Impact of the Urban Productive Safety Net Program on the Sustainable Livelihood of ‘Graduated’ Women Beneficiaries: The Case of Women in Kirkos Sub City Woreda 03, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
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Date
2023-10
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Addis Ababa University
Abstract
This study aimed to evaluate the impact of the Urban Productive Safety Net Program on the sustainable livelihood of women beneficiaries who graduated from the program in Kirkos Sub City Woreda 03, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Primary survey data was collected from a total of 365 women respondents, out of which 243 were beneficiaries and 122 were non-beneficiaries. The respondents were selected using multiple-stage sampling techniques. To complement the quantitative data, qualitative data was collected using two FGDs with eight group members each and one key informant interview. The study used the probit regression model and the propensity score matching (PSM) methods to analyze the data. The probit regression model found that marital status, educational background, duration of residency, and house ownership had statistically significant effects on participation in the UPSNP program. On the other hand, age, economically active status, number of household members, and number of children under the age of 18 did not significantly affect program participation. Using the propensity score matching with three matching algorithms; Nearest Neighbor, Radius, and Kernel; the study found that the UPSNP program intervention in Kirkos sub-city had a positive impact on some outcome variables, including savings, skills and training, access to sanitation, health care, food consumption, and means of transportation. However, the intervention did not significantly affect several other outcome variables, such as meals per day, access to improved nutrition, adequate monthly income, income variability, income compared to expenditure, children's educational improvement, housing area improvement, housing condition improvement, access to cooking fuel, building household asset, and improving the quality of clothes compared to non-beneficiaries. The quantitative findings suggest that the UPSNP intervention did not have a significant effect on most of the outcome variables used to measure the sustainability of the intervention on the livelihood of graduated beneficiaries. This finding was reinforced by the results of the focus group discussions and key informant interviews, which indicated that beneficiaries who graduated from the program did not achieve significant sustainable improvement in their livelihoods beyond addressing their immediate problems while they were directly supported by the program. It appears that the program tended to make the beneficiaries dependent on it instead of bringing sustainable change in their livelihood.
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Keywords
UPSNP, PSM, Impact evaluation, Sustainable livelihood.