Ethiopia/Productive Safety Net Programme 2021-2025 (phase V) Design Document. Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia (FDRE) Ministry of Agriculture, 2021

Ethiopia has a painful history of large-scale food insecurity and sometimes famine. The extremes of the dire impacts of the 1984-5 and 2002-3 drought disasters led the Government of Ethiopia (GOE) to call for action in 2003 to proactively address the issue of drought disaster and its impacts on the most vulnerable. In 2005, Ethiopia launched its Productive Safety Net Program (PSNP) supported by a group of like-minded development partners (DPs). The idea was to prevent the extreme effects of severe drought by providing regular support to the large numbers of households experiencing chronic food insecurity, leaving the humanitarian response to address the needs of a smaller number of people with acute needs when required. The PSNP is now beginning its fifth phase, PSNP5, and will reach around 8 million rural people annually with regular support, with others supported during shocks as required.