Abstract:
Background: Developing countries including Ethiopia are affected by food insecurity problems.
Many individuals and households especially the rural poor are the main victims of the problem.
Ethiopian government with other development partners introduced the PSNP in 2005 to help
chronically food-insecure households. Thus, this study has examined the impact of productive
safety net program (PSNP) on the Livelihood of rural households in Malka Balo district, East
Hararge, Oromia region. Specifically, it emphasized on assessing the impact of the program on
beneficiaries‟ food consumption, creation and protection of households‟ asset and finally
perception of beneficiaries towards the program.
Methodology: The study used both qualitative and quantitative research approaches while
techniques used for data collection were Key informant interview, focus group discussion,
observation and Household survey. Moreover, secondary data source was also used from
different offices. A total of 240 beneficiary households were selected using both purposive and
simple random sampling techniques. Descriptive statistics such as Frequency, Mean and
percentage were used to summarize results and present in tables.
Results and Conclusion: The finding indicates that PSNP have made a positive impact on food
consumption since the transfer insured gaining access to food for majority of households and on
household asset accumulation except livestock asset which did not bring significant change. On
the other hand, the program negatively affected the attitude of beneficiary households toward
their work on their own farm land.
Recommendation: Despite the efforts put on bringing the desired impacts, the study also
revealed that there is still area of improvements that government and development partners must
work on in terms of the program implementation strategy so that it focused mainly on
households‟ livelihood diversification in order to bring sustainable development.
