Systematic Review on Poverty Status and Its Determinants in Ethiopia

Poverty is one of the most serious problems of human deprivation and a complex phenomenon and it remains to be a worldwide social evil still now in the 21st century. Eradicating poverty remains the world’s most important and urgent task. In all contemporary developing nations across the globe, fighting poverty is one of the critical concerns and top priority of policy agenda. With regard to Africa, the problem of poverty is much deeper and far more widespread than in other major regions. Poverty reduction is the primary goal of the governments, non-governmental organizations and donors operating in Ethiopia; having clear picture on the true extent and severity of poverty and its determinants helps policy makers to devise appropriate policies that reduce poverty. Hence, this systematic review aims to analyze the extent of poverty, its underlying determinants, and the key poverty reduction strategies implemented in Ethiopia. Ethiopia is among the world’s poorest countries in terms of Human Development Index (HDI). The country’s HDI value for 2019 is 0.485 which put the country in the low human development category positioning it at 173 out of 189 countries and territories. Ethiopia is a low-income country with GDP per capita around USD 850 having high yet declining rates of poverty. The proportion of the population living under $1.90 a day (in 2011 purchasing power parity) is 27.7% in 2019/20. Moreover, around 88.2% of the populations of Ethiopia are multi-dimensionally poor measured in Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI) while an additional 6.7% are near to multidimensional poverty. The Ethiopian government have been implementing different poverty reduction programs and strategies to fight extreme hunger and poverty, including Plan for Accelerated and Sustained Development to End Poverty (PASDEP), Productive Safety Net Program (PSNP), the First Growth and Transformation Plan (GTP I), and the Second Growth and Transformation Plan-II (GTP II). However, the struggle to reduce poverty is a continuing challenge. Based on the review, it is recommended that improvement of the educational level, more emphasis on family planning, improving the livestock sector, building basic livelihood assets, developing saving culture, improving agricultural productivity, improving access and availability of credit as useful policy instruments in order to reduce poverty in Ethiopia. Key words: Determinants, Dimension, Poverty, Ethiopia DOI: 10.7176/JPID/64-02 Publication date: January 31st 2025