advice.A key focus of this information and advicewill be the value of regular savings. Savingsmean that there is money available in caseof sudden hardship and to fund a new busi-ness venture. The HABP also helps peopleto get in the habit of regularly puttingmoney aside. This habit can help people torepay loans they take.


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CCreating new institutions

Where no financial institutions ex-ist, the HABP supports local peo-ple to create their own. People

may choose to form a simple village asso-ciation that encourages people to save,and loan money when necessary. Some-times people create a larger, more formalrural savings and credit cooperative. Ei-ther way, the HABP provides people withthe information they need to set up andrun the association, including the creationof organisation rules and the election of amanagement committee.

Village savings and loans associations arevirtually cost-free to run but the loans theyprovide are only small.

The Government of Ethiopia plans to cre-ate at least one rural savings and creditcooperative in each kebele (or group of vil-

lages) by 2015. Rural savings and creditcooperatives are legally registered. It is,therefore, possible for HABP to providethem with capital that allows them tomake larger loans.

The HABP will also help micro-finance in-stitutions to set up new branch offices byproviding them with grants to cover estab-lishment costs and the training of staff.

KEY FACT:The HABP is working to increase thenumber people supported by financialinstitutions. The HABP helps financialinstitutions to have rules that allow the poorto borrow money and encourage them tosave. Also, the HABP is working to increasethe number of small-scale financialinstitutions and branches of existing larger-scale micro-finance institutions.

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668 Although many countries of theworld have safety nets and are in-terested in programmes that can

move people out of poverty, what works inone country will not have the same effectin another.

This is even true within one country: theenvironmental protection measuresneeded in mountainous areas are very dif-ferent from those needed in flat, lowlandareas; the crops that people can grow willbe different and access to markets will

vary. Therefore, even when there is onenational programme, it needs to be able toreact to what people actually need locally.

Planning where it really matters

Many of the most important deci-sions about what the PSNP andHABP 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 de-velopment agents and the technical staffknow what advice and help they need.

Community targeting groups in thePSNP decide who will be in the safety netprogramme.

Community planning groups in thePSNP decide what public works the pro-gramme will build.People are helping themselves.

The PSNP and HABP are part of a commit-ment by Government to change how plan-ning in the rural areas is done, so now it re-

Community watershed planning process


669

flects people’s needs and their abilities andreally can change their lives for the better.

The family and community level plans feedinto plans at village and then district level.At district level decisions are made on howto support these plans: for instance, howmany corrugated iron sheets are needed,how much cement has to be bought, andwhat kind of field visits the district staffwill have to make, and how often.

Plans are also checked to make sure thatthe ideas put forward by communities willwork: will there really be markets forwhat is produced through the householdbusiness plans? And have the soil andwater conservation ideas been organisedin a way which will prevent erosion? Com-munity plans are also fine-tuned so theymake sense at a district level: that oneroad connects a series of villages (ratherthan each village having a separate road)and that health posts are distributedthroughout the district.

Planning for the PSNP and HABP is part ofthe general planning that happens in eachdistrict. These district plans cover every-thing that will happen there, whether it is todo with education, health, agriculture, busi-ness, roads, or the environment. By joiningup plans, the Government ensures that ac-tivities of different programmes and min-istries can complement each other. Healthposts built by the PSNP are staffed by theMinistry of Health. The new tarmac roadbrings new market opportunities which canbe exploited.

This also empowers local Government au-thorities at district level to theirresponsibilities to local citi-zens. This improves per-formance at the locallevel and reducesthe burden on Fed-eral Government.

Phot

os: S

ylw

ia P

ecio

Completed watershed plan


PPSNP client, Chefra Woreda, Afar Region


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PSNP, HABP & Agricultural GrowthProgramme

The Agricultural Growth Programmeexpects to increase crop yields and an-imal production and create employ-

ment. These are very similar objectives tothe HABP. While the PSNP and HABP workin the poorest areas, the Agricultural GrowthProgramme works in those areas wherethere is a history of good production. Sur-prisingly, sometimes these areas are next toeach other.

Although it does not work in the same areasas PSNP and HABP, the Agricultural GrowthProgramme’s research on crop varieties andlivestock breeds will provide advice to PSNPand HABP households.

The Agricultural Growth Programme pro-vides technical advice and seeds, amongstother things, so that farmers can developactivities that will create employment forothers. For instance, increased fruit pro-duction may create employment in canningfactories, dried-fruit preparation and jam-making. These newly created jobs give poorfarmers a different way to earn money.

PSNP, HABP & National NutritionProgramme

Fifty percent of Ethiopia’s children areunder-nourished. Malnutrition is notcaused by any one thing. Instead, it is

the result of a mixture of what children eat,how well they are looked after and whetherthey get sick.

PSNP & HABP are tackling these causes: Food: PSNP transfers are increasing

the amount of food there is to eat andHABP is increasing income and crop pro-duction.

Looking after children: Pregnant andbreastfeeding women receive transfersand attend health and nutrition educationclasses witho ut working in PSNP.

Illness: PSNP public works are beingused to protect sources of drinking water,construct health clinics and PSNP trans-fers allow people to pay for health care.

In addition, the National Nutrition Pro-gramme ensures vaccination against ill-nesses, provides Vitamin A and iodine (es-sential micro-nutrients) and treats childhoodillnesses such as diarrhoea and measles.


Photo: Sylwia Pecio

RRevitalized watershed now used by the community for cultivating vegetables


880

PSNP, HABP & managing therisk of a disaster

Ethiopians continue to live in an envi-ronment when the next drought,flood or outbreak of crop or livestock

disease is just around the corner. There isalso a real chance that disasters may be-come more common because of climate un-certainties.

The Government is taking steps to movefrom a situation where they can only re-spond to a problem with blunt instruments(such as food aid) to a situation where theycan actively manage and prevent disasters.

The public works element of the PSNP aimsto tackle the increased risk of a disaster af-

fecting people’s lives and livelihoods. Thepublic works aim to increase irrigation soeffects of droughts are not so severe, im-prove soil and water conservation measuresso that water lasts longer and agriculturalproduction becomes stronger and increaseemployment outside of agriculture so fewerpeople rely on only one risky income.

All PSNP districts have now prepared con-tingency plans: they already know what theyare going to do the minute a crisis strikes.And PSNP districts have contingency fundsthat allow them to start a response quickly,while other funding is organised.

These contingency plans and quick financ-ing mean that emergency responses, whenthey are needed, are more effective.


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PSNP & climate change adaptation

Climatic uncertainty remains one ofthe greatest threats to PSNP house-holds. This is why the PSNP public

works programme is designed to rejuvenatethe agricultural resource base and mitigatethe negative impacts of climate change.

PSNP public works have focused on soil andwater conservation activities, along withroads and irrigation. By promoting, financingand implementing ways of managing theland better, the PSNP has proven to con-tribute to environmental transformation atscale in Ethiopia and mitigate negative im-pacts of climate change. For this reason, ithas been referred to as the biggest climatechange adaptation programme in Africa.

A study of the PSNP public works con-cluded that soil and water conservation ac-tivities are dramatically reducing surfacerunoff, increasing infiltration, raisinggroundwater levels, enhancing springyields, increasing stream base flows andwood and herbaceous vegetation cover. Ad-ditionally, the number of domestic watersupplies has doubled. All of this increaseshouseholds resilience to climate change.

The PSNP is not only attempting to reversethe damage to the land done so far. It alsoaims to avoid any unintended contributionsto climate change in the future. In particu-lar, public works are screened for possiblenegative environmental impacts, therebyensuring that these subprojects do not un-intentionally contribute to climate change.

Photo: Sylwia Pecio

Reclaimed land, Wukro Woreda, Tigray Region

Photo: Sylwia Pecio

PPSNP client, Tigray Region


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Social protection

Social protection is a term used to de-scribe a range of strategies and pro-grammes aimed at ensuring a mini-

mum standard of livelihood for all peoplein a country. This includes safety nets suchas the PSNP, old age pensions, fuel andfood subsidies, disability benefits and un-employment insurance schemes. Suchprogrammes are needed everywhere, butare particularly important in poor coun-tries where many people are vulnerable todroughts and sudden market price rises,as well as other problems in the house-hold, such as death and sickness.

The PSNP payments to the poorest house-holds help to protect the most vulnerablepeople, especially those who are elderly,disabled, pregnant women or children.

When payments are delivered on time,studies show that the PSNP has a signifi-cant impact on protecting income and as-sets in the household. This is becausepeople have confidence that they will re-ceive the payment – the reliability of thepayment acts as a form of insurance ifthings go wrong.

The PSNP acts as a social protection instru-ment to ensure people have enough to eatand do not have to sell assets to buy food.

In addition to the PSNP, the Government isinvolved in a number of small-scale socialprotection programmes:

Pensions are available for staff whohave provided more than ten years of serv-ice to the Government. Recent legislationhas opened up the pension service to peo-ple who work for private organisations.

Schools in a number of areas offer aschool feeding programme that ensuresall students at the school get at least onegood meal a day, improving their ability tostudy and providing an incentive for chil-dren to stay at school.

The Government has periodicallymade bulk sales of wheat or maize to sta-bilise food prices which were quickly in-creasing.

So far, there has not been an effort to link upall these programmes to make sure that allEthiopians can receive support when theyneed it. The Government is now drafting asocial protection policy and strategy that willhelp define how the above programmes andservices will evolve in the future.



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The aim of the PSNP and HABP is towork together to move families out ofpoverty. To get families to a position

where they have enough food today andhave confidence they will be able to do sotomorrow. And not just today and tomorrow,but next year and the year after. This is im-portant for the families who have been liv-ing in poverty - but it is also valuable for thecountry as a whole.

People living in poverty cannot make thecontributions they want to make to thecountry’s growth. This is because:

They cannot buy as much as otherpeople and so do not create demand forgoods and services. So other people whosupply these goods and services - theirneighbours and fellow countrymen - alsocannot make as much money.

They cannot produce as much asother people because they cannot makethe best use of their land and labour.They cannot buy seed for crops withhigher yields, or the fertilizer which willincrease the amount of grain produced.They cannot buy the oxen, which willplough the land, increasing production.The effort they could put into agricultural

activities is diverted to casual labour, col-lecting and selling firewood, etc.

Their children get pulled out ofschool and so do not complete education.This in turn means that they do not earnas much, produce as much or buy asmuch when they become adults.

They pay little in the way of tax,which can fund social & Governmentservices. And their low purchasing poweralso means that others have less incomethat can be taxed.

Poor people tend to be malnour-ished. Malnourished children becomeadults who contribute less to the coun-try’s economy.

GR ADU AT ION

Photo: Sylwia Pecio


WWhat is graduation?

Just as students graduate out of uni-versity when they have successfullycompleted their degree, households

in the Food Security Programme cangraduate out of the programme.

Two levels of graduation have been de-fined. The first is when households in thePSNP leave the programme because theirfamilies have enough to eat - without thePSNP money - and have a little bit to

spare for any small problems.

The second level of graduation is whenhouseholds no longer need the specialsupport that HABP provides. At this levelof graduation, families are expected to beable to feed themselves in all but theworst years.

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Photo: Sylwia Pecio


HHow do you graduate?

Families can graduate when they can ac-cess sufficient food without selling theirlivestock or other assets and when they

have increased their assets and their income.In rural Ethiopia, an essential part of gradua-tion is a protected and improved environment.This is exactly what the PSNP and HABP aretrying to achieve.

The other programmes that the PSNP andHABP coordinate with also play a role. These

programmes provide additional infrastructure,give people new opportunities (whetherthrough resettlement or employment in neigh-bouring agricultural areas), improve nutrition,manage risk and continue to make sure thereis support for those who need it.

But also playing their part are the broader eco-nomic growth and urbanisation initiatives inEthiopia. Increased employment opportunitiesand accompanying urbanisation are providingpeople with futures outside rain-fed agricul-ture will also help the move out of poverty.

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Photo: Sylwia Pecio


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When does a family graduate?

Every family in the PSNP under-stands that they are expected toleave the programme when they can

meet their family’s food needs.

For some families, this knowledge is enoughand they ask to be taken off the programmewhen they are ready. They may want tospend more time working on their land orget more involved in business activities. Orthey hope that other members of their com-munity who they know are poorer than themwill now be able to take part in the PSNP.

In addition, local government staff and com-munity committees review the list of peopleenrolled in the PSNP at the end of each year.Because these people are their neighbours –

who live, eat and breathe side-by-side withthem - they have a strong sense of whichmembers of the PSNP are doing well. Thosewho have shown strong increases in assetssince they joined the programme are fullyassessed. All the assets which they own arelisted. Those who now own enough livestock,fruit trees and irrigated land to provide suffi-cient food for the family are chosen to be-come graduates. The ‘graduates’ are in-formed and if they disagree with the decisionthey can appeal.

Once the list of graduates is confirmed, thelist is posted at the village centre. Many vil-lages and districts believe that graduation isworth celebrating and hold ceremonies torecognise graduates’ achievements. They aregiven certificates and some may receive re-wards or even gifts of farm tools.

Photo: Sylwia Pecio


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Graduation is working

Graduation from the PSNP and HABPhas been slow – but that is becausegetting people out of poverty is hard

work and takes a long time!

Despite this, in recent years as programmebenefits are beginning to be realised andpeople’s hard work and investment are pay-ing off, the numbers of graduates has in-creased.

Because of the rejuvenation of the land andthe access that people now have to finance,markets, business advice and social serv-ices there are real success stories.

However, despite all of the good intentionsand hard work, not everyone will be able to

sustainably graduate in rural Ethiopia. A safety net and complementary pro-grammes are likely to be needed for sometime to come.

Photo: Sylwia Pecio


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C ASE ST U DIES :Jemal Mohammed, Kalu District

“I was at a meeting of safety net households. TheGovernment staff were telling us that if our liveshave improved and we can now feed our familieswe should volunteer to leave the PSNP. I thoughtabout this and informed the kebele that I waswilling to graduate. They came and looked at thedifferent things I have - the orange trees, the an-imals - and they approved my graduation.

For me graduation means that I can provideenough food for my family and I can do that be-cause of the crops I produce and my vegetablegarden. Now this is possible, my wife and I canfocus on our own land rather than doing the hardwork involved in public works.

Before I joined the programme I had nothing. Asmall bit of land and just the calf my parentsgave me as a wedding present. Now I have twooxen, a cow, ten orange trees and a small area ofirrigated land for vegetables. Although I stillhave to buy food, the money I earn from sellingoranges and vegetables is more than enough.”

Ababu Dinin, Wogedi District“For me graduation means being able to eatproperly, having a good house and owningthings l ike l ivestock. The local developmentagent came to my house and asked me aboutthe different things I owned: the animals, whatcrops I was producing, things l ike that. The de-velopment agent said that my status was goodand I was ready to graduate.

Now I own 2 oxen and 5 sheep, and I produceteff, chickpeas, vegetables and wheat. My wifeand I have also set up a small bar sell ing lo-cally brewed beer and soft drinks.

The difference between when I started thePSNP and now is the distance between theearth and the sky.” .”

LEAVING NO-0NE BEHIND

Ethiopia’s Productive Safety Net & Household Asset Building Programmes

Documents

LEAVING NO-0NE BEHIND - Coroflots3images.coroflot.com/user_files/individual_files/44533...LEAVING NO-ONE BEHIND 4 The Productive Safety Net Programme (PSNP) has been working for more