Rural Poverty Dynamics and Impact of Intervention Programs upon Chronic and Transitory Poverty in Northern Ethiopia*

Abstract

Using a three-year panel data set of rural households in the Tigray region of northern Ethiopia, we examine the dynamics of poverty and the impact of two intervention measures-the food for work (FFW) and the food security package (FSP) programs-upon poverty by disaggregating total poverty into its transient and chronic components. Poverty in the region is predominantly chronic. Results of matching estimators indicate that the FSP program has a significant negative effect on total and chronic poverty, but not on transient poverty. Households involved in the program have on average lower levels of total and chronic poverty than households not involved in the program. The FFW on the other hand does not significantly influence any of the three forms of poverty. Tertile regressions, however, reveal that the FFW benefits households in the richest and the middle tertiles. * The authors are grateful for the comments by an anonymous reviewer and to the Flemish Interuniversity Council (VLIR) for funding the research that has been carried out in the framework of the VLIR Institutional Cooperation Program with Mekelle University.

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