The impact of the productive safety net program (PSNP) on food security and asset accumulation of rural households’: evidence from Gedeo zone, Southern Ethiopia

Abstract

Ethiopia’s productive safety net program (PSNP) is aimed at providing transfers to the food insecure people in chronically food-insecure woredas. The program’s objectives include improving food security, protecting assets, and strengthening household and community resilience to shocks. This study evaluates the impact of PSNP on the beneficiary households’ food security, income, and asset holdings in the Gedeo administrative zone of Southern Ethiopia. We use survey data from 395 randomly selected households, out of which 195 are beneficiaries and 197 non-beneficiaries. Methodologically, we employ the propensity score matching (PSM) method to assess the impact of the PSNP on the welfare of beneficiary households. For this purpose, we use two specific outcomes of the PSNP: food security and asset holdings of participating households. Using the propensity score matching method, we find that the PSNP enhances the consumption expenditure, daily calorie intake, and annual income of participating households relative to a similar group of non-participating poor households. Our findings suggest that the PSNP is vital to improving income and food security at the household level in chronically food-insecure areas.

Keywords:

• PSNP
• PSM
• food security
• asset holdings
• impact evaluation
• Gedeo zone
• Ethiopia

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1. Kebele is the smallest administrative unit in Ethiopia.

Additional information

Funding

The authors received no direct funding for this research.

Notes on contributors

Tasew Tadesse

Tasew Tadesse(PhD) is Assistant professor of economics at the department of economics, Dilla University, Ethiopia. He received his B.A. degree from Haramaya University, MSc in development economics from Adama University and PhD in Economics from Punjabi University, India. His major research interests include impact evaluation, state and development, firm performance, inclusive growth; international trade and customs tax evasion, globalization and development; aid effectiveness in developing countries); industrialization in Africa, etc. He is an expert in quantitative research methods. His econometrics skills include applied cross-sectional, time series econometrics, panel data analysis, cost-benefit analysis techniques, etc.