The World Bank has approved 100 million USD for a program which focuses on long-term practical measures that help prevents famine from Ethiopia, according to the bank’s website.
On the frontline of this is the Productive Safety Net Program (PSNP), one of the world’s largest safety net programs. Run by the government, it pools money from 11 donors, including 600 million USD of World Bank Group IDA funds.
The PSNP provides regular cash or food transfers to 8 million people, 4 million of them in drought-affected areas, the website added. Its food-for-work component supports public works programs, chosen by members of the communities affected and usually related to landscape restoration, irrigation, and agro-forestry.
During droughts, the program has a contingency fund that allows it to scale up to include new beneficiaries as well as to increase the length of time they will receive benefits from five to seven months.
However, the PSNP falls short of funds during droughts as severe as this one. The Ethiopian government has issued a humanitarian appeal for 7.7 million people; until the end of June. Some 742 million USD is needed for emergency food and non-food assistance, including more than 432,000 metric tons of grain.
In response, the World Bank today approved another 100 million USD to the PSNP, on top of the extra 100 million USD it gave the program last year.
Currently, in every village in the Somali region, the two approaches are running in parallel: the safety net program run by the government and the distribution of humanitarian aid.
According to the website, the World Bank and other development partners are working with the Ethiopian government to bring the safety net program and humanitarian aid even closer together into a single, nationally-run response to emergencies like this year’s.
“Droughts are a regular occurrence in Ethiopia,” the website quoted Carolyn Turk as saying, adding that the World Bank’s Country Director for Ethiopia.
She said “we and other donors are working with the government to build the capacity to respond to these emergencies from within its regular development programs. We are exploring the options with innovative financial products, as well as by bolstering the PSNP.” (ENA)