Synergistic impacts of social safety nets and broader development programmes on education quality in Ethiopia

Measures to improve education in developing countries such as Ethiopia require targeted financial investments; however, the polemics of spending for social welfare versus broader development interventions have persisted. This study considers their singular and joint impact on the cognitive aspect of education to provide implications for integrated policymaking. Based on the results of the Ethiopian Living Standards Measurement Study Integrated Surveys (2011–2021), a pseudo-panel of 15,191 cohorts constructed on 264 wards was fit to beta regression with a conditional logit link. The results confirmed that broader developmental programmes contribute strongly and positively to the quality of education by almost 9.3% points, with a unit increase in intensity compared to 0.76% points through social welfare. It was identified that there is no such synergism between the two interventions, suggesting that they do not complement each other to a great extent. On the other hand, contextual factors like improvements in household welfare and access to parental education positively affect outcomes, whereas things such as digital illiteracy and food insecurity negatively affect quality. This study clearly reiterates that supply-side investments are paramount and recommends that social welfare programmes be geared towards the education system of Ethiopia in supporting access and equity.