Publication: Multidimensional Poverty in Ethiopia: Changes in Overlapping Deprivations
Loading...
Date
2015-09
ISSN
Published
2015-09
Author(s)
Editor(s)
Abstract
This paper presents trends in monetary and nonmonetary dimensions of wellbeing in Ethiopia using data from the Household Consumption and Expenditure and Welfare Monitoring surveys implemented in 2000, 2005, and 2011. The paper provides evidence on changes in overlapping deprivations using a non-index approach to multidimensional poverty. It assesses the performance of various dimensions in education, health, and living standards, taking one indicator at a time. It then examines the overlap between different dimensions of poverty and examines how this has changed over time in Ethiopia and across rural and urban areas. It highlights that although Ethiopia’s multidimensional poverty index is very high, there have been improvements in overlapping deprivations and, as a result, the number of individuals deprived in multiple dimensions has fallen.
Link to Data Set
Citation
“Ambel, Alemayehu; Mehta, Parendi; Yigezu, Biratu. 2015. Multidimensional Poverty in Ethiopia: Changes in Overlapping Deprivations. Policy Research working paper,no. WPS 7417;; Policy Research Working Paper;No. 7417. © World Bank. http://hdl.handle.net/10986/22839 License: CC BY 3.0 IGO.”
Associated URLs
Associated content
Other publications in this report series
Publication The Future of Poverty(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2025-07-15)Climate change is increasingly acknowledged as a critical issue with far-reaching socioeconomic implications that extend well beyond environmental concerns. Among the most pressing challenges is its impact on global poverty. This paper projects the potential impacts of unmitigated climate change on global poverty rates between 2023 and 2050. Building on a study that provided a detailed analysis of how temperature changes affect economic productivity, this paper integrates those findings with binned data from 217 countries, sourced from the World Bank’s Poverty and Inequality Platform. By simulating poverty rates and the number of poor under two climate change scenarios, the paper uncovers some alarming trends. One of the primary findings is that the number of people living in extreme poverty worldwide could be nearly doubled due to climate change. In all scenarios, Sub-Saharan Africa is projected to bear the brunt, contributing the largest number of poor people, with estimates ranging between 40.5 million and 73.5 million by 2050. Another significant finding is the disproportionate impact of inequality on poverty. Even small increases in inequality can lead to substantial rises in poverty levels. For instance, if every country’s Gini coefficient increases by just 1 percent between 2022 and 2050, an additional 8.8 million people could be pushed below the international poverty line by 2050. In a more extreme scenario, where every country’s Gini coefficient increases by 10 percent between 2022 and 2050, the number of people falling into poverty could rise by an additional 148.8 million relative to the baseline scenario. These findings underscore the urgent need for comprehensive climate policies that not only mitigate environmental impacts but also address socioeconomic vulnerabilities.Publication Central Bank Independence and Sovereign Borrowing(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2025-07-25)This paper studies the impact of central bank independence on sovereign borrowing, using an index that captures institutional constraints on central bank lending to the government across 155 countries from 1972 to 2023. The findings show that tighter lending to the executive significantly reduces sovereign interest rates and raises the debt-to-gross domestic product ratio in developing countries. These effects reflect the executive’s improved ability to borrow at lower costs under greater central bank independence. The results are robust to multiple tests, but there are no significant effects in advanced economies. From a policy perspective, the results highlight the key role of independent central banks as catalysts for reducing governments’ borrowing costs and enhancing the government’s borrowing capacity.Publication Disentangling the Key Economic Channels through Which Infrastructure Affects Jobs(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2025-04-03)This paper takes stock of the literature on infrastructure and jobs published since the early 2000s, using a conceptual framework to identify the key channels through which different types of infrastructure impact jobs. Where relevant, it highlights the different approaches and findings in the cases of energy, digital, and transport infrastructure. Overall, the literature review provides strong evidence of infrastructure’s positive impact on employment, particularly for women. In the case of electricity, this impact arises from freeing time that would otherwise be spent on household tasks. Similarly, digital infrastructure, particularly mobile phone coverage, has demonstrated positive labor market effects, often driven by private sector investments rather than large public expenditures, which are typically required for other large-scale infrastructure projects. The evidence on structural transformation is also positive, with some notable exceptions, such as studies that find no significant impact on structural transformation in rural India in the cases of electricity and roads. Even with better market connections, remote areas may continue to lack economic opportunities, due to the absence of agglomeration economies and complementary inputs such as human capital. Accordingly, reducing transport costs alone may not be sufficient to drive economic transformation in rural areas. The spatial dimension of transformation is particularly relevant for transport, both internationally—by enhancing trade integration—and within countries, where economic development tends to drive firms and jobs toward urban centers, benefitting from economies scale and network effects. Turning to organizational transformation, evidence on skill bias in developing countries is more mixed than in developed countries and may vary considerably by context. Further research, especially on the possible reasons explaining the differences between developed and developing economies, is needed.Publication Crowding Out and Banking Crises(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2025-07-22)This paper studies the effect of government issuance on firm issuance during banking crises using transaction-level bond and loan data from 66 countries between 1991 and 2017. Governments rarely issue loans, preferring to issue in bond markets. In contrast, firms receive most of their financing from banks. During banking crises, as the supply of domestic loans decreases, firms switch to issuing bonds in domestic markets. The paper uses a novel instrument based on maturing debt to overcome the potential endogeneity of government issuance. The findings show that firms must compete with the government for funds in the domestic bond market and are crowded out from this market as a result. This happens not only in developing countries, but in advanced countries as well. The paper also shows that firms with the ability to tap international debt markets switch to these markets when crowding out occurs in domestic bond markets. Lastly, the paper shows that more developed domestic bond markets mitigate, but do not eliminate, the degree to which crowding out occurs.Publication Designing and Analyzing Powerful Experiments(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2025-07-22)This paper offers practical advice on how to improve statistical power in randomized experiments through choices and actions researchers can take at the design, implementation, and analysis stages. At the design stage, the choice of estimand, choice of treatment, and decisions that affect the residual variance and intra-cluster correlation can all affect power for a given sample size. At the implementation stage, researchers can boost power through increasing compliance with treatment, reducing attrition, and improving outcome measurement. At the analysis stage, power can be increased through using different test statistics or estimands, through the choice of control variables, and through incorporating informative priors in a Bayesian analysis. A key message is that it does not make sense to talk of “the” power of an experiment. A study can be well-powered for one outcome or estimand, but not others, and a fixed sample size can yield very different levels of power depending on researcher decisions.
Journal
Journal Volume
Journal Issue
Collections
Related items
Showing items related by metadata.
Publication Niger's HIV Response : Targeted Investments for a Healthy Future(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2014-06)The main objective of the study is to provide a comprehensive analysis of HIV and health financing needs, investment opportunities, and health system development in the context of the Government of Niger's HIV National Strategic Plan (NSP) 2013-17. The analysis provides support for HIV policy decision-making, investment scenarios and programmatic targeting and prioritization. In addition, the analysis helps Niger build the case for HIV and health impact investment including delivering estimates of health care savings as a result of these investments. The analysis was implemented by the World Bank in collaboration with UNAIDS from a request for analytical support from the Government of Niger. The study involved a desk review of HIV- and health-related evidence, epidemic trends and financial modeling. The Optima model (formerly Prevtool) was used to estimate optimal resource allocation during the NSP, and the impact and cost-effectiveness of past HIV investments. A financial commitment framework was used to estimate longer-term costs and savings of the HIV program and the fiscal dimension of HIV in Niger.Publication Reproductive Health(Washington, DC, 2002-03)Reproductive health (RH) problems account for a significant part of the burden of disease suffered by poor people in developing countries. Poor women and men are more afflicted with RH problems and often lack access to minimal RH care even when average levels of RH in the country are good. Many RH problems are most cost-effectively managed by prevention - serious problems are costly and very difficult to solve once manifest. This article covers the types of interventions needed to sustain reproductive health including increasing girls' education, preventing and managing sexually transmitted disease, providing contraception to avoid abortion, improving pre-natal and delivery care, increasing the number of skilled providers of health care, post-abortion care, bolstering maternal health services, and reducing practices that increase reproductive health risks such as unsafe sex, female genital mutilation, and domestic violence.Publication Reproductive Health—The Missing Millennium Development Goal : Poverty, Health, and Development in a Changing World(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2006)While women in developing countries continue to die in large numbers in child birth, population and reproductive health specialists and advocates around the world are struggling to keep the policy agenda focused on the rights and needs of poor women. The 1994 Cairo Conference and Program of Action changed how we do business, and opened many doors, but the agenda is not complete and has stalled in a number of ways. At the country level, governments and donors are making difficult choices about how and where to allocate scarce human and financial resources. Funding approaches have moved away from the implementation of narrowly directed health programs to a broader approach of health system development and reform. At the same time, countries are also centering their development agenda on the broad goal of poverty reduction. This volume addresses a large knowledge and capacity gap in the Reproductive Health community and provides tools for key actors to empower faster positive change. It is a synopsis of the materials developed for World Bank's Institute's learning program on Achieving the Millennium Development Goals: Poverty Reduction, Reproductive Health and Health Sector Reform. The volume brings together knowledge about epidemiology, demography, economics, and trends in global financial assistance. The volume also introduces practical tools such as benefit incidence analysis, costing, and stakeholder analysis to strengthen the evidence base for policy and to address the political economy factors for reform.Publication Maternal Mortality(Washington, DC, 2006-05)Over 529,000 women die annually from complications during pregnancy, childbirth, or the postpartum period. Nearly all of these deaths occur in developing countries, where fertility rates are higher and a woman's life time risk of dying during pregnancy and childbirth is over 400 times higher than in developed countries. Additionally, an estimated 20 million women endure lifelong disabilities such as pelvic pain, incontinence, obstetric fistula, anemia and infertility. The main direct causes of maternal death are severe bleeding, unsafe abortion, infection, eclampsia, and obstructed labor; the indirect causes include anemia, malaria, heart disease, and HIV. Pregnancy complications are the main cause of death for women aged 15-19. High maternal mortality rates in many countries result from poor reproductive health care, including not having access to skilled care during pregnancy and childbirth and access to safe abortion even where it is legal, especially for the poorest women. Risks of poor outcomes during pregnancy and childbirth are exacerbated by poverty, low status of women, lack of education, poor nutrition, heavy workloads and violence. While many factors contribute to maternal death, one of the most effective means of preventing maternal health is to improve health systems and primary health care to ensure availability of skilled attendance at all levels and access to 24-hour emergency obstetric care. Family planning services could also reduce maternal deaths and morbidities by 30 percent. Prevention of unwanted pregnancies and access to safe abortion as allowed by law and post abortion care services could reduce maternal deaths and injuries caused by unsafe abortions - over 68,000 women die from unsafe abortions annually.Publication The Population and Reproductive Health Capacity Building Program(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2008-03-05)This is the Global Program Review (GPR) of the Population and Reproductive Health Capacity Building Program (PRHCBP). Established in 1999, PRHCBP is a merger of three pre-existing programs: population and reproductive health, safe motherhood, and the program to reduce the practice of Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) and adolescent health. The main objective of the program is to build the capacity of civil society organizations to develop and implement culturally appropriate interventions in the sensitive fields of population and reproductive health, leading to healthier behavior at individual and community levels, reducing the impoverishing effects of poor reproductive health, and improving reproductive, maternal and child health outcomes of hard-to-reach populations. The review follows Independent Evaluation Group (IEG) guidelines for preparing GPRs (annex A). These guidelines were first approved in 2006, well after PRHCBP was initially conceived and implemented. As a new evaluation product of IEG, GPRs are attempting to raise the standards of the design, management, implementation and evaluation of Global and Regional Partnership Programs (GRPPs). This is an ongoing process, and programs that are reviewed are not expected to have adhered to all the standards inherent in these guidelines, which had not been established at their outset.
Users also downloaded
Showing related downloaded files
Publication Services Unbound(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2024-12-09)Services are a new force for innovation, trade, and growth in East Asia and Pacific. The dramatic diffusion of digital technologies and partial policy reforms in services--from finance, communication, and transport to retail, health, and education--is transforming these economies. The result is higher productivity and changing jobs in the services sector, as well as in the manufacturing sectors that use these services. A region that has thrived through openness to trade and investment in manufacturing still maintains innovation-inhibiting barriers to entry and competition in key services sectors. 'Services Unbound: Digital Technologies and Policy Reform in East Asia and Pacific' makes the case for deeper domestic reforms and greater international cooperation to unleash a virtuous cycle of increased economic opportunity and enhanced human capacity that would power development in the region.Publication Classroom Assessment to Support Foundational Literacy(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2025-03-21)This document focuses primarily on how classroom assessment activities can measure students’ literacy skills as they progress along a learning trajectory towards reading fluently and with comprehension by the end of primary school grades. The document addresses considerations regarding the design and implementation of early grade reading classroom assessment, provides examples of assessment activities from a variety of countries and contexts, and discusses the importance of incorporating classroom assessment practices into teacher training and professional development opportunities for teachers. The structure of the document is as follows. The first section presents definitions and addresses basic questions on classroom assessment. Section 2 covers the intersection between assessment and early grade reading by discussing how learning assessment can measure early grade reading skills following the reading learning trajectory. Section 3 compares some of the most common early grade literacy assessment tools with respect to the early grade reading skills and developmental phases. Section 4 of the document addresses teacher training considerations in developing, scoring, and using early grade reading assessment. Additional issues in assessing reading skills in the classroom and using assessment results to improve teaching and learning are reviewed in section 5. Throughout the document, country cases are presented to demonstrate how assessment activities can be implemented in the classroom in different contexts.Publication Lebanon Economic Monitor, Fall 2022(Washington, DC, 2022-11)The economy continues to contract, albeit at a somewhat slower pace. Public finances improved in 2021, but only because spending collapsed faster than revenue generation. Testament to the continued atrophy of Lebanon’s economy, the Lebanese Pound continues to depreciate sharply. The sharp deterioration in the currency continues to drive surging inflation, in triple digits since July 2020, impacting the poor and vulnerable the most. An unprecedented institutional vacuum will likely further delay any agreement on crisis resolution and much needed reforms; this includes prior actions as part of the April 2022 International Monetary Fund (IMF) staff-level agreement (SLA). Divergent views among key stakeholders on how to distribute the financial losses remains the main bottleneck for reaching an agreement on a comprehensive reform agenda. Lebanon needs to urgently adopt a domestic, equitable, and comprehensive solution that is predicated on: (i) addressing upfront the balance sheet impairments, (ii) restoring liquidity, and (iii) adhering to sound global practices of bail-in solutions based on a hierarchy of creditors (starting with banks’ shareholders) that protects small depositors.Publication World Development Report 2006(Washington, DC, 2005)This year’s Word Development Report (WDR), the twenty-eighth, looks at the role of equity in the development process. It defines equity in terms of two basic principles. The first is equal opportunities: that a person’s chances in life should be determined by his or her talents and efforts, rather than by pre-determined circumstances such as race, gender, social or family background. The second principle is the avoidance of extreme deprivation in outcomes, particularly in health, education and consumption levels. This principle thus includes the objective of poverty reduction. The report’s main message is that, in the long run, the pursuit of equity and the pursuit of economic prosperity are complementary. In addition to detailed chapters exploring these and related issues, the Report contains selected data from the World Development Indicators 2005‹an appendix of economic and social data for over 200 countries. This Report offers practical insights for policymakers, executives, scholars, and all those with an interest in economic development.Publication Argentina Country Climate and Development Report(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2022-11)The Argentina Country Climate and Development Report (CCDR) explores opportunities and identifies trade-offs for aligning Argentina’s growth and poverty reduction policies with its commitments on, and its ability to withstand, climate change. It assesses how the country can: reduce its vulnerability to climate shocks through targeted public and private investments and adequation of social protection. The report also shows how Argentina can seize the benefits of a global decarbonization path to sustain a more robust economic growth through further development of Argentina’s potential for renewable energy, energy efficiency actions, the lithium value chain, as well as climate-smart agriculture (and land use) options. Given Argentina’s context, this CCDR focuses on win-win policies and investments, which have large co-benefits or can contribute to raising the country’s growth while helping to adapt the economy, also considering how human capital actions can accompany a just transition.