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BOX 3.4Ethiopia’s PSNP: Gender-responsive design meets implementation challengesLaunched in 2005 as a key component of the country’s food security strategy, the Productive SafetyNet Programme (PSNP) in Ethiopia has become one of the largest social protection programmes insub-Saharan Africa. It provides food and cash transfers to over 7 million chronically food-insecurepeople, particularly in rural areas, in order to smooth household consumption and prevent thedepletion of household assets. For households with available labour, benefits are provided in returnfor work in community agriculture and infrastructure projects. For households with no availablelabour—due to sickness, disability, old age, pregnancy or lactation—cash and food are providedwithout further conditions. The public works component also aims to create infrastructure andcommunity assets, including roads, water and fuel sources, all of which potentially benefit women.One evaluation found that road construction and improvement has facilitated access to health care,including for pregnant women seeking maternity care. 87Women represent approximately 40 per cent of public works participants. The design of the PSNPtakes account of their practical needs on a number of levels. 88 It foresees the provision of communitybasedchildcare services and reduced working time for women with children and provides for womento receive direct support without work requirements before and after childbirth. Responding to socialnorms that constrain women’s ability to plough their land, it also allows for public works labour to beused to cultivate the private land-holdings of female-headed households. 89 In addition, public worksare supposed to prioritize projects that will reduce women’s work burdens. 90However, the implementation of ‘women-friendly’ measures was inadequate during the first andsecond phases of the programme, with on-site day care, reduced working time and less physicallydemanding tasks for women being scarcely offered. 91 Nor does the programme address unequalgender relations at the household and community level. 92 Participation in PSNP public works is ona household basis, as is payment, irrespective of who does the work, ignoring that women may nothave equal say in decisions over how the money is spent. Similarly, at the community level, women’sunequal access to agricultural extension services and credit is not addressed, and extension servicescontinue to be designed around the needs of male farmers. 93RecommendationsIn order to create universal social protectionfloors, significant efforts are necessary toscale up unemployment protection, especiallyin developing countries. While unconditionalsupport for the unemployed is preferable tomaintain an adequate standard of living from ahuman rights perspective, the creation of publicworks programmes, if adequately designed, cancontribute to redressing women’s socio-economicdisadvantage. In order for these programmes towork for women, they need to:• Provide a minimum level of accessibleemployment and adequate income supportto all those who may require it, ideallybacked by a legally binding and enforcedentitlement