Status of Rural Household Poverty in West Hararge Zone: In Case of Some Selected Woredas, Oromia, Ethiopia

Abstract

This study was conducted in a rural area of West Hararghe zone to evaluate the status of household rural poverty. To undertake this study, both primary and secondary data were used. The data was collected from 375 sample households for the study purpose. In doing so, the maximum likelihood estimation method of the logit model was applied to estimate the logit regression model. The study used consumption expenditure as an indicator of welfare in general and the cost of basic needs approach in particular to classify households as poor and non-poor. The result of this study shows in the study area the proportion of people who are stated under the poverty line is 52.8 percent from the surveyed households. The incidence of poverty among the sampled households is 23.8% and 13.54% for the poverty gap, and poverty severity index respectively. In line with, poverty alleviation policies that are based on this identified status should be key ingredients of poverty reduction strategy and targeted groups should involve in development efforts that could address the identified problem to minimize the rate of increased poverty severity from rural areas of West Hararge zone.