Abstract

Ethiopia is one of the most food insecure countries in the world. It suffers from both chronic and acute food insecurity. These two modes of food insecurity require different strategies and interventions. In 2003 the Government of Ethiopia announced that there are.5.6 million individuals that are chronically food insecure (in 2006 standing at 8.2 million) and launched the Productive Safety Net Programme (PSNP) through which the needs of these people are to be addressed.

Since its launch the programme has been facing several challenges. For the purpose of this paper five major challenges are identified and discussed. First, conceptually, it has been difficult to get a common understanding on concepts like “safety net” and “graduation”. Second, the most serious challenge is targeting of beneficiaries. Despite the development of safety net targeting guidelines and capacity building efforts, many of the problems of emergency food aid targeting continue to haunt the programme. A related challenge is the inability to distinguish between acute and chronic food insecurity at grassroots level. Third, the fact that wage rates for public works are given from the top is also a major challenge for implementers. Fourth, woreda capacity to mange cash and finally the broader issue of scaling up safety net to universal social protection are the major challenges.

Each of these challenges requires different strategies. Improvements in capacity building efforts, better targeted training provision, documentation and dissemination of regional experiences and lessons learned in implementing the PSNP are a few of the ideas discussed in this paper to inform future programming.

Table of Contents

Abstract 2

Introduction. 4

Training as an instrument of data collection. 4

Structure of the paper 4

1. Rationale and Objectives of the PSNP. 5

Rationale. 5

Objectives. 5

Basic components. 5

2. Challenges of Implementing the PSNP. 6

Conceptual challenges. 6

Targeting challenges. 7

The challenge of cash (wage rates, timely disbursal and woreda capacity) 8

The challenge of programme and institutional linkages. 8

The challenge of scaling up safety net to a universal social protection. 9

3 Efforts Made to Address the Challenges. 10

4 Conclusion and Recommendations. 11

References. 12

Annex 1: Summary of critical issues identified by regional training participants. 12

Introduction

This paper identifies and discusses challenges of implementing Productive Safety Net Programme based on first year experience.

Training as an instrument of data collection

Two levels of safety net targeting training were conducted between August and September 2005 – a Training of Trainers (TOT and four regional trainings. Opinions for the paper are obtained from the ToT and three of the four regional training participants. The regions are SNNPR, Oromiya and Tigray. As shown in Table 1, 306 participants were expected for these trainings and 223 (72.8%) attended. The number of women participants was insignificant. Regions followed different strategies in implementing the training. SNNPR, conducted the training at one go whereas Oromiya and Tigray conducted the training in two rounds.

During the training issues that affected the implementation of PSNP were brainstormed and a training technique known as “dotmocracy” was used to prioritise issues. The essence of these techniques is that the issues are posted on the wall and each participant asked to place a dot next to three issues that are important to him/her. The dots are tallied and an issue receiving most dots (hence dotmocracy) becomes No 1, and so on.

Table 1[2]

Region	No. of PSNP woredas	Location of training	Date	Number of participants
Region	No. of PSNP woredas	Location of training	Date	Male	Female	Total	Expected[3]	% of expected
ToT[4]	-	Addis Ababa	Aug 2005	10	1	11	12	91.7
SNNPR	50	Awassa	5-7 Sept. 05	135	8	143	171	83.6
Oromiya	51	Nazareth	14-16 Sept. 05	28	0	28	90	31.1
Tigray	30	Axum	19-21 Sept. 05	52	0	52[5]	45	115.5
Total	103			225	9	234	318	73.6

Source: Amdissa Teshome, Safety Net Training Report, prepared for the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, Food Security Co-ordination Bureau, Addis Ababa , September 2005

Structure of the paper

The paper is divided into 4 sections. Section 1 provides the rationale and objectives of the PSNP. Section 2 identifies and discusses key challenges of implementing PSNP during its first year of implementation. Section 3 describes efforts made by government and non-government organisations to address some if not all of the challenges. The final section concludes the paper and puts forward recommendations for future programming.

1. Rationale and Objectives of the PSNP

Rationale

Ethiopia is the second most populous country in Africa, with an estimated 73.8 million citizens (World Development Report, 2005). It is a multi-ethnic country with diverse geographic and climatic conditions, rich traditions and a complex history. However, as Devereux, et al. (2005) put it Ethiopia is perhaps best known outside Africa as the location of some of the worst famines in the continent’s history; a contemporary symbol of African poverty and the failure of development.

Emergency response has been the principal instrument to address acute food shortages caused by drought and famine. However, gradually the acute food shortages have developed into chronic food insecurity that should be addressed by different approaches and strategies.

It was in recognition of this fact that in 2003, the Government of Ethiopia launched the Coalition for Food Security in which a distinction was made between chronic and acute food insecure populations. Initial estimates of the chronically food insecure population was about 5.6 million rural people which presently (2006) stands at 8.2 million. A new programme called Productive Safety Net Programme (PSNP) was designed to address the needs of the chronic whereas the acute food insecure population continued to receive emergency assistance in time of drought.

Objectives

The broad objective of this programme as stated in the Programme Implementation Manual (PIM) is to provide resource transfers (cash or food) to the chronically food insecure population in a way that prevents asset depletion at household level and creates asset at community level. More specifically, the programme is designed to address immediate human needs while simultaneously:

¨ supporting the rural transformation process

¨ preventing long term consequences of short-term consumption shortages

¨ encouraging households to engage in production and investment

¨ increasing household purchasing power thereby promoting market development

Basic components

The PSNP has two major components and by definition two types of beneficiaries: participants in public works and beneficiaries of direct support.

2. Challenges of Implementing the PSNP

Conceptual challenges [6]

There are several misunderstandings among grassroots implementers of PSNP. In the three regions where safety net targeting training was conducted, woreda experts identified lack of awareness at woreda and community levels as a challenge that seriously affect the implementation of the PSNP. They also acknowledged that even among the experts, concepts like “safety net” and “graduation” are the least understood. The absence of equivalent terminology for “safety net” in local languages means that it has been difficult to explain it in such a way that it captures local circumstances. For example, the title “Safety Net Targeting Guideline” is translated in the three languages as follows:

Amharic ¾c?õ+ ’@ƒ }ÖnT>‹ M¾ SS]Á

Oromiffa Qajeelfama Filannoo Fayyadamtoota Seefti Neettti

Tigrigna SU`N= œS^[í }ÖkU+ c?õ+ ’@ƒ

Given the rich linguistic diversity, expressions and proverbs Ethiopia has, it is safe to assume that there will be one that could serve as equivalent to the real essence of safety net. This requires efforts from language experts.

Graduation is another concept that caused havoc in targeting. Community and woreda implementers were under pressure to select household with higher probability of graduating from the safety net. This meant selecting better-off households and excluding the poorest of the poor – the very people the programme was designed to benefit. Grassroots implementers often asked:

¨ The poorest of the poor can’t graduate. What shall we do?

¨ Direct support beneficiaries can’t graduate. For how long do we support them?

In the context of safety net, ‘graduation’ is the process of “withdrawing the safety net” when it is judged that the household does not need it any longer. This begs another question. How to determine if a household does not need the safety net any longer? Accurate and reliable baseline data is key to this process. However, woreda experts identified the lack of baseline data and/or unreliability of available data (e.g. DPPA food distribution data) as an important challenge. Tables 2-4 present the results of a training technique known as “dotmocracy” - brainstormed issues are posted on the wall and each participant places a dot (hence dotmocracy) next to his/her top three issues. The dots are tallied and an issue with the most dots becomes the Number 1 issue, etc.

Table 2: Issues affecting safety net implementation - SNNPR

Critical issues	Total (n=143)	Rank
Lack of awareness by food security taskforces	107	1
Lack of baseline data against which graduating households could be compared.	98	2
Lack of awareness at Kebele leadership (the Cabinet) level	90	3
KFTF and CFSTF requiring financial incentive for targeting work	64	4
Deep rooted traditional values	21	5

Table 3: Issues affecting safety net implementation: SNNPR - Oromiya

Critical issues	Total (n=28)	Rank
Absence of clear and standard guidance	21	1
Lack of awareness of Kebele leadership (i.e. Cabinet) and Community	20	2
Untimeliness of payment; wage level not reflecting local market situation	20	2
Lack of coordination and integration of development work at woreda level	20	2
Unreliable DPPC data use	15	5
Unnecessary interference from local leadership	9	6

Table 4: Issues affecting safety net implementation - Tigray

Critical issues