Woman labor force participation in off-farm activities and its determinants in Afar Regional State, Northeast Ethiopia

Menelik Asfaw, Dagmawe. 2022. ‘Woman Labor Force Participation in Off-Farm Activities and Its Determinants in Afar Regional State, Northeast Ethiopia’. Cogent Social Sciences 8 (1).

The role of women in economic development is appraised at the beginning of this article. The author indicated that women’s engagement in various socio-economic sectors proved to be facilitating women’s economic empowerment and thereby supporting national economic growth by increasing productivity, economic diversification and equality. Women labour participation has a paramount contribution for national economic growth. However, in Ethiopia out of the economically inactive population, females take a lion share at 61.5% as opposed to the male counterpart in Ethiopia in 2021. 

Off-farm activities including Masonry, carpentry, weaving, pottery, black smithing etc, are proved to be ideal labour force engagement for women and serve as an alternative to the traditional farming activities. This is due to the easy way of entering into the sector, its very nature that it is interlinked with acquired skill (as opposed to educationally gained skill ) and easily manageable alongside with other domestic engagements.

The researcher employed quantitative and qualitative research methods. Multistage sampling method was employed to identify and select study participants. Accordingly, 473 women were purposely selected from Zone 1 and 2 of the Afar Region and participated in this research for the primary data collection. For data analysis, a binary logistic regression model was used. 

Off-farm sector is absorbing a large number of women in the study areas. The study indicated that availability and accessibility of off-farm training has its contribution for women engagement in the sector. According to the findings of this study, married women were less likely to participate in off-farm activities when compared with unmarried women. This was directly linked to married women’s household chores, multiple workloads, care for children and other family members. Regarding education, the level of women education was directly linked to women participation in off-farm activities. As education level grows, women’s engagement in off-farm activity also increases. Women who have children below the age of 5 are less likely to engage in off-farm activities when compared with women with no children. As the distance between the marketplace and their living place increases the probability of women engaging in off-farm activity decreases. 

Though women’s access to credit is supposed to encourage women’s participation in off-farm activities, the study found that women spend the credit for family consumption. One of the interviewees indicated that she borrowed money from a financial institution and was charged a high interest rate. The woman was unable to repay the debt and as a result the financial institution sold her property that she provided as collateral attachment through auction . Finally, the woman found herself in bankrupcy. In addition to this the author indicated how livestock ownership, high dependency ratio and safety net programs, such as the PSNP, positively influences women’s engagement in off-farm activities. The study recommends that the government should ease the credit service high interest rate burden, mainly by reducing the interest rates charges, support women with training, emphasise family planning and improve market access for women.