Food security and social protection in highland Ethiopia: linking the Productive Safety Net to the land question

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Periodical article

Title:	Food security and social protection in highland Ethiopia: linking the Productive Safety Net to the land question
Author:	Lavers, Tom
Year:	2013
Periodical:	Journal of Modern African Studies (ISSN 0022-278X)
Volume:	51
Issue:	3
Pages:	459-485
Language:	English
Geographic term:	Ethiopia
Subjects:	social security food security land tenure
External link:	https://www.jstor.org/stable/43302892
Abstract:	While much recent research on social protection in Ethiopia has focused on the cash and food-for-work Productive Safety Net Programme (PSNP), this is by no means the only social protection policy in rural Ethiopia. Drawing on a very different rationale to the PSNP, the Ethiopian government also justifies State land ownership as a form of social protection for smallholders. This paper examines the links between these policies through a case study of an extremely food-insecure site in Tigray. The paper concludes that while the PSNP and land policy together provide minimal security for landholders, land shortages and the problematic nature of agricultural production are such that there is little chance that the PSNP and its complementary programmes can achieve food security. As a result, the PSNP is used to support failing agricultural policies, limiting urban migration in the interests of political stability. These findings highlight the importance of situating safety net programmes within the socioeconomic context which generates insecurity. Bibliogr., notes, sum. [Journal abstract]