Food Poverty Analysis and Coping Mechanism of Internally Displaced Persons in Awbare Town of Somali Region, Eastern Ethiopia
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Date
2021-06
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Addis Ababa University
Abstract
The study was conducted to investigate three interrelated specific objectives of food poverty status, factors influencing food poverty and coping mechanism of IDPs in Awbare town of Somali regional state of Ethiopia. To do so, a household survey was undertaken to collect primary quantitative and qualitative data pertaining to demographic, socioeconomic and consumption patterns of 190 IDPs households using structured questionnaire, Key informant interviews and Focus group discussions. Secondary data was also collected from relevant governmental and non-governmental agencies. Descriptive statistics, FGT model, and econometric methods were employed for analysis purpose to meet the stated objectives. Households were classified into food poor and non-food poor groups based on the minimum recommended 2100 kcal consumption. FGT result revealed that the incidence, the gap, and the severity of household food poverty were 44.7%, 14.51%, and 28.48% respectively. The descriptive statistics revealed that there was a significant difference between the food poor and non-food poor households in terms of sex of household head, age of household head, family size, food aid received, livestock size, and dependency ratio. A logit regression model results revealed at 1% significance level; sex of household head and family size affected positively food poverty whereas age of household head, livestock size, access to employment affected food poverty negatively. Qualitative data analysis notably showed households followed atypical adaptation road path and used different coping strategies against food poverty including, reduced quality of food / eat less preferred diet (89.4%), relied on food assistance (75.3%), sold livestock or used other savings to buy food (64.7%), reduced portion of food (63.5%) and purchased food on credit from traders (57.6%). Finally, creating enablers for wage and self-employment, capacitating female IDPs, inclusive access to services and productive resources, and opportunities for IDPs in par with their host community, and promoting family planning services were recommended.
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Food poverty, conflict IDPs, coping strategies, access, inclusion