DETERMINANTS OF MULTIDIMENSIONAL FOOD INSECURITY IN ETHIOPIA

Abstract

Food insecurity is a situation that exists when people lack secure access to sufficient amounts of safe and nutritious food for normal growth and development and an active and healthy life. Food insecurity is a global phenomenon which affects continents, nations and people differently Ethiopia, one of the least developed countries, was ranked 174th out of 188 countries by the 2017 human development report, in terms of both its per capita income and human development indices. This position of a country indicated that in Ethiopia food insecurity is an urgent and immediate challenge and will continue to be so far some time. Based on this fact the aim of this study was to assess the determinants of multidimensional food insecurity in Ethiopia so as to help proper understanding of factors associated with multidimensional food insecurity which is a key to policies and practical steps that the government can take in ordered to curb food insecurity. This study used data from Ethiopian socio economic survey of 2016 which include 22,296 households from all parts of the country. The data was analyzed by both econometric and descriptive analyses. Descriptive study shows that 27.5 percent of sample households by Ethiopian demographic and health survey of 2016 which was collected by CSA are multidimensional food insecure. The logit model of this study was demonstrated household family size, access to clean water, access to credit, household health stats, off farm activity and education are significantly affect multidimensional food insecurity. Based the result the main conclusion of the study is that the incidence of multidimensional food insecurity is widespread in Ethiopia. This problem calls urgent interventions aimed at dropping this incidence of multidimensional food insecurity. Thus multidimensional food insecurity alleviation policies that based on those variables should be key ingredients of a multidimensional food insecurity reduction strategy and the targeted groups should involve in any development efforts that could address multidimensional food insecurity in Ethiopia.