The Graduation Pilot in Ethiopia – The sought after dream of ‘sustainable livelihoods’
With a small number of 500 participants, REST tested the approach in Ethiopia as an effort to find pathways – not just out of extreme poverty – but out of what the state considers indefinite dependency on the Productive Safety Net Programme (PSNP), one of the largest national safety nets in...
From Oliver Twist to Ethiopia’s PSNP: How did workfare become so productive?
“Productive” safety nets seem to be all the rage, with Ethiopia’s Productive Safety Net (PSNP) spawning a crop of “wannabes” – such as the PSNPs of Mozambique and Tanzania – and significant enthusiasm among donor agencies. In fact, so popular are “productive” safety nets that low-income countries have been persuaded...
Commission on the Status of Women set to tackle social protection gender gap
The UN Commission on the Status of Women will this week meet to push for policy change to address the fact that social protection reaches fewer women across the globe. The 63rd session...
All work and no pay: The invisibilisation of women’s labour in public works programmes
Anasuya Sengupta On International Women’s Day, I want to bring attention to a silent scandal on the use of women’s labour within public works programmes, which are increasingly referred to as productive safety net programmes in many low-income countries. These are, as many of you know, good old-fashioned workfare schemes...