Abstract:
The main purpose of this study was to analyze the linkage between female household
headship and multidimensional urban poverty in SSA. The study utilized household level
cross country data from four selected countries in the region. It used the Alkire-Foster
multidimensional poverty approach to compare the wellbeing of Female-Headed
Households with their Male-Headed counterparts from a multidimensional perspective.
The study also applied multilevel mixed effect logistic regression models to investigate
household and country level determinants of multidimensional poverty among households.
The results showed that more percentage of Female-Headed Households are poor than
Male-Headed Households, which implies the existence of feminization of multidimensional
urban poverty in the studied countries. The regression results, too, showed that gender of
the household head has a significant effect on poverty and female-headed households are
fifteen percent more likely to be multidimensionally poor than male-headed households.
Among household level variables access to finance, the highest level of education the
household head completed, age of the household head and employment status have positive
and significant effect on multidimensional wellbeing of households. Whereas, household
size and marital status have negative effect on the probability of being multidimensionally
poor. And two macro level government policies (expenditure on primary school per student
and health expenditure per capita) have a significant effect on the multidimensional
wellbeing of households. The effect of these variables was different for male-headed and
female-headed households. Thus anti-poverty policies and programs that are targeted to
mitigate differences in household characteristics between the two genders are
recommended.
