Growing concern over "safety nets" implementation //CORRECTED REPEAT//

Concern is mounting over implementation of Ethiopia's flagship "safety nets" programme set up to end dependency on aid for five million people, the UN said. Paul Herbert, head of the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said the those in need had still not received any food or cash under the scheme. "Safety net transfers to beneficiaries have not yet started and this is raising serious concerns," he told IRIN on Wednesday. The scheme, which had been due to start on 1 January, provides food or cash (US $0.70 cents a day) to people for employment in public work programmes. Working for food or cash, the government says, would end aid dependency. Bill Hammink, head of the US Agency For International Development, told Prime Minister Meles Zenawi earlier this month that major challenges surrounded the programme. "We cannot underestimate the challenge involved in moving 5.1 million people into the productive safety nets programme over the next 12 month transition period," he said. Ethiopia's safety net programme was designed to operate alongside its emergency programme. Under the government's strategy, people in need would this year receive aid either through safety nets or by emergency food handouts. In districts covered by the safety nets programme, however, no one had been getting food or cash whereas in areas covered by the emergency system food has been handed out. The emergency food levels were also low, with only 11 percent of needs covered for March, according to the World Food Programme (WFP). Herbert said there was "growing frustration" among the the intended beneficiaries that they were not getting aid and reports that some may be moving to areas covered by emergency handouts. Aid agencies also warned that in areas where they were due to implement safety nets, signs of malnutrition were appearing because of the delays in starting transfers. Anne Bousquet, head of Catholic Relief Services (CRS), said thousands of people whom they are supposed to feed under the safety nets scheme are growing weaker by the day. "The programme hasn't started and unfortunately the people are too weak to do any public work," she told IRIN. CRS were supposed to begin providing food in January for 18,000 people, but that figure has now risen to 30,000 and could increase further, she said. According to humanitarian sources there were also concerns about whether the regional authorities in the country had the capacity to manage the plan. Although the programme was set up to support 5.1 million people, 900,000 people from the Afar and Somali regions had been excluded and added to the parallel emergency system that will feed 2.2 million this year. Deputy commissioner, Brehane Gizaw, from the Ministry of Agriculture, told IRIN they expected transfers of food or cash to begin sometime next month. Delays, he said, had occurred due to securing cash from donor countries. A WFP spokeswoman said they could not immediately give a specific date when transfers of cash or food would be made. "WFP is working closely with the government to identify areas where safety nets will be implemented, ascertaining whether they will be cash and which will be food," Paulette Jones, said.