Effects of covid-19 on the livelihoods of rural women in Ethiopia

Abstract Background The COVID-19 pandemic has had an impact on people’s lives and economic activities. Women are expected to bear the impact of the impact because they are over-represented in affected sectors on the front lines of the pandemic’s response. However, no empirical evidence exists to sup...

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Main Authors: Samuel Tadesse Adisalem, Asrat Mulat Asegie
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: BMC 2023-10-01
Series:CABI Agriculture and Bioscience
Subjects:
Online Access:https://doi.org/10.1186/s43170-023-00180-4
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author Samuel Tadesse Adisalem
Asrat Mulat Asegie
author_facet Samuel Tadesse Adisalem
Asrat Mulat Asegie
author_sort Samuel Tadesse Adisalem
collection DOAJ
description Abstract Background The COVID-19 pandemic has had an impact on people’s lives and economic activities. Women are expected to bear the impact of the impact because they are over-represented in affected sectors on the front lines of the pandemic’s response. However, no empirical evidence exists to support the effect of COVID-19 on women’s economic activities in the Ethiopian context. Methods This study investigated effects of COVID-19 on economic activities of rural women in Ethiopia. Thereby, a multistage sampling procedure was employed to randomly draw 263 rural women as study participants. Data were collected through interview schedules and key informant interviews. Finally, the data were analyzed qualitatively and quantitatively. A binary logistic regression model is used to examine factors determining the effect of COVID-19 on economic activities of women. Results According to the findings, the most affected economic activities were remittances (94.28%), small business trade (94.06%), livestock and livestock product trading (91.30%), daily labor wages (84.82%), handcraft (72.73%), and crop production (61.32%). The logit regression result shows that irrigation use reduced the impact of the pandemic, whereas relying on remittances, market distance, and being a female-headed household exacerbated the impact of the pandemic on the economic activities of rural women. Conclusion The pandemic had significant impact on rural women’s economic activities. Therefore, governmental and nongovernmental organizations should support rural women’s income-generating activities by providing revolving funds with training. Using remittances for income-generating activities would also improve the income of rural women.
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spelling doaj.art-40880ca2b2424584b505c2db400905262023-11-20T10:32:00ZengBMCCABI Agriculture and Bioscience2662-40442023-10-014111110.1186/s43170-023-00180-4Effects of covid-19 on the livelihoods of rural women in EthiopiaSamuel Tadesse Adisalem0Asrat Mulat Asegie1Department of Rural Development and Agricultural Extension, College of Agriculture, Wollo UniversityDepartment of Rural Development and Agricultural Extension, College of Agriculture, Wollo UniversityAbstract Background The COVID-19 pandemic has had an impact on people’s lives and economic activities. Women are expected to bear the impact of the impact because they are over-represented in affected sectors on the front lines of the pandemic’s response. However, no empirical evidence exists to support the effect of COVID-19 on women’s economic activities in the Ethiopian context. Methods This study investigated effects of COVID-19 on economic activities of rural women in Ethiopia. Thereby, a multistage sampling procedure was employed to randomly draw 263 rural women as study participants. Data were collected through interview schedules and key informant interviews. Finally, the data were analyzed qualitatively and quantitatively. A binary logistic regression model is used to examine factors determining the effect of COVID-19 on economic activities of women. Results According to the findings, the most affected economic activities were remittances (94.28%), small business trade (94.06%), livestock and livestock product trading (91.30%), daily labor wages (84.82%), handcraft (72.73%), and crop production (61.32%). The logit regression result shows that irrigation use reduced the impact of the pandemic, whereas relying on remittances, market distance, and being a female-headed household exacerbated the impact of the pandemic on the economic activities of rural women. Conclusion The pandemic had significant impact on rural women’s economic activities. Therefore, governmental and nongovernmental organizations should support rural women’s income-generating activities by providing revolving funds with training. Using remittances for income-generating activities would also improve the income of rural women.https://doi.org/10.1186/s43170-023-00180-4Female-headed householdsIncome generationOff-farmNon-farmPandemic
spellingShingle Samuel Tadesse Adisalem
Asrat Mulat Asegie
Effects of covid-19 on the livelihoods of rural women in Ethiopia
CABI Agriculture and Bioscience
Female-headed households
Income generation
Off-farm
Non-farm
Pandemic
title Effects of covid-19 on the livelihoods of rural women in Ethiopia
title_full Effects of covid-19 on the livelihoods of rural women in Ethiopia
title_fullStr Effects of covid-19 on the livelihoods of rural women in Ethiopia
title_full_unstemmed Effects of covid-19 on the livelihoods of rural women in Ethiopia
title_short Effects of covid-19 on the livelihoods of rural women in Ethiopia
title_sort effects of covid 19 on the livelihoods of rural women in ethiopia
topic Female-headed households
Income generation
Off-farm
Non-farm
Pandemic
url https://doi.org/10.1186/s43170-023-00180-4
work_keys_str_mv AT samueltadesseadisalem effectsofcovid19onthelivelihoodsofruralwomeninethiopia
AT asratmulatasegie effectsofcovid19onthelivelihoodsofruralwomeninethiopia