Ethiopia’s Productive Safety Net Programme (PSNP) was launched in 2005, aiming at reducing food insecurity vulnerability by providing economic opportunities and building resilience to crises, through cash transfers, public works, and nutritional feeding programmes.

The fourth phase of PSNP started in mid-2015 with the aim to increase resilience to shocks and to improve food and nutrition security while improving environmental management.

PSNP provides payments to able-bodied members of the community for participation in labour-intensive public works. It provides direct payment support (for 6 months of the year) to labour-poor, elderly or otherwise incapacitated households. This support assists households to smooth their consumption, avoid asset depletion, and plan with greater certainty.

Public works focus on integrated community-based watershed development, covering activities such as soil and water conservation measures, rangeland management (in pastoral areas), and the development of community assets such as roads, water infrastructure, schools, and health care centres.

The case of Ethiopia’s PSNP demonstrates the importance of integrating environment and climate change mitigation and adaptation when formulating and implementing social protection programmes. By incorporating environmental and climate change considerations, Ethiopia’s PSNP has increased resilience, improved food security and reduced deforestation through land restoration and natural resources management, and is now known as one of the largest climate change adaptation programmes in Africa.