Impacts of Social Protection Programs on Children's Resources and Well-Being: Evidence from Ethiopia

Getachew Yirga Belete, Bahir Dar University

Ethiopia's Productive Safety Net Program (PSNP) is Africa's second largest social protection program with public works (PW) and direct support (DS) components. The study evaluates joint and separate impacts of PSNP and allied transfers on children's bargaining power and well-being. Inverse-probability-weighted regression adjustment provides the impacts. Using 2013/14 LSMS-ISA data from Ethiopia, we find that PSNP and joint PNSP-allied transfers slightly reduce children’s resource shares. Impacts on child monetary poverty are mixed and directly follow from effects on sharing rules: child poverty is worse with PSNP and its joint with allied transfers, but better with allied transfers alone. Stunting among under-seven children is worse with PW. Children in single-mother families participating in PW are better off compared to those in male-headed families. Undesirable impacts may require revising the schemes to a “cash plus” form such as by incorporating parental awareness on fertility, child nutrition and education.