The object of this desk study is to describe consumption patterns in rural households in Ethiopia. Normally, relief assistance is provided in a manner concerned with the physical survival of people, meaning that first priority is given to ensuring minimum required calorie intake as well as medical support. Besides food there are a lot of other basic needs a household faces.
People have to live somewhere, have to buy clothes and meet social obligations.
This fact is sometimes forgotten when dealing with aid. Equipped with this information it may be possible to figure out at what level of purchasing power a household could subsist without being extremely vulnerable to the effects of minor changes in income. The main source of this study is data obtained over the period of one year by the Central Statistical Authorityof Ethiopia. During this period, data was collected from household all over rural Ethiopia through conducting personal interviews. Each household was visited once every quarter of the year, spending a period of one month to obtain a broad spectrum of information.