Vulnerability Profile of Rural Households in South West Nigeria

This paper examined vulnerability to poverty of households among rural households in South West Nigeria usingprimary data from a two-wave panel survey (lean versus harvesting periods). Results showed that on the averagethere is a 0.56 probability of entering poverty a period ahead in the region and relatively high poverty rates wereassociated with much higher vulnerability while low poverty rates were associated with considerably lowvulnerability. Vulnerable households are mostly large sized with high number of dependants and characterized byunder aged or old, female headed, widowed household heads. They are mostly engaged in farming as their primaryoccupation, have no or low educational attainment and are landless. The findings underscore the centrality ofsocial protection policy mechanisms as potent poverty reduction tools and necessary policy interventions to reduceconsumption variability through reducing exposure to risk or improving the ex post coping mechanisms of thevulnerable.