How Cash Transfers of Urban Safety-Net Program have Affected the Financial Inclusion & Food Security of Households in Ethiopia?: the Context of Women Participating in Urban Agriculture

Kassa Moges Tareke^*

• Urban Development and Engineering, Ethiopian Civil Service University, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

Globally, income inequality & food insecurity in urban areas have continued to be pressing issues. As a solution, productive urban safety-net program has been launched to provide conditional cash transfers (CTs) to poor households since 2017 in Ethiopia. This study examines the impact of CTs made by the program on the financial inclusion options, participation in urban agriculture & food security levels among women in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Stratified sampling was used to select 278 women for surveys, impact analysis, food security index, Ordinary Least Square (OLS), Logistic regressions were applied. Results showed 94% of respondents could have ownership of a bank account and participated in urban agriculture as additional income source only after receiving CTs. This contributed to better access to financial inclusion components such as saving, credit, mobile banking, advice on finance management, and farm incomes. It found that 61.5% women were food-insecure, while 38.5% food-secure. The minimum, maximum, and mean K/calorie consumed by food-insecure women was 674.6, 2082.1, and 1378 Kcals, respectively, while 2192.5, 5360.4, and 3776.6 for food-secure ones. Furthermore, calorie consumption of women significantly varies with urban agriculture type they are involved in. Accordingly, among food-secure women, mean calorie consumption was relatively better in those involved in horticulture relative to animal-husbandry. The OLS model indicate the coefficient of bank account ownership, amount saved, farm income & proportion of credit used have a significant positive effect on food security index. It is confirmed that amount saved, finance management advise, & proportion of credit used were most significant predictors. The program's CTs have moderately improved financial inclusion for women and slightly increased food-secured women, but their overall contribution to food security remains inadequate, as significant portion of women still experience food-insecurity & poor urban agriculture. The study implies urban planning & policies still need to be more pro-poor, gender-responsive & inclusive to bring majority of women out of food insecurity by improving their calorie consumption & urban agriculture jobs. Accordingly, it informs partners to revisit & expand the safetynet program scope, consider more financial inclusion options & agriculture facilities. Besides, further research with wider scope is essential.