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Household Demographics, Assets, and Sustainable Rural Livelihoods: A Case Study from Rain-Endowed South Western Ethiopia

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Abstract

The study examines the changes in household demographics and access to livelihood assets, and their effects on livelihood sustainability in one of the rain-endowed districts in South West Ethiopia. A binary logistic regression model is used to analyze the relative effect of the predictor variables on sustainable livelihoods based on data obtained from 390 randomly selected households. The results show that the likelihood of sustaining a livelihood is low for households headed by the young and the old, and by females. Low literacy levels, decreased livestock holding, lack of access to credit, absence of saving, and low social capital are also found to significantly reduce livelihood sustainability. The effort to sustain livelihoods and reduce vulnerability is, thus, based on the life cycle of households and the corresponding change in their livelihood assets. This implies the importance of life cycle stages of households, differential access to livelihood assets, and their repercussion on environment and livelihoods, in order to design interventions that enhance livelihood sustainability.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Given the purchasing power parity, this figure was used by the Ministry of Finance and Economic Development (MoFED, 2005) to estimate the percentage of population living below poverty line.

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Acknowledgments

The chapter is shaped in its present form based on the comments of many academicians. In particular, the author would like to gratefully acknowledge Dr. Bezabih Emana and Dr. Charles Teller for their support and scholarly review of the chapter. The encouragement and comments of Dr. Eshetu Gurmu and Dr. Degefa Tolossa were also crucial.

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  1. Institute of Population Studies, Addis Ababa University, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

    Dula Etana

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  1. Dula Etana
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Correspondence to Dula Etana .

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  1. Population Reference Bureau, Connecticut Ave. NW., 1875, Washington, 20009, District of Columbia, USA

    Charles Teller

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Etana, D. (2011). Household Demographics, Assets, and Sustainable Rural Livelihoods: A Case Study from Rain-Endowed South Western Ethiopia. In: Teller, C. (eds) The Demographic Transition and Development in Africa. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-90-481-8918-2_13

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