ANALYSIS OF MULTIDIMENSIONAL POVERTY AND INEQUALITY OF OPPORTUNITIES IN SOMALI AND AFAR NATIONAL REGIONAL STATES OF ETHIOPIA

Poverty and inequality are core agenda items in Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). In pastoral and agro-pastoral areas of Ethiopia, poverty is multidimensional. Inequality of opportunities is pervasive as well. The purpose of this study was to measure the multidimensional poverty and inequality of opportunities in Afar and Somali pastoral and agro-pastoral areas of Ethiopia. Three hundred twenty two sample households were included to assess the multidimensional poverty and 7,207 children were sampled to measure inequality of opportunities. Adopting mixed methods approach, primary data are collected using focus group discussion while secondary data are obtained from ‘Living Standard Measurement Survey of Ethiopia’ of 2015. Results from the Structural Equation Model showed existence of positive correlations among the three poverty dimensions confirming the multidimensional hypothesis. Poverty measurement revealed that 44% of the households are poor in the two dimensions, 37% are poor in one dimension and the remaining 8% are poor in all the three dimensions. Likewise, results from the generalized ordered logit show that price and drought shocks, household size, access to health services and school significantly determine multidimensional poverty. Results from both qualitative and quantitative approaches showed convergence and poverty is multidimensional. Also it is learnt that there is inequality of opportunities in pastoral areas. The average inequality of opportunities measured by the average converge rates of each opportunities. It stands at 64.1%, 29.8%, 22% and 67.6%, respectively, for access to primary education, safe drinking water, health utilization and minimum nutrition. Likewise, the inequality of opportunity measured by dissimilarity index has resulted in 4.0%, 20.8%, 12.9% and 8.4%, in that order. The human opportunity index for the above four indicators is found to be 61.5%, 23.6%, 20.0% and 61.8%, respectively. It is implied that, among the basic opportunity indicators considered, access to safe drinking water and access to health services are the lowest available opportunities and they appear to be inequitably distributed among the children in pastoral areas. Overall, results of the study show that pastoral and agro-pastoral households in Afar and Somali region are multidimenstionally poor and children in these areas have also low level of access to opportunities and highest inequality of opportunity as compared to other areas of Ethiopia. Therefore, the government must allocate resources to reduce the inequality of opportunities among the region in general and pastoral and agro-pastoral areas in particular.