Food Security Status and Coping Strategies of Female-Headed Households in Addis Ababa: The Case of Woreda 01 in Gullelle Sub-City
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Date
2011
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Addis Ababa University
Abstract
The main purpose of this study was to assess the food security status of urban Female-Headed
Households (FHHs) and their coping strategies in Woreda aI, Gullelle Sub-city of Addis Ababa.
Mixed approach of qualitative and quantitative study was used for conducting the study. The main
data collection methods employed during the study was household Survey, in-depth interview and
Focus Group Discussion (FGD). The data were analyzed using frequency tables, percentage,
pearsons's correlation and cross tabulation. And their food security status was also reckoned using
Coping Strategy Index and Food Consumption Score calculation developed by Dan Maxwell and
World Food Program (WFP) respectively.
The outcome of the study indicates that most of the FHHs relied on informal workfor their livelihood.
Concerning their food security status, based on the above mentioned measurements most of them are
food insecure. Using Food Consumption Score and WFP standard, it is found that 50.8% of the
sample households are under poor food consumption, 43.3% are in borderline and only the remaining
5.9% are in acceptable food consumption level. Using Coping Strategy Index, it is found that all
households use various types of coping strategies which implies that the sample households have food
security problem. Based on quartile ranking categorization of food security status of the households,
the study shows that 19.2% of the household are extremely severe food insecure status, 26.7% are
severe food insecure status, 26.7% are moderately severe food insecure status and 27.5% are least
severe insecure status.
The study shows FHHs food insecurity problem is mainly attributed to lack of education coupled with
low income, current food price inflation, less social capital, poor health and lack of physical capital
especially housing. This in turn has an impact in buying better quantity and quality of food. It was also
found that most food insecure households have various coping strategies to withstand food stress such
as relying on less preferred and less expensive food, limiting the volume of meal, restricting
consumption order for small children and skipping meals. The extremely severe strategy is sending
children to eat with neighbors and sending household members for begging. Thus, the government
interventions are highly required to address these problems, specifically after the extremely severe
coping strategy.
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Keywords
Strategies of Female-Headed Households