Abstract:
Commercial opportunity for indigenous Aloe Vera products appear to be increasing as
there is a sustained demand from international as well as African market with high
participation of women. However, its economic impact on the livelihood of household is
not yet addressed. Therefore, this study evaluated the economic impact of pastoralist
women participation in Aloe Vera soap production in Yabello woreda, Borana zone of
Oromia, Ethiopia. Both primary and secondary data were collected from 200 sample
households using semi-structured questionnaire. To analyze the data both propensity
score matching with logit model, and multiple linear regression models were applied.
The logistic regression estimation revealed that age at married, age, family size,
training and access to credit are found positive and significant whereas membership in
other cooperatives and distance to nearest market have negative and significant effect
on the participation of women in Aloe Vera soap production. The propensity score
matching was applied under assumption of common support and conditional
independence assumption. In the matching processes, kernel band width (0.25)
matching was found to be the best matching algorithm. This model was checked for
covariate balancing with t-test, standardized bias and joint significance level tests.
Moreover, sensitivity analysis of the estimated participation effect to unobserved
selection bias was checked using the Rosenbaum bounds method. Finally, results show
that participation of women in Aloe Vera soap production has a significant and positive
impact on household income and women empowerment. The propensity score matching
also indicates average treatment effect on treated income is 45.693 Birr, and average
treatment effect on treated cumulative empowerment index result is 1.51 units. Result of
sensitivity analysis further shows that the estimated effects are insensitive to unobserved
selection bias within gamma level used. Thus, Aloe Vera soap production and women
economic empowerment should be encouraged for the pastoralist social wellbeing.
