Sustaining escapes from multidimensional poverty: employing the zero poverty tripods. Panel data evidence from rural Ethiopia

Eradicating ingrained poverty demands rapprochement towards zero poverty tripods. It entails self-contained objectives of tackling chronic poverty, protecting backsliding, and enhancing sustained escapes. This study employs the Ethiopian Socioeconomic Survey data to examine the causes jeopardizing Ethiopia's pursuit of zero poverty and explore the options to maintain escape from multidimensional poverty. Multidimensional poverty is estimated using the Alkire and Foster methodology. The study finds a steady decline in multidimensional poverty in absolute and relative terms. In a nutshell, incidence contributes more than intensity to reduce poverty. The econometric results reveal that exposure to idiosyncratic and covariate shocks, and household stressors, exacerbate multidimensional poverty. The other dreadful challenge that deters sustained poverty escapes is dependence on rain-fed farming accompanied by land fragmentation, old-age and female headship, dependency ratio, land rent out, loans, and poor road and marketing networks. In contrast, households with better resources, human capital formation, participation in the safety net, vegetation cover, commercialization, non-farm activities, and investment in irrigation, market, and road networks have significant roles in fighting multidimensional poverty. Critical for policy uptake, the findings suggest implementing a coherent preemptive and redemptive portfolio of interventions to enhance and sustain poverty escape. Policymakers should also acknowledge the crucial role of growth from below and rural revitalization to improve poverty eradication.