The renewed Productive Safety Net Program (PSNP) and Household Asset Building Program (HABP) are expected to run from 2010 to 2014. The first phase of the programs was carried out from 2005 to 2009, covering the food security needs of more than 7.5 million people.

State Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Mitiku Kassa, told The Reporter that the PSNP would provide an annual support to some 7.8 million people. Mitiku attributed the increase in the number of people that receive the support to the program’s new expansion plan in the Afar and Somali regions - predominantly pastoralist and chronically food-insecure areas of the country.

Government records show that some 6 million people (1,315,102 households) have benefitted from credits financed by the government’s federal food security budget, while about 359,745 received credits through donor-financed food security projects.

About 205,000 people were resettled in areas that are fertile and have higher rates of rainfall.

“The lessons that we have learned from the PSNP suggest how safety net might further evolve for the poorest citizens in Ethiopia and we look forward to work with you,” said Ken Ohashi, World Bank Country Director in Ethiopia and acting chair of the donor agencies.

Ohashi added that the PSNP is now recognized as an effective social protection program.

This phase of the food security program also incorporates complementary community infrastructure and resettlement program.

“Rehabilitation of schools, health centers, small-scale irrigation project expansion are among the achievements of the previous program,” Mitiku said, adding that those were the pillars for the new pahse.