Abstract
This study was conducted in a rural area of West Hararghe zone to evaluate the status ofhousehold rural poverty. To undertake this study, both primary and secondary data were used.The data was collected from 375 sample households for the study purpose. In doing so, themaximum likelihood estimation method of the logit model was applied to estimate the logitregression model. The study used consumption expenditure as an indicator of welfare in generaland the cost of basic needs approach in particular to classify households as poor and non-poor.The result of this study shows in the study area the proportion of people who are stated under thepoverty line is 52.8 percent from the surveyed households. The incidence of poverty among thesampled households is 23.8% and 13.54% for the poverty gap, and poverty severity indexrespectively. In line with, poverty alleviation policies that are based on this identified statusshould be key ingredients of poverty reduction strategy and targeted groups should involve indevelopment efforts that could address the identified problem to minimize the rate of increasedpoverty severity from rural areas of West Hararge zone.