THE IMPACT OF PRODUCTIVE SAFETY NET PROGRAM (PSNP) ON HOUSE-HOLD POVERTY REDUCTION : THE CASE OF KUYU WOREDA, NORTH SHEWA ZONE OF OROMIA REGIONAL STATE, ETHIOPIA

This study evaluated the impact of Productive safety net Program on household poverty reduction in Kuyu Woreda North Shewa zone of Oromia regional state in Ethiopia using cross-sectional survey data collected from 260 households selected through a multi stage sampling procedure. The survey respondents were drawn from both program and non-program areas of Kuyu District. The major research question of the study is ‘what would have been the annual income of household per AE had the program not been implemented?’ Applying a propensity score matching technique, the study found that the program has increased participating households’ annual income per AE by 1,164 birr compared to that of nonparticipating households. The result from the multiple regression analysis revealed that education status, family size, dependency ratio, land size, and distance from development agency had significant effect on the household annual income per AE. The study concluded that controlling for all other factors, the productive safety net tends to result in reduced income benefit for the households that have more number of family size, high depedency ratio, and high distance from development agent office while it results in increased income for households that have more land size and educational status. Most of the program participants were maleheaded households. Hence, the program should include more female-headed households or at least in the same proportion as that of the male-headed households. Keywords: Impact, Safety Net Program, Poverty Reduction, Propensity Score Matching, And Ethiopia