The Implication of Female Household Headship on Multidimensional Urban Poverty: Evidence from Selected SubSaharan Africa Countries

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.