Analysis of livelihoods and food security of poor urban households: the case of urban productive safety-net beneficiaries in Ethiopia

Abstract

Social protection, including social assistance or safety nets, is considered a proven means of reducing poverty, promoting livelihood, improving food security and nutrition status of the poorest households. The Government of Ethiopia has initiated and implemented various policies and programmes, including urban productive safety net programme, to address urban challenges. Many studies have been conducted in Ethiopia on food security and livelihoods related topics; however, most of them are focused primarily on rural areas and in relation to the rural productive safety net programme. Although these studies are helpful in terms of the methodologies employed and the evaluation issues to be dealt with, their findings do not necessarily apply to the urban context. Therefore, the main objective of this study was to analyse the livelihoods and food insecurity status of poor urban households involved in the UPSNP in Ethiopia with special emphasis to Addis Ababa city. The study followed descriptive research design and employed concurrent mixed methods approach using both quantitative and qualitative data from primary and secondary sources. The primary data were collected from 200 UPSNP beneficiary households, located in four sub cities of Addis Ababa, through a survey questionnaire. In addition, data from 28 key informants and from field observations were collected from primary sources while the secondary data were obtained through literature and document reviews. The findings of the study indicated that the status of livelihoods of the beneficiary households has shown improvement though it has been challenged by increasing prices and the incidence of COVID-19. While there have been some desirable improvements in the food insecurity level of the beneficiary households, they have still been not food secure. Increasing prices, incidence of COVID-19 pandemic, loss of employment, and increasing house rent were identified as the most important factors that made households vulnerable to food insecurity and that have negatively affected their livelihood outcomes. In addition, the beneficiaries perceived a moderate contribution of the UPSNP to their livelihood assets, livelihood strategies and livelihood outcomes. On the basis of the findings, recommendations on improving the wage rate or increasing working days, reinforcing the coping mechanisms of beneficiary households, enhancing the contribution of the UPSNP to livelihoods, along with further research were forwarded.