Exploring Access to Livelihood Capitals among International Returnees in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

Abstract

Lack of access to capital has been recognized as one of the major barriers keeping international returnees from achieving sustainable livelihoods in Ethiopia. This study explored the degree of access to livelihood capitals among returnees in Addis Ababa to provide information for future interventions. A cross-sectional data was generated from 402 returnees, randomly selected from Addis Ababa. The supplementary data were collected from purposely drawn focus group discussion and semi-structured interview participants. Descriptive statistics and Ordinal Logistic Regression Model (OLRM) were employed to analyze the data. Social capitals were ranked above the scale mean as the most accessible capitals (mean = 2.39 and standard deviation/SD = 0 .83); while human capitals were rated below the scale mean (mean = 1.38 and SD = 0.58) as the least accessible capitals among returnees. Results of OLRM analysis confirmed that educational attainment and the role of returnees in their respective family had significant effects on access to financial capitals with values of (β = -.328, Exp (β) = 0.682, p≤0.00; β = -.917, Exp (β) = 0.400, p<0.001) respectively. The study elucidated that the magnitude of access to livelihood capitals among the returnees is deemed to be very minimal in the study area. Therefore, enhancing access to existing livelihood capitals and providing access to a range of new ones for urban returnees has become a crucial field of development interventions for Ethiopian government and other development actors.