Impact evaluation of the Integrated Safety Net Programme in the Amhara Region of Ethiopia: Baseline report

Objectives

The report aims to establish baseline conditions for Productive Safety Net Programme clients in Amhara before roll-out of the Integrated Safety Net Programme. It seeks to describe household welfare, service access and programme participation and to compare treatment and comparison kebeles. It also aims to assess links between PSNP and Community-Based Health Insurance and to document barriers to enrolment, service use and multisectoral coordination. Finally, it aims to generate baseline measures for later impact evaluation on health, nutrition, schooling, child protection and attitudes to early marriage.

Findings

Baseline data show PSNP households are at least as disadvantaged as, and often worse off than, the wider rural Amhara population. Food insecurity is widespread, assets are limited and many households lack improved water, sanitation and adequate housing. CBHI enrolment and understanding of insurance remain low and many clients face affordability and information barriers. Awareness of social workers is very limited, while contacts with health extension workers and exposure to behaviour change sessions on nutrition, child discipline and early marriage are still modest.

Implementers understand the rationale for linking PSNP and CBHI, but there are gaps in staffing, training, coordination and full implementation of temporary direct support for pregnant, lactating women and caregivers of malnourished children. Overall, the quasi-experimental design produced baseline balance after weighting, and the survey offers a comprehensive snapshot for tracking change over time

Recommendations

The report recommends strengthening behaviour change communication on infant feeding, child discipline and early marriage and expanding participation in PSNP livelihood groups to support income diversification. It calls for clearer roles, better training and stronger motivation for health extension workers, social workers and community volunteers to improve case management, school monitoring and transitions to temporary direct support. It advises developing and rolling out a robust management information system to track PSNP households and support real-time monitoring. It also recommends reinforcing the steering and coordination mechanisms between PSNP and CBHI to harmonize targeting, ensure adequate budgets for fee waivers and address remaining operational bottlenecks in integrated service delivery.