The Impact of Social Protection Programmes on Child Labour and Education in Ethiopia

The study investigates the impact of participation in Social Protection Programmes on child labour and education in Ethiopia, the largest social protection program in Sub-Saharan Africa outside of South Africa, Specifically PSNP and Pension. Social Protection programmes are recently widely recognized in developing countries as main means to tackle poverty, reduce vulnerability and to smooth consumption of households. It is very important to assess intra-households impact of the programmes. Most of the previous studies assess the explicitly objective of the programs. My study evaluated the effect of SP programmes on children outcomes which in turn important to break intergenerational translation of poverty.Using Propensity Score matching method to identify program impacts, we find evidence of both processes at work and schooling. Results are presented by for each programme by place of residence and gender. I find that participation in Public Works leads to significance increases school enrolment of child however PW also increases boys time on paid work outside home and girls on unpaid work outside home in rural areas. PW is better than EGS for enhancing boys school enrolment. The direct support is effective in reducing child labour and increasing education in rural and urban areas. DS reduces time devoted to any activities by 40 minute per a typical day for children for both urban and rural resides. When I Disaggregated based on gender direct support reduces time spent domestic chores in turn increases time devoted on schooling. Besides enhances grade completed and enrolment rate. For boys DS reduced time spent on total work by 57 minutes per day. Similarly Pension is effective in reducing child time spent on work and increasing schooling. For girls it reduces time spent on study at home and highest grade completed. For boys significantly reduce time spent on total work almost by 2 hours per typical day and increases highest grade completed by 1 grade and enrolment rate by 9%.