Project profile — Productive Safety Net Program - World Food Programme

• Ethiopia (100.00%)

• Education, Level Unspecified: Education facilities and training (11120) (5.00%)
• Basic Health: Basic health infrastructure (12230) (5.00%)
• Agricultural land resources:
Agricultural land resources (31130) (20.00%)
Agricultural water resources (31140) (10.00%)
• Forestry: Forestry development (31220) (10.00%)
• Developmental Food Aid/Food Security Assistance: Food aid/food security programs (52010) (50.00%)

• Gender equality (significant objective)
• Environmental sustainability (cross-cutting) (not targeted)
• Participatory development and good governance (not targeted)
• Trade development (not targeted)
• Biodiversity (not targeted)
• Climate change mitigation (not targeted)
• Climate Change Adaptation (not targeted)
• Urban issues (not targeted)
• Desertification (not targeted)
• Children's issues (not targeted)
• Youth Issues (not targeted)
• Indigenous Issues (not targeted)
• Disability (not targeted)
• ICT as a tool for development (not targeted)

The Productive Safety Net Program is an initiative targeting some of the underlying causes of food insecurity in Ethiopia. Led by the Government of Ethiopia, with the support of CIDA and other donors, the goal of this program is to reduce the vulnerability of chronically food insecure people and enable them to progress towards more resilient livelihoods. The program is designed to provide predictable, multi-year transfers of either food or cash to chronically food insecure people. Food or cash resources are provided to beneficiaries in exchange for their labour on public works projects designed to create productive community assets. These projects include activities such as: terracing and afforestation to improve soil conservation and restore degraded watersheds; water harvesting schemes; small-scale irrigation schemes and the construction of infrastructure such as rural roads, schools and health centres. Food is also provided directly to those beneficiaries who are unable to participate in public works such as orphans, pregnant and lactating women, households with only elderly residents, young children and mothers in female-headed households, and people living with HIV/AIDS. CIDA support to this program is provided through the World Food Programme and the World Bank. CIDA's support also includes a technical assistance component. All CIDA disbursements for this project have been completed and the results of our investment are outlined below.

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Results achieved by the end of the project (December 2012) include: (i) predictable food or cash transfers provided – either through people’s participation in public works programs or via direct transfers to those unable to work – which have helped reduce the food gap (the gap between people’s need for food and their ability to access it) by an average of 28% for about 3.9 million individuals each year, as well as reduce distress sale of assets; (ii) 3,943 schools and 453 health clinics built, rehabilitated, or repaired, which has improved access to health clinics, primary schools, and other education services for 85% of the households participating in the Productive Safety Net Program; (iii) public works programs in place which created 203,189 ponds for irrigation and livestock water supply, built 522,026 km of anti-erosion embankments to rehabilitate 463,015 hectares of degraded land by closing areas to livestock grazing, planted 1.808 billion trees, and constructed or maintained 106,031km of community roads; (iv) supporting food procurement and its related delivery and distribution. These activities have had a positive cumulative impact. A 2010 impact assessment determined that, depending on the region, irrigation works have helped between four and twelve percent of households expand their livestock holdings, and beneficiary incomes have increased by four to twenty-five percent. These results have helped people living in chronically food-insecure areas of rural Ethiopia access sufficient, safe and nutritious food.

• Proactive disclosure
• Related activities:
• Productive Safety Net Program - World Bank
• Productive Safety Net Program: Technical Assistance and Capacity Building Component