Feminization of Multidimensional Urban Poverty in Sub-Saharan Africa: Evidence from Selected Countries

Abstract

The main purpose of this study was to examine the feminization of poverty in urban areas of Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). The paper used Alkire Foster‟s multidimensional poverty approach and compared the well-being of female-headed households with their male-headed counterparts from a multidimensional perspective. The study utilized data compiled from demographic and health surveys (DHS) of selected SSA countries, namely; Ethiopia, Malawi, Rwanda, and Tanzania, and the World Development Indicators database. It applied a multilevel fixed-effect logistic regression model to analyze the effect of household and country-level variables on the incidence of poverty in two different household structures separately. The study found that female-headed households were poorer than male-headed households. The study also found that access to finance, age of the household head, household size, and household head education level had statistically significant associations with the multidimensional urban poverty status. Moreover, expenditure on primary school and healthcare had a significant effect on the multidimensional well-being of the households. The effect of these variables was different for the two household structures. Therefore, anti-poverty policies and programs should be targeted in a way to mitigate differences in household characteristics in favor of female-headed households.