Food poverty and consumption inequality in urban Ethiopia

Abstract Understanding the current state of food poverty is crucial to eradicating hunger and achieving the Sustainable Development Goals of 2030. Accordingly, this study was designed to assess food poverty, investigate consumption inequality, and identify the determinants of food poverty in urban Ethiopia. This study is based on the Living Standards Measurement Study (LSMS) 2018/2019 fourth-wave survey. In this study, food poverty was assessed using the Foster-Greer-Thorbecke (FGT) index. In addition, the Lorenz curve and the Gini coefficient were estimated to capture consumption inequality. Furthermore, a quantile regression model was estimated to identify the determinants of food poverty in urban Ethiopia. This study comprised 3596 Ethiopian urban households with an average age of 40.45. Here, an inflation-corrected national food poverty line was used as a cutoff point to identify food-poor and food-non-poor households, which was found to be 5129.92 ETB per year PAE. The results of the FGT indices indicate that 17.8% of urban households were food-poor. Food poverty was more prevalent in the SNNP (36.7%) while it was less prevalent in Harer (7.5%). It was also confirmed that food poverty was higher among emerging regions and female-headed households. In addition, the Gini coefficient is 0.367, confirming the moderate level of food consumption inequality in urban Ethiopia. The quantile regression result confirms that mobile phone ownership, educational attainment, savings behavior, utility expenditure, and the number of rooms in a house were found to reduce food poverty. Conversely, household size and the age of the household head were found to exacerbate food poverty. Finally, to reduce food poverty in urban Ethiopia, it is crucial to promote family planning, build infrastructure that facilitates, improve access to and use of formal banks and mobile phones, and expand access to education while maintaining quality.