Does the urban productive safety net programme alleviate food insecurity and improve education? Evidence from Tigray, Ethiopia

Abstract

This study examines the effects of the urban productive safety net programme (uPSNP) on urban households’ food insecurity (FIN) and children’s school attendance in Tigray, Ethiopia. Data were collected from 333 urban households between August and September 2020. The FGT index was used to compute households’ food insecurity intensity level, while the propensity score matching (PSM) technique was employed to examine the effect of the uPSNP on the food insecurity of urban households. The results indicated that approximately 56.7% of uPSNP beneficiaries were food-secure and able to consume an average of 2469.964 kcal per adult equivalent. Most importantly, uPSNP beneficiaries headed by women (50.8%) were more food-secure than non-beneficiaries headed by men (5.9%). Furthermore, the children of beneficiaries of the uPSNP attended school more often than the children of non-beneficiaries. This study highlights the need to scale up the uPSNP to address household food insecurity.