This report analyses women’s agency and decision-making power, which are a specific sub-domain of women’s empowerment, in the context of the Integrated Nutrition Social Cash Transfer (IN-SCT) pilot in Ethiopia.

The IN-SCT pilot was implemented in 2015 and embedded within Ethiopia’s Productive Safety Net Programme phase 4 (PSNP4). It consists of a) cash payments that require able-bodied members of targeted households to work in public works programmes, and b) a livelihood support component.

Social protection programmes such as cash transfers or public works are policy instruments that help rural food-insecure households to cope and gradually transition out of poverty. These programmes also have the potential to empower women in several ways