Journals Proceedings

Abstract

Eastern Province appears to have the highest level of poverty in the latest statistics, though the economy of the region has the potential to grow and diversify. The dreadful conflict contributed to loss of life, displacement, migration of people, damage to physical resources and infrastructure, disruption of services and loss of livelihoods. With the end of civil war in East, the government as well as the non-government organizations have extended their rehabilitation and reconstruction work to this area. Poverty reduction is now at the core of development policy making and a key commitment of donor agencies. It is extremely important in the current period to identify what characteristics of the poor are likely to hamper the poverty alleviation strategies and to address these in order to maximize the benefits of current policy. Hence, this study tries to identify the factors associated with the level of poverty. This paper uses household income and expenditure survey data during the period 2009-10, and finds that the household size, level of education, place of location, type of dwelling and other facilities are the major contributing factors to the level of poverty. This study demonstrates that anti-poverty programmes should focus on these above factors when implementing policies.