COVID-19 and food security in Ethiopia: Do social protection programs protect?

This paper assesses the impact of Ethiopia's flagship social protection program, the Productive Safety Net Program on the adverse impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on the food and nutrition security of households, mothers, and children. The analysis uses pre-pandemic, in-person household survey data...

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Autores principales: Abay, Kibrom A., Berhane, Guush, Hoddinott, John F., Tafere, Kibrom
Formato: Artículo preliminar
Lenguaje:Inglés
Publicado: World Bank 2020
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://hdl.handle.net/10568/142256
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author Abay, Kibrom A.
Berhane, Guush
Hoddinott, John F.
Tafere, Kibrom
author_browse Abay, Kibrom A.
Berhane, Guush
Hoddinott, John F.
Tafere, Kibrom
author_facet Abay, Kibrom A.
Berhane, Guush
Hoddinott, John F.
Tafere, Kibrom
author_sort Abay, Kibrom A.
collection Repository of Agricultural Research Outputs (CGSpace)
description This paper assesses the impact of Ethiopia's flagship social protection program, the Productive Safety Net Program on the adverse impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on the food and nutrition security of households, mothers, and children. The analysis uses pre-pandemic, in-person household survey data and a post-pandemic phone survey. Two-thirds of the respondents reported that their incomes had fallen after the pandemic began, and almost half reported that their ability to satisfy their food needs had worsened. Employing a household fixed effects difference-in-difference approach, the study finds that household food insecurity increased by 11.7 percentage points and the size of the food gap by 0.47 months in the aftermath of the onset of the pandemic. Participation in the Productive Safety Net Program offsets virtually all of this adverse change -- the likelihood of becoming food insecure increased by only 2.4 percentage points for Productive Safety Net Program households and the duration of the food gap increased by only 0.13 month. The protective role of the program is greater for poorer households and those living in remote areas. The results are robust to various definitions of program participation, different estimators, and different ways of accounting for the non-randomness of mobile phone ownership. Productive Safety Net Program participants were less likely to reduce expenditures on health and education by 7.7 percentage points and less likely to reduce expenditures on agricultural inputs by 13 percentage points. By contrast, mothers' and children's diets changed little, despite some changes in the composition of diets, with consumption of animal source foods declining significantly.
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spelling CGSpace1422562025-03-11T12:14:31Z COVID-19 and food security in Ethiopia: Do social protection programs protect? Abay, Kibrom A. Berhane, Guush Hoddinott, John F. Tafere, Kibrom covid-19 households social protection food security social safety nets diet dietary diversity This paper assesses the impact of Ethiopia's flagship social protection program, the Productive Safety Net Program on the adverse impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on the food and nutrition security of households, mothers, and children. The analysis uses pre-pandemic, in-person household survey data and a post-pandemic phone survey. Two-thirds of the respondents reported that their incomes had fallen after the pandemic began, and almost half reported that their ability to satisfy their food needs had worsened. Employing a household fixed effects difference-in-difference approach, the study finds that household food insecurity increased by 11.7 percentage points and the size of the food gap by 0.47 months in the aftermath of the onset of the pandemic. Participation in the Productive Safety Net Program offsets virtually all of this adverse change -- the likelihood of becoming food insecure increased by only 2.4 percentage points for Productive Safety Net Program households and the duration of the food gap increased by only 0.13 month. The protective role of the program is greater for poorer households and those living in remote areas. The results are robust to various definitions of program participation, different estimators, and different ways of accounting for the non-randomness of mobile phone ownership. Productive Safety Net Program participants were less likely to reduce expenditures on health and education by 7.7 percentage points and less likely to reduce expenditures on agricultural inputs by 13 percentage points. By contrast, mothers' and children's diets changed little, despite some changes in the composition of diets, with consumption of animal source foods declining significantly. 2020-11-01 2024-05-22T12:10:14Z 2024-05-22T12:10:14Z Working Paper https://hdl.handle.net/10568/142256 en https://doi.org/10.2499/p15738coll2.134146 https://doi.org/10.1086/715831 Open Access World Bank Abay, Kibrom A.; Berhane, Guush; Hoddinott, John F.; and Tafere, Kibrom. 2020. COVID-19 and food security in Ethiopia: Do social protection programs protect? World Bank Policy Research Working Paper 9475. Washington, DC: World Bank. https://hdl.handle.net/10986/34794
spellingShingle covid-19
households
social protection
food security
social safety nets
diet
dietary diversity
Abay, Kibrom A.
Berhane, Guush
Hoddinott, John F.
Tafere, Kibrom
COVID-19 and food security in Ethiopia: Do social protection programs protect?
title COVID-19 and food security in Ethiopia: Do social protection programs protect?
title_full COVID-19 and food security in Ethiopia: Do social protection programs protect?
title_fullStr COVID-19 and food security in Ethiopia: Do social protection programs protect?
title_full_unstemmed COVID-19 and food security in Ethiopia: Do social protection programs protect?
title_short COVID-19 and food security in Ethiopia: Do social protection programs protect?
title_sort covid 19 and food security in ethiopia do social protection programs protect
topic covid-19
households
social protection
food security
social safety nets
diet
dietary diversity
url https://hdl.handle.net/10568/142256
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