The extent of rural poverty and its average exit time in the gamo zone of Southern Ethiopia

Poverty, a multidimensional global challenge, demands collaborative efforts to eradicate it. While past research has mostly focused on measuring poverty level and identifying key drivers, understanding the persistent nature of poverty necessitates the assessment of average exit time, a gap that is frequently missed in empirical investigations. Therefore, the objective of this research is to assess the extent of poverty and average exit time in Ethiopia's Gamo zone using Foster-Greer-Thorbecke and Morduch's methods. The data was collected from 400 households, and the result revealed a rise in poverty rates from 21 to 52% between 2015/16 and 2023/24. The poverty gap index is 0.22, suggesting a 22% cash transfer need per individual to escape poverty, and the value of the squared poverty gap index is 0.11, which indicates that inequality among the poor is not a serious problem in the Gamo zone. District-wise, Dita district faces the highest poverty at 58%, followed by Kamba at 52% and Mirab Abaya at 48%. The Watts poverty index results align with the headcount index. The Dita district has a higher Watts index (0.36), indicating greater poverty incidence and depth, while the Mirab Abaya district (0.09) displays relatively moderate poverty. A negative relationship exists between income growth and poverty exit time. With the current average 5 percent Ethiopian economic growth rate, the Gamo zone's poor will be free of poverty after almost 4 years, or in 2029, earlier than the global poverty zero time of 2030. To achieve sustainable poverty reduction, Ethiopia essentially prioritises continuous income growth of the rural poor and tailored support for the economy.