Since the mid 1980s the images of severe drought and large-scale starvation have become inexorably linked to Ethiopia. Today, food insecurity remains one of the defining features of poverty in rural Ethiopia and has actually become worse in recent years. The average population in need of food aid over the period of 2001-04 was higher than the historical average seven years prior (1994-2000), and these trends do not completely capture the severity of food insecurity in exceptional years such as 2003, when around 13 million people required emergency food aid. Most of these households are engaged in subsistence farming on small plots of degraded land, subject to the vicissitudes of the weather. On a daily basis they manage hunger, extreme hardship, and multiple sources of uncertainty.

In 2005, the PSNP reached 5 million chronically food insecure people in rural areas, expanding to 7.23 million people in 2006. In 2006 the program generated over 172 million days of public works with a focus on rehabilitation of severely degraded areas and creation of productive community assets (such as terracing, feeder roads, afforestation, and small-scale irrigation) in the food insecure areas in which the program operates.

Highlights:
- The program enabled the move from emergency food towards cash transfers, with up to 4.5 million beneficiaries receiving cash transfers in 2006 for their participation in the program.
- An initial evaluation conducted 2 ½ years after the start of the program, including both qualitative and quantitative household survey data, shows that the program is having a significant positive impact in improving the food security of beneficiaries and in helping to protect their assets.
(i) Asset protection: Three in five beneficiaries avoided having to sell assets to buy food in 2005 - a common distress response to household food shortage. About 90% of households attributed this outcome to participation in the PSNP.
(ii) Food security: Three-quarters of beneficiary households reported that they consumed more food or better quality food in 2005 as compared with 2004 and 94% of these households attributed this to the PSNP. Three in five beneficiaries retained more of their own food production to eat rather than selling it for other needs, and 90% of beneficiaries said that this was as a result of the PSNP.
(iii) Utilization of education and health services: Almost half the beneficiaries surveyed stated that they used healthcare facilities more in 2005/06 than in 2004/05 and 76% of these households credited the PSNP with this enhanced access. More than one third of households enrolled more of their children in school and 80% of this was attributed to participation in the PSNP.
(iv) Household Asset creation: Approximately one quarter of PSNP beneficiaries acquired new assets for their households, or new skills, during 2005. The PSNP was considered the prime driver behind the acquisition of these skills (86%) presumably through the training received in the program, as well as being behind over half (55%) of the additional asset creation.
(v) Community Asset creation: The PSNP currently generates around 172 million person days of labor a year through the labor intensive public works component. This has created substantial community assets in beneficiary communities, with economic and environmental impacts. Early results from the program baseline survey indicate that in general households reported a high level of satisfaction with the community assets built, with 77% of respondents reporting that the community as a whole had benefited from the assets created under the PSNP.

The PSNP is funded by a large consortium of international donors, including CIDA, EU, the Irish Government, DFID, SIDA, USAID, the World Food Program and the World Bank.