Determinants of Households' Graduation from Productive Safety Net Program (PSNP): The Case of Rural Kebeles of Dire Dawa Administration.

Productive Safety net is a pro-poor development program for promoting growth and reducing poverty which represent a shift from unpredictable food aid to smooth consumption levels and protection of assets. The prime aims of the PSNP are to reduce household vulnerability, improve community resilience to shocks and stresses, and to break the cycle of dependence on food aid. Although Dire Dawa administration has been benefiting from the program for a long time, the number of Household beneficiaries graduating from the program, which is the main goal of the program, is low. In particular, the fact that the graduation determinants of the program are regional context, it emphasizes the importance of the study. The main objective of this study is to identify major factors affecting graduation of Rural Productive Safety Net Program beneficiary households in Dire Dawa administration. Cross-sectional survey was employed taking a sample of 389 households selected through Multistage sampling technique to gather data using semi- structured questionnaire. Moreover, focused group discussion and interview were employed to collect qualitative data. Furthermore, the study employed binary logistic regression model to identify the factors determining household level graduation from Rural PSNP. The finding of the study using descriptive statistics shows more than 65% t of household clients have negative perception towards graduation from the program. The binary logistic regression results showed that out of sixteen independent variables included in the model, about eight explanatory variables were found to have a significant influence on graduation status. These were Productive age of household member, livestock ownership, off farm income, total crop value, access to credit and targeting mechanism and household perception on graduation were found to have positive and significant influence on household graduation from PSNP while, dependency ratio had shown negative and were significant variables used to predict households’ graduation from productive safety net program. The result of the study indicates, as the graduation process was not implemented according to the graduation guidance note and the implementation manuals in the study area. Finally, Implementers at different level better to follow the graduation guidance note and the PSNP implementation manual. This helps to strengthen the ability and capacity of households to graduate, prepare long-term business plan and achieve food self-sufficiency at short period.