Degefa Tolossa (PhD)Esubalew Abate (PhD)Adane Yenealem2024-12-062024-12-062024-04https://etd.aau.edu.et/handle/123456789/3805Self-Help Group Approach (SHGA) is one of the most applied instruments to individually, psychologically, socially, economically, and politically equip marginalized people. Its origin is from the West and predominantly applied in the East (Asian countries like India). SHGA mainly focuses on organizing destitute persons into small groups and facilitate regular meeting, saving, internal lending, training, exposure visits, rotational leadership and empowerment. Every human being has an inborn potential. That innate potential must be well cultivated, nurtured, and guided in the right direction through formal, non-formal, and informal education, training, coaching, and guidance. Though the SHGA is expanding in terms of geographical coverage and the size of direct beneficiaries in Ethiopia, there is inadequate research on the implications of the approach to household food security and women’s decision-making power. Hence, this dissertation has studied the food security status households. Moreover, it identified the determinants of household food security, and the levels and differentials of the decision-making power of women organized and not organized in self-help groups in the study areas. For this dissertation, socio-economic, demographic, food security, and women empowerment data were collected from 492 women aged 24-49 years old. The study followed concurrent mixed approaches. Qualitative and quantitative data were collected from primary and secondary sources, had organized, analyzed, and synthesized. Relevant data analysis techniques were employed to analyze the household food security status, to identify household food security determinants and determine the levels and differentials of women’s decision-making powers. The findings revealed that 25.7% and 36.1% of the selfhelp group members were food secure and mildly food insecure respectively. On the other hand, 16.9% and 31.7% of the respondents that were not organized in the self-help groups were food secure and mildly food insecure respectively. Similarly, the outputs of the months of adequate household food provisioning show that 42.9% of the self-help group members and 37.6% of the respondents that were not organized in the self-help groups were the least food insecure. Furthermore, the household dietary diversity score result found that 63.2% of the self-help group members and 31.3% of the respondents who were not organized in self-help groups had suitable dietary diversity. The study revealed that age, marriage, education, membership in health insurance, training on business development and harmful practices, child protection and gender equality, access to loans from self-help groups, and availability of small ruminants were statistically significantly associated with the household food security of selfhelp group members. Similarly, membership in health insurance, availability of electrical appliances, and ownership of ornaments were significantly associated with the food security of households who were not organized. Furthermore, women organized in self-help groups were able to attain significantly higher scores of empowerment than women who were not organized. In conclusion, households organized in self-help groups were found better in terms of food security status, levels of women’s decision-making power, and ability to resist food security shocks than households that were not organized in self-help groups. The findings imply the huge potential of the self-help group approach to promote the capabilities of individuals. In the future, in-depth, comprehensive, and large-scale (i.e., regional and national) studies are suggested.enself-help group approach/food security/decision-making/women’s empowerment/sustainable development/food security determinantsThesis