DETERMINANTS AND DIMENSIONS OF HOUSEHOLD FOOD INSECURITY IN ADDIS ABABA CITY, ETHIOPIA

The problem of urban food insecurity in Ethiopia has received little attention despite itsincreasing importance and far reaching ramifications. High rates of unemploymentresulted from sluggish economic growth and low level of investment in urban centerscombined with high population growth has negatively affected income earning potentialsof the residents. Urban population will continue to grow with its associated problemsunless meaningful development interventions backed by research findings areundertaken. Since research findings on factors affecting food insecurity in urban areas arescarce, this research, in particular, fills this research gap.The present study attempts to examine the food insecurity situation, estimate foodinsecurity gap and severity and identify the determinants of food insecurity in AddisAbaba city at household level. The primary data source for this work was the AddisAbaba urban household socio-economic data collected by undertaking a survey on 140households. Three stage cluster random sampling technique with proportional to size wasused to select respondents from the study area. Data were analyzed by using descriptivestatistics such us mean, standard error, frequency, and percentage. Econometric analysiswas used to identify the determinants of food insecurity, and Foster-Greer-Thorbeckemodel indices were employed to estimate the food insecurity gap and the severity of foodinsecurity. The descriptive statistics revealed a significant mean difference (p<0.05) between thefood secure and food insecure households in terms of household size, age of householdviihead, ownership of bank account, household income, kilocalorie available per individual,remittance and gift received and daily food expenditure per adult equivalent buteducation level of household head was also statistically significant (p<0.01). A Tobit econometric model has identified six out of eleven variables included in themodel as significant (p<0.05). Household size, household income, household head age ,household head education, ownership of bank account and income from remittance andgift were found to be significant determinants of food insecurity in the study area. Thehead count ratio computed by FGT model revealed that 47 percent of sample householdswere food insecured. The food insecurity gap and severity were 16.83 and 6.9 percent,respectively.