[pronut-hiv] AFRICA: Safety nets help to climate-proof the poor

["ProNut-HIV" <pronut-hiv@healthnet.org>]

JOHANNESBURG, 5 December 2007 (IRIN) - A unique safety net programme
being piloted in Ethiopia, which attempts to break away from the
traditional humanitarian model, is being punted in the UN Development
Programme's Human Development Report 2007/2008 as a "bold attempt" to
tackle food security threats posed by an uncertain climate. 

The Productive Safety Net Programme (PSNP) targets people facing
predictable food insecurity and offers guaranteed employment for five
days a month in return for transfers of either food or cash - US$4 per
month for each household member - said the report, which focuses on
climate change. 

"It is not a poverty alleviation programme, but rather an attempt to
build resilience to face shocks, which is why it could prove effective
as shocks get more severe because of climate change," said Stephen
Devereux, a fellow of the Institute of Development Studies of the
University of Sussex. Devereux assessed the impact of the PSNP for the
Ethiopian government in the programme's first year. 

Food security in Africa is likely to be severely affected by climate
change, with production expected to halve by 2020, according to the
latest projections by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change
(IPCC), which has warned that crop revenues in Africa could fall by as
much as 90 percent by 2100. 

"Climate shocks have the potential to lock smallholder agriculture into
downward spirals that undermine the prospects for human development,"
said the UNDP report. Not only are people left facing nutritional
threats, but farmers are also left without seeds, or the cash to
purchase seeds and other inputs for next season's crop. 

"This increases the prospect of reduced income and employment, and hence
of continuing dependence on food aid," but employment-based programmes
provide a longer-term safety net, said the UNDP report. 

PSNP is different from other food-for-work programmes because the
transfer is "predictable", and the emphasis has moved towards cash
transfers rather than food, Devereux added. "A regular income helps
people build assets, besides stimulating the local market." 

Unlike the food-aid model - in which food is obtained, often by making
an emergency appeal, and distributed - the PSNP is a multiyear
arrangement: it started with five million people in 2005 and intends to
cover eight million by 2009. 

Community assets have also been created by public works - the
construction of schools, health posts and feeder roads, potable water
development, small-scale irrigation and natural resource conservation -
which will contribute to a gradual improvement in the livelihoods of the
poor. 

The programme was funded by the UK Department for International
Development, the US Agency for International Aid, the World Bank, the
European Commission, the Canadian International Development Agency,
Ireland Aid, the World Food Programme (WFP) and the Swedish
International Development Agency. 

PSNP arose partly out of concerns by the Ethiopian government and the
donor community that emergency appeals were regularly falling short of
their targets, or providing late and erratic support, the UNDP report
said. "For poor households, delayed support during a prolonged drought
can have devastating consequences in both the short and longer term. In
1983-1984 it led to the death of thousands of vulnerable people [in
Ethiopia]". 

The Ethiopian government was also averse to the idea of creating
dependency by handing out food aid, said Devereux. Five major droughts
in two decades meant that most Ethiopian households have not had time to
recover, and hundreds of thousands of people lived on the brink of
survival every year. 

According to the Food and Agriculture Organisation, 46 percent of the
population were malnourished in 2000/03, and the WFP still feeds at
least six million people in Ethiopia. 

Effective 

A survey by Devereux to determine the impact of PSNP transfers on 1,000
households found that most were consuming more or better food than in
the previous year, and more than half reported that they had been able
to retain more of their own food to eat. 

Of course, life is difficult - but at least now I have something to get
us through the hard times; now we eat better food, I can keep my
nine-year-old in school, and I am saving to buy a calf  
Three in five beneficiaries said they had avoided selling assets to buy
food, while around a quarter had acquired new assets; almost all
attributed this directly to the PSNP. 

Half the beneficiaries said they had used healthcare facilities more
than in the previous year, and over one-third of households enrolled
more of their children in school, with almost half keeping them in
school for longer. 

"Before this programme we could only eat twice [a day]," said Debre
Wondimi, 28, a woman with four children quoted in the UNDP report,
living in Lay Gant, a woreda (district) in South Gondar, Ethiopia. 

"In the hungry time before the harvest perhaps we would only have one
meal [a day]. The children suffered. Sometimes I could not keep them in
school or pay for medicines when they were ill. Of course, life is
difficult - but at least now I have something to get us through the hard
times; now we eat better food, I can keep my nine-year-old in school,
and I am saving to buy a calf." 

Sustainability 

Around 35 million of Ethiopia's people live below the poverty line, and
the UNDP report noted that many potential beneficiaries were excluded.
Devereux pointed out that the programme depended on donor funding. 

The PSNP intends to "graduate" recipients, said Devereux. "The idea is
that within three years people would have been able to accumulate some
assets and build some resilience, but how do you know that they are now
prepared to face the next big shock? The people's resilience can only be
tested by the next big emergency." 

The UN report also noted that this might be "over-ambitious", but
acknowledged that the programme's "early implementation phase does
demonstrate the potential of well-targeted interventions to support
household coping strategies". 

Devereux said social cash transfers were the most effective way to make
poor people resilient to face shocks, although the PSNP model might not
work in southern Africa, where people have to contend with HIV/AIDS
besides climate shocks. 

"You cannot expect people with HIV/AIDS to work in public works
programmes, but various NGOs [non-governmental organisations] and donors
have piloted several social-cash transfer programmes in southern
Africa," he pointed out. Nevertheless, the model could be rolled out
elsewhere. 

Social cash grants financed by governments, such as in South Africa,
were also catching on, but most African countries would prefer to invest
in business or production rather than the poor, Devereux commented. 

"Poor countries Like Lesotho and Swaziland have started dispensing old
age pensions to anyone who turns 60, which shows that it is more to do
with political will - countries can find the money to invest in their
poor."