Understanding the Determinants of Household Food Insecurity and Its Linkage with Migration in East Harerghe, Ethiopia

29.11.2017: Vortrag Lemlem Fitwi WELDEMARIAM

Mittwoch, 29. November 2017, 16:30 Uhr

Institut für Geographie und Regionalforschung

Universität Wien, Universitätsstr. 7/5, 1010 Wien, Konferenzraum 

 

Ethiopia is one of the African countries experiencing persistent chronic food insecurity, with significant level of severity and intensity. Still majority rural, Ethiopia is also among the countries in the world with a high level of out-migration both internal and international. At this time, the phenomenon of rural out-migration is a raising issue in the country and has been attracting much of the focus of the governmental and nongovernmental organizations, which considered it as a development issue. The understanding of out-migration on the sustainability of the rural livelihoods deserved therefore to be more understood and investigated.

The lack of empirical case studies, particularly on the nexus between food security and migration in Ethiopia, remains significant and we seek to fill this gap in the current literature. Kersa - one of the districts in Eastern Harerghe, Ethiopia has been considered as a relevant case study to carry out so. We will therefore draw attention to understand the relationship between migration and household food security considering the role of rural out-migration as a livelihood strategy in influencing food security among rural households and identifying the main determinants to vulnerability of household food insecurity.

 

Lemlem Fitwi Weldemariam is a PhD student in Geography at the University of Vienna with a main focus on the food security- migration nexus in Ethiopia. She holds a PhD scholarship from the APPEAR programme of the Austrian Development Cooperation (Austrian Partnership Programme in Higher Education and Research for Development). In 2012, she obtained a MsC in Rural Development at Haramaya University, Dire Dawa, Ethiopia where she also held a position as lecturer, project coordinator of community field projects and focal person for gender issues representing her college.