Meskerem Abi (PhD)Elizabeth Tariku2024-02-132024-02-132022-11https://etd.aau.edu.et/handle/123456789/1774This research examined the household food security situation among government pensioners in the Kirkos sub-city of Addis Ababa. Data was collected through household surveys with the selected 230 households and key informant interviews with staff at the PSSSA and MoWSA. The pensioner food security status was assessed on the basis of HFIAS, FCS and CSI. The elderly experience particular vulnerabilities due to higher-than-average poverty rates, declining health and rising healthcare costs, insufficient access to social services and adequate food, moreover high poverty levels limit the ability of families to care for older relatives. This research can contribute to all concerned organizations that implement projects which are related to food insecurity. The findings show 92.61% of the pensioner households were food insecure, and out of these 77.39% experienced food shortages. 96.09% of those surveyed claimed their pensions were insufficient to meet their basic household needs, 83.48% supplemented their pensions with other income, and food was the largest household expenditure for 93.66% of them. The surveyed pensioners resorted to both; consumption change coping strategies of switching to less preferred cheaper food (63%) or limiting meal sizes (33%), and assistance coping strategies of petty trading (57%) or buying food on credit (31%). Statistically significant predictors of determinant factors associated with their household food insecurity with multivariable logit regression were: wealth (p=0),) family members without chronic disease (p=0), market shopping frequency (p=0), market distance (p=0.004), housing (p=0.005), credit (p=0.014) and savings (p=0.014). The study concludes poverty causes food insecurity through a failure to access sufficient and quality food that meets minimum dietary needs, and it also erodes or nullifies rights to food and social security. A holistic approach that explicitly positions and addresses food insecurity within the broader public policies of urban poverty is recommended. Accordingly, the government should give emphasis to wealth creation, public assisted low-cost housing and quality standards in education. Furthermore, the government should put in place preventive and curative subsidised medical care to prevent or manage chronic diseases, encourage the establishment of infrastructure for more food markets to lower distances.enfood securitydeterminant factorscoping strategygovernment pensionersKirkos sub-cityHousehold Food Security Situation among Government Pensioners in Kirkos Sub-City, Addis AbabaThesis