The implementation of the Productive Safety Nets Programme in Afar, Somali, and selected lowland woredas in Oromiya

Sabates-Wheeler, Rachel; Lind, Jeremy; Handino, Mulugeta; Hoddinott, John F.; Tefera, Mulugeta; Bekele, Girma; Simma, Feyera

The implementation of the Productive Safety Nets Programme in Afar, Somali, and selected lowland woredas in Oromiya

Autores

Sabates-Wheeler, Rachel

Editor

Institute of Development Studies

Descripción

This report documents progress in the implementation of the Productive Safety Nets Programme (PSNP) and the Household Asset Building Programme (HABP) in selected woredas in Afar and Somali regions. It also provides qualitative, comparative information on two pastoral woredas in Oromiya. Results are based largely on primary data collected between November 2010 and January, 2011. Mixed methods—data collection techniques using both qualitative and quantitative methods—have been employed. Doing so provides a richer pool of data and greater analytic power than would have been available with either of these methods used alone. Third, a “cascading” approach is used whereby data are collected at all levels: regional, woreda, kebele, household, and individual. This makes it possible to triangulate results derived from different survey techniques and from different sources. The sampling of woredas in Afar and Somali for the quantitative component was originally envisaged to generate a regionally representative sample of food-insecure households that were receiving PSNP benefits. However, CSA lacked capacity to implement such a survey in Somali. In Afar, a representative sample was constructed and ten woredas surveyed. Consequently, extrapolating results should be done with care. The dominant theme that recurs throughout this report is that the implementation of the PSNP differs substantially from that outlined in the Program Implementation Manual (PIM). This reflects inadequate training, severe resource constraints, and the sheer difficulties of operating in a physically harsh environment where populations are dispersed and communications difficult. But it also reflects the tensions created by attempting—as the PSNP does—to superimpose particular management structures (such as kebele food security task forces (KFSTFs), highland-oriented public works, and new ideas (targeting) in pastoralist and agro-pastoralist societies where traditional structures (clans) and norms (sharing) exert powerful influences.