Determinants Of Graduation From Safety Net Program A Case Study In Chiro District Oromia National Regional State Ethiopia

This dissertation deals with chronically food insecure rural households’ graduation fromrnexternal assistance, more specifically from PSNP Program. The main purpose is to explorernfactors that affect households progress to graduation and their food security statuses then after.rnIn pursuit of this general purpose, the study explores and analyzes how the interplay amongrnhouseholds` vulnerability context, level of their access to different livelihood resources andrnpolicy implementation influence the food security status of households and their progress torngraduation. The central argument is that households’ vulnerability factors, lack of access tornadequate livelihood resources and impaired policy implementations limited householdsrnprogress towards graduation. Rural sustainable livelihood framework was adopted torncomprehensively grasp households’ characteristics, access to different livelihood assets, policyrnrelated factors, and households’ food security outcome.rnQualitative and quantitative data were drawn from both primary and secondary sources. Thernprimary data was drawn from stakeholders at different levels with varied capacity of programrnimplementation, and mainly from case study households in Chiro District kebeles in WestrnHarerghe Zone of Oromia National Regional State in Ethiopia. Intensive field work wasrnconducted to collect data through focus group discussions, individual interviews and householdrnsurvey. Secondary data was obtained through desk reviews of literature and relevantrngovernment documents from national to kebele levels. Qualitative and quantitative datasetsrnwere integrated, used for mutual explanation and validation, and finding from each wererncompared and interpreted. Food security measurement tools such as household Self-AssessmentrnFood Security (SAFS), Household Food (Insecurity) Access Scale (HFIAS), and HouseholdrnFood Balance Model (HFBM) were adopted in the analysis. Both descriptive statistics such asrnfrequency, mean, and standard deviation, and inferential statistics, binary logistic regression,rnwere used in the quantitative data analysis. Composite Asset Index (CAI) for each groups ofrnhouseholds were created by using Multiple Correspondence Analysis (MCA), and equality ofrneach groups of households in terms of their asset endowments and food security statuses werernanalyzed.rnThe study revealed that most graduates had not done away from dependence on externalrnassistances after their graduation. The study shows that the target households were highlyrnvulnerable due to their demographic characteristics; limited access to productive assets such asrnland and livestock; limited livelihood options and income sources; exposure to persistentrnenvironmental risks such as drought, rainfall variability, crop pests and diseases. The servicesrnand products from food security program were found inadequate to address households’rnvulnerability and to replenish households’ capacity to graduate from the program as envisagedrnin the program design. The analysis on food security status of graduated households revealedrnthat the great majority of them were not year-round food secure during the study. The study alsornrevealed that though the PSNP transfer significantly improved the food security status ofrnongoing PSNP households as compared to their status before joining PSNP, their annual foodrnrequirements were not fully met for most due to inadequacy of the transfer and exclusion ofrneligible household members. Perception of most ongoing PSNP households on graduationrnexercise was found gloomy. The shortcomings of previous graduation exercise which removedrneligible households prompted most ongoing PSNP households to build wrong conception ofrngraduation as an approach that leaves households in difficult circumstances by forcing them tornquit the program. rnvirnThe study concludes that households’ progress towards graduation has been constrained byrnvulnerability factors related to households’ characteristics, economic, environmental andrninstitutional inefficiency that failed to adequately address these constraints as stipulated in thernprogram design. It argues that most graduated households were made to exit the programrnwithout attaining food security and the capacity to withstand smaller shocks. Graduaternhouseholds’ asset endowment level and food security status was not different from that of thernongoing PSNP households at the time this study was conducted.rnThus, the study suggests that the government should look at the mismatch between its intentionrnand implementation of graduation approach. Moreover, the study recommends that the successrnof the PSNP program should be more rated by how much it has protected the vulnerablernhouseholds from being undernourished than by the number of households who exited it. Therndevelopmental deepening of the program and its outcome, graduation, should be judged againstrnhow other development interventions effectively complemented PSNP.

Get Full Work

Report copyright infringement or plagiarism