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The ‘Productivity Safety Net Program’ (PSNP), a large-scale social protection program started by the Ethiopian government in 2005 in response to widespread starvation, has attracted positive attention. However, most studies focusing on the impact of the PSNP on its so-called beneficiaries have not fully considered its political intentions or the relationships between the PSNP and other development projects. In this paper, I will first analyze the impact of dam construction and the operation of commercial farms on the subsistence economy and the food security of agro–pastoral people in southwestern Ethiopia. Next, I will examine how the PSNP has been implemented within the context of these development projects and will review relevant consequences. I will focus especially on how the clear political intentions underpinning the initiation of this program have influenced the process by which PSNP’s beneficiaries are selected on the local level. Finally, I will address the fact that the PSNP and other development projects have strengthened the people’s dependence on the state and have divided the community between those who benefit from the PSNP and have accepted the development projects, and those who have not. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]