Assessment Multidimensional Rural Poverty in Burji and Konso Area, Southern Ethiopia

Abstract

Poverty is one of the hoariest socio-economic problems in the world and a complex concept that attracted the involvement of several researchers and policymakers. Now a day it is the number one global agenda as it has indicated on SDG. Ethiopia is among the poorest countries in the world and the level of poverty is more challenging in rural areas compared to urban. Currently, there are great tendencies over the world to measure poverty using Alkire and Fosters' MPI approach among different approaches of poverty assessment. This study aimed at assessing multidimensional rural poverty status household's poverty in Burji and Konso area in Southern Ethiopia. To address this objective, 368 households were selected using simple random sampling techniques. The data were collected from both primary and secondary sources. Interview schedule, focused group discussion, key informant interview, and observation methods were implemented to collect primary data. Alkire & Foster Methodology with modified four dimensions and 14 indicators used to analyze multidimensional rural poverty. The study reveals as the highest three deprivations 97.8% of cooking fuel, 92.6% of the floor, and 76.1% of drinking water. The multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI) of the study area was 0.419 with 76.6% of incidence and 54.7% the intensity of multidimensional rural poverty. The highest (15%) contributor to MPI was deprivation in school attendant and the highest (34%) deprivation dimension was in living Standard out of four dimensions.