IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsusta/v14y2022i16p10270-d891525.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Poverty and Its Correlates among Kenyan Refugees during the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Random Effects Probit Regression Model

Author

Listed:
  • Abayomi Samuel Oyekale

    (Department of Agricultural Economics and Extension, North-West University Mafikeng Campus, Mmabatho 2735, South Africa)

Abstract

Poverty remains a major problem among refugees, and the COVID-19 pandemic seems to have exacerbated its incidences. In Kenya, although refugees ordinarily face serious economic conditions, COVID-19 worsened their economic status. The objective of this paper was to analyze the determinants of poverty dynamics among Kenyan refugees during the COVID-19 pandemic. The data were the COVID-19 rapid response panel data that were collected between May 2020 and June 2021 by the Kenyan National Bureau of Statistics (KNBS), the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and the University of California, Berkeley with technical assistance from the World Bank. The random effects probit regression model was used for data analysis using the absolute and relative poverty lines. The results showed that, using the Kenya’s national poverty lines, 73.03% of the respondents were poor across time, while there was a steady decline in poverty incidences from 76.55 in July–September 2020 to 68.44% in March–June 2021. The results further showed the presence of significant heterogeneity, thereby justifying the panel estimation approach. Poverty significantly declined ( p < 0.05) with receipt of food assistance, remittances, gifts, amount of loan, amount realized from sale of assets and agricultural enterprises, while it increased with education, household size, non-farm enterprises, residence in urban areas, and at the Kakuma, Kalobeyei and Shona camps. It was concluded that welfare deprivation among refugees during COVID-19 is pathetic, and post-COVID-19 recovery should, among other things, take cognizance of place and camp of residence, and access to some form of socioeconomic support.

Suggested Citation

  • Abayomi Samuel Oyekale, 2022. "Poverty and Its Correlates among Kenyan Refugees during the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Random Effects Probit Regression Model," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(16), pages 1-12, August.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:14:y:2022:i:16:p:10270-:d:891525
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/14/16/10270/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/14/16/10270/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Verme, Paolo & Gigliarano, Chiara, 2019. "Optimal targeting under budget constraints in a humanitarian context," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 119(C), pages 224-233.
    2. Michael Carter & Christopher Barrett, 2006. "The economics of poverty traps and persistent poverty: An asset-based approach," Journal of Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 42(2), pages 178-199.
    3. Dang, Hai-Anh H. & Verme, Paolo, 2019. "Estimating Poverty for Refugee Populations: Can Cross-Survey Imputation Methods Substitute for Data Scarcity?," GLO Discussion Paper Series 429, Global Labor Organization (GLO).
    4. Robert Gibbons & R. Bock, 1987. "Trend in correlated proportions," Psychometrika, Springer;The Psychometric Society, vol. 52(1), pages 113-124, March.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Theresa Beltramo & Hai-Anh H. Dang & Ibrahima Sarr & Paolo Verme, 2020. "Estimating Poverty among Refugee Populations: A Cross-Survey Imputation Exercise for Chad," Working Papers 536, ECINEQ, Society for the Study of Economic Inequality.
    2. Michael Carter & Peter Little & Tewodaj Mogues & Workneh Negatu, 2005. "Shocks, Sensitivity and Resilience: Tracking the Economic Impacts of Environmental Disaster on Assets in Ethiopia and Honduras," Development and Comp Systems 0511029, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    3. Shaikh M. S. U. Eskander & Sam Fankhauser, 2022. "Income Diversification and Income Inequality: Household Responses to the 2013 Floods in Pakistan," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(1), pages 1-12, January.
    4. Stoeffler, Quentin & Mills, Bradford, 2014. "Households’ investments in durable and productive assets in Niger: quasi-experimental evidences from a cash transfer project," 2014 Annual Meeting, July 27-29, 2014, Minneapolis, Minnesota 170212, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    5. Gignoux, Jérémie & Menéndez, Marta, 2016. "Benefit in the wake of disaster: Long-run effects of earthquakes on welfare in rural Indonesia," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 118(C), pages 26-44.
    6. Alejandro de la Fuente & Eduardo Ortiz-Juárez & Carlos Rodríguez-Castelán, 2018. "Living on the edge: vulnerability to poverty and public transfers in Mexico," Oxford Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 46(1), pages 10-27, January.
    7. Bethelhem Legesse Debela, 2017. "Factors Affecting Differences in Livestock Asset Ownership Between Male- and Female-Headed Households in Northern Ethiopia," The European Journal of Development Research, Palgrave Macmillan;European Association of Development Research and Training Institutes (EADI), vol. 29(2), pages 328-347, April.
    8. Javier Parada Gómez Urquiza & Alejandro López-Feldman, 2013. "Poverty dynamics in rural Mexico: What does the future hold?," Ensayos Revista de Economia, Universidad Autonoma de Nuevo Leon, Facultad de Economia, vol. 0(2), pages 55-74, November.
    9. Pape, Utz & Verme, Paolo, 2023. "Measuring Poverty in Forced Displacement Contexts," GLO Discussion Paper Series 1245, Global Labor Organization (GLO).
    10. van den Berg, Marrit & Burger, Kees, 2008. "Household Consumption and Natural Disasters: The Case of Hurricane Mitch in Nicaragua," 2008 International Congress, August 26-29, 2008, Ghent, Belgium 44380, European Association of Agricultural Economists.
    11. Brian Walsh & Stéphane Hallegatte, 2020. "Measuring Natural Risks in the Philippines: Socioeconomic Resilience and Wellbeing Losses," Economics of Disasters and Climate Change, Springer, vol. 4(2), pages 249-293, July.
    12. Trivelli, C. & Clausen, J. & Vargas, S., 2017. "IFAD RESEARCH SERIES 9 - Social protection and inclusive rural transformation," IFAD Research Series 280047, International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD).
    13. Oo, Alex & Toth, Russell, 2014. "Do community-sanctioned social pressures constrain microenterprise growth? Evidence from a framed field experiment," Journal of the Japanese and International Economies, Elsevier, vol. 33(C), pages 75-95.
    14. Sushanta K. Mallick, 2014. "Disentangling the Poverty Effects of Sectoral Output, Prices, and Policies in India," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 60(4), pages 773-801, December.
    15. Janina Isabel Steinert & Lucie Dale Cluver & G. J. Melendez-Torres & Sebastian Vollmer, 2018. "One Size Fits All? The Validity of a Composite Poverty Index Across Urban and Rural Households in South Africa," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 136(1), pages 51-72, February.
    16. Annette N. Brown & Drew B. Cameron & Benjamin D. K. Wood, 2014. "Quality evidence for policymaking: I'll believe it when I see the replication," Journal of Development Effectiveness, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 6(3), pages 215-235, September.
    17. Janz, Teresa & Augsburg, Britta & Gassmann, Franziska & Nimeh, Zina, 2023. "Leaving no one behind: Urban poverty traps in Sub-Saharan Africa," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 172(C).
    18. Renata Baborska & Emilio Hernandez & Emiliano Magrini & Cristian Morales-Opazo, 2020. "The impact of financial inclusion on rural food security experience: A perspective from low-and middle-income countries," Review of Development Finance Journal, Chartered Institute of Development Finance, vol. 10(2), pages 1-18.
    19. Anubhab Gupta & Heng Zhu & Miki Khanh Doan & Aleksandr Michuda & Binoy Majumder, 2021. "Economic Impacts of the COVID−19 Lockdown in a Remittance‐Dependent Region," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 103(2), pages 466-485, March.
    20. Naschold, Felix, 2012. "“The Poor Stay Poor”: Household Asset Poverty Traps in Rural Semi-Arid India," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 40(10), pages 2033-2043.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:14:y:2022:i:16:p:10270-:d:891525. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.