COVID-19 and Food Security in Ethiopia: Do Social Protection Programs Protect?

46 Pages Posted: 13 Nov 2020

See all articles by Kibrom Abay

Kibrom Abay

International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI)-Cairo

Guush Berhane

International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI)

John Hoddinott

Cornell University - Charles H. Dyson School of Applied Economics and Management; Cornell SC Johnson College of Business

Kibrom Tafere

World Bank - Development Research Group

Multiple version iconThere are 2 versions of this paper

Date Written: November 11, 2020

Abstract

We assess the impact of Ethiopia’s flagship social protection program, the Productive Safety Net Program (PSNP) on the adverse impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on food and nutrition security of households, mothers, and children. We use both pre-pandemic in-person household survey data and a post-pandemic phone survey. Two thirds of our respondents reported that their incomes had fallen after the pandemic began and almost half reported that their ability to satisfy their food needs had worsened. Employing a household fixed effects difference-in-difference approach, we find that the household food insecurity increased by 11.7 percentage points and the size of the food gap by 0.47 months in the aftermath of the onset of the pandemic. Participation in the PSNP offsets virtually all of this adverse change; the likelihood of becoming food insecure increased by only 2.4 percentage points for PSNP households and the duration of the food gap increased by only 0.13 months. The protective role of PSNP is greater for poorer households and those living in remote areas. Results are robust to definitions of PSNP participation, different estimators and how we account for the non-randomness of mobile phone ownership. PSNP households were less likely to reduce expenditures on health and education by 7.7 percentage points and were less likely to reduce expenditures on agricultural inputs by 13 percentage points. By contrast, mothers’ and children’s diets changed little, despite some changes in the composition of diets with consumption of animal source foods declining significantly.

Keywords: Ethiopia, East Africa, Africa South of Sahara, Africa, Coronavirus, coronavirus disease, Coronavirinae, COVID-19, food security, social protection, programmes, income, nutrition security, households, diet diversity, Productive Safety Net Program (PSNP)

Suggested Citation

Abay, Kibrom and Berhane, Guush and Hoddinott, John and Tafere, Kibrom, COVID-19 and Food Security in Ethiopia: Do Social Protection Programs Protect? (November 11, 2020). Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3728836 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3728836

Kibrom Abay (Contact Author)

International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI)-Cairo ( email )

Cairo
Egypt

Guush Berhane

International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI)

1201 Eye St, NW,
Washington, DC 20005
United States

John Hoddinott

Cornell University - Charles H. Dyson School of Applied Economics and Management ( email )

Ithaca, NY
United States

Cornell SC Johnson College of Business ( email )

Ithaca, NY 14850
United States

Kibrom Tafere

World Bank - Development Research Group ( email )

1818 H Street, N.W.
Washington, DC 20433
United States

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