Expanded productive safety net

This solution was shared by PRE-LAUNCH RESEARCH TEAM , 14 May 2021

Print date: 13 April 2024 04:50

Description of the innovative solution

Animal feed Collaboration Community building Finance Food biodiversity Sharing economy Water availability Women empowerment Subsidy Technical training/support Food delivery Investment fund

There is a crucial need for safeguarding vulnerable individuals and families against catastrophic collapse in food access during periods of stress – both acute or prolonged. This innovation includes a range of options that could be applied to various community actors depending on their level of vulnerability and capacity to engage in community support during these periods. Multi-pronged interventions would include direct support (e.g. cash and/or food transfers at the individual, household and/or community level), in-kind resource payments (e.g. food, seeds, materials, skills trainings,) in exchange for local infrastructure support when possible (e.g. building roads, on-farm terracing), and credit incentives for producers to focus on high priority nutrition dense crops.

Primary users

Subsistence farmers
Women
Low/Middle income households
Natl. Govt - Ministries of Agriculture
Local government (municipalities)

Dietary impact

By financially supporting low-income households during times of stress, such as due to poor weather conditions that affect a season's harvests or due to local financial crises, government assistance through these safety nets can help ensure that households continue to have the means to purchase and acquire sufficient food. This can have positive effects on reducing food insecurity among lower-income rural households as well as undernutrition as many of these households typically rely on a small set of staple foods they can grow that may not cover all of their nutritional needs. As a result of this, expanded productive safety nets can contribute to a general increase in the health and well-being of lower-income rural households by providing households the means to reliably access the necessary food that they need.

Planetary impact

One of the criteria for general eligibility for the productive safety net programs is that the households in question are able to contribute labor to public works programs. Many of these programs are specifically funded by the government and aim to increase climate resiliency within the local communities, such as through terracing fields on hills in order to reduce soil erosion and increase water retention. Other projects can include building infrastructure that can serve the entire community such as creating more reliable water supply systems, which has the added benefit of decreasing local watershed degradation and runoff. In addition, many projects also specifically focus on soil and water conservation through encouraging the planting of cover crops and diversifying the plant species grown on fields, which has notable benefits in increasing the availability of animal feed and bee forage while also increasing agrobiodiversity and carbon sequestration.

Equity impact

A large component of these productive safety nets is to support lower-income rural households, one of the most vulnerable subsets of the population, during times of external shocks that may impact the households' ability to afford food. This is especially helpful given the context of climate change and how the bulk of effects in terms of temperature and weather shifts disproportionately affect lower-income, agricultural communities primarily in developing countries. Through these safety nets, national governments can help offset many of the losses that these communities would otherwise experience due to unprecedented crop losses and dramatically lower yields. Additionally, while the safety net payments are often determined based on a household's ability to contribute labor to public works programs, these payments are unconditional if such labor is found to be either limited or impossible for certain households, which may help further decrease food insecurity and poverty among elderly households or disabled households. At the same time, though, for households that are able to contribute labor, these expanded productive safety net programs then help provide jobs for these households through salaried work in contributing to government-funded projects. Furthermore, there is potential for this solution to help in female empowerment by offering greater support to female farmers, especially when the financial payments are combined with additional training or agricultural equipment.

Main concerns

- Some difficulties in practice of trying to engage female participants in public work programs while balancing their household duties.
- Specifically in reports from Ethiopia's Productive Safety Net Program (PSNP), while the existence of the safety nets helped to reduce overall food insecurity of households, it was found that these safety nets by themselves did not have much effect on reducing childhood stunting or wasting, implying that there may be additional nutrition-focused interventions necessary in order to properly address this issue.

Supply chain segment

Financial aspects

Maturity level

Moving to scale

Criteria

Food affordability

SDG target

SDG 1: No Poverty SDG 2: Zero Hunger SDG 3: Good Health and Well-being SDG 5: Gender Equality SDG 8: Decent Work and Economic Growth SDG 10: Reduced Inequality SDG 13: Climate Action SDG 15: Life on Land

Context

Rural

Examples and additional resources

Real-world examples

See this solution in action in different contexts and settings around the world

Ethiopia's Productive Safety Net Program (PSNP)

Project information

Project report on Ethiopia's implementation of its Productive Safety Net Program (PSNP), documenting progress and next steps.

Ethiopia

documents1.worldbank.org/c...df

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Support for National Productive Safety Nets and Long-Term Community Resilience

Project information

Potential of the World Food Programme to work with the Kyrgyzstan government in implementing expanded safety nets to vulnerable households to decrease food insecurity.

Kyrgyzstan

wfp.org/operations...-resilience

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Ethiopia's Productive Safety Net Programme Phase IV Programme Implementation Manual

Policy information

Best practices and guidance for the implementation of Phase IV of Ethiopia's Productive Safety Net Program (PSNP) supported by data and analysis conducted.

Ethiopia

usaid.gov/sites/def...dec_14.pdf

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Additional resources

Learn more about this solution through studies, articles, business cases, and other information

Impacts of Ethiopia's Productive Safety Net Program (PSNP) on dietary health of households

Scientific paper

Examining the extent to which Ethiopia's Productive Safety Net Program (PSNP) has impacted household food insecurity and dietary health since its launch in 2005.

sciencedirect.com/scien...302974

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The contribution of Productive Safety Net Program for food security of the rural households in the case of Bale Zone, Southeast Ethiopia

Scientific paper

This study discusses the role of PSNP on the improvement in consumption needs and asset base of the households, effect on community development and determinants of food insecurity level of beneficiaries.

agricultureandfoodsecurity.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s40066-01...

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Breadcrumb

Expanded productive safety net

Description of the innovative solution

Supply chain segment

Maturity level

Criteria

SDG target

Context

Examples and additional resources

Real-world examples

Ethiopia's Productive Safety Net Program (PSNP)

Support for National Productive Safety Nets and Long-Term Community Resilience

Ethiopia's Productive Safety Net Programme Phase IV Programme Implementation Manual

Additional resources

Impacts of Ethiopia's Productive Safety Net Program (PSNP) on dietary health of households

The contribution of Productive Safety Net Program for food security of the rural households in the case of Bale Zone, Southeast Ethiopia

Contacts