Abstract:
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.
