Poverty status and reduction strategies in Tigray Region, Ethiopia

This study was conducted mainly to determine the poverty gap, poverty severity and assess the impacts of poverty reduction policies and strategies in Tigray regional state. The survey was conducted in both urban and rural areas of the region. The analysis was based on primary household level cross sectional data collected from 2,459 randomly selected rural and urban households. The researchers have applied the propensity score matching (PSM) and Foster-Greer-Thorbecke (FGT) poverty measurement to evaluate the impact of the program and poverty, respectively. Using the CBN approach we computed a total poverty line of birr 583.3 and food poverty line birr 437.3 per month per adult equivalent. A regional level 38.1% of the households is living below the poverty line with income shortfall of 13.1 and poverty severity index of 6.8%. The researchers found that there is a higher level of poverty in the rural areas compared with the urban areas. The PSM result reveals that integrated household package program participants are found better in terms of expenditure, asset and household income. Similarly, food and non-food expenditure for MSE participants are higher and better in contrast to non-participants.