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Good practice Imported

Ethiopia's Productive Safety Net Programme — Public Works Payments for Watershed & Rangeland Rehabilitation

Ethiopia · Addis Ababa · See the Ethiopia profile · See the Addis Ababa profile

Evidence: Quasi-experimental Top 81% 33/100 · Ask Evidence Copilot about this practice

Ethiopia's government pays food-insecure rural households in cash or food for public-works labour on soil/water conservation and area-closure regeneration; Phase 5 alone treated 1.2M ha across 11,800 watersheds, though payment delays are a documented weakness.

1.2 million ha
Land treated with soil/water conservation works (Phase 5)
11800 watersheds
Watersheds treated (Phase 5)
~2,600
Community infrastructure assets completed or rehabilitated (Phase 5)
61.58 million EUR
EU financing for PSNP Phase 4
23 million+
People reached cumulatively with shock-responsive support
1.45 million households
Households that gained bank accounts through the programme
~1 million people
Labour-constrained people receiving unconditional transfers (12 months/year)
Ethiopia's Productive Safety Net Programme — Public Works Payments for Watershed & Rangeland Rehabilitation

Details

Maturity
Established
Promoter
Government of Ethiopia — Ministry of Agriculture, Food Security Coordination Directorate
Period
2005-present (Phase 6 approved 2026)
Keywords
public-works PES, watershed rehabilitation, soil and water conservation, cash/food-for-work, rangeland restoration

Context

Since 2005, the Government of Ethiopia's Productive Safety Net Programme (PSNP), coordinated by the Ministry of Agriculture's Food Security Coordination Directorate with pooled financing from the World Bank (IDA), USAID, the UK's FCDO, the EU, Irish Aid, Sida and Canada, has combined social protection with environmental public works.

Objectives

Provide cash or food payments to food-insecure rural households for around six months of public-works labour a year building soil and water conservation structures, terracing and small-scale irrigation, and enclosing degraded hillsides as 'area closures' to let rangeland and forest regenerate naturally; around one million labour-constrained people also receive unconditional transfers for 12 months a year.

Activities

Under the most recently completed phase (PSNP 5), communities treated 1.2 million hectares of land across 11,800 watersheds and completed or rehabilitated nearly 2,600 community infrastructure assets. EU project-tracking data records EUR 61.58 million in EU financing for PSNP's fourth phase alone, pooled alongside other donors.

Results

Cumulatively, PSNP has reached over 23 million people with shock-responsive support, and 1.45 million households gained bank accounts through the programme. Independent academic research published in Global Environmental Change found that public-works watershed treatments measurably increased tree and woody cover in treated micro-watersheds relative to untreated comparison areas. The World Bank announced approval of the programme's sixth phase in March 2026.

Conclusions

The ecological outputs are real and independently measured, but multiple independent evaluations (including by IDS and 3ie, and analysis in the World Bank Economic Review) document persistent operational weaknesses: payment delays are one of PSNP's most recurring failures ('a safety net delayed is a safety net denied'), and political-economy studies have found targeting errors and non-need-based exclusions in some areas.

Implementation
Indicative cost
Very high (> €5M)
Time to results
Long (> 3 years)
Staffing & skills
Ministry of Agriculture's Food Security Coordination Directorate (programme coordination), Pooled donor financing and technical support from the World Bank (IDA), USAID, UK FCDO, EU, Irish Aid, Sida and Canada

Conditions for success

  • Sustained multi-donor pooled financing over two decades
  • Combining social-protection payments with environmental public works so that ecological and livelihood goals reinforce each other
  • Area-closure approach allowing degraded rangeland/forest to regenerate naturally
  • Linking beneficiary households to bank accounts to support shock-responsive delivery

Common failure modes

  • Payment delays are one of PSNP's most recurring and persistent failures
  • Targeting errors and non-need-based exclusions documented in some areas by independent political-economy studies

Commonly funded by

National / regional programmes

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Data sources

Where this practice's information was retrieved from, and when.

Attachments

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