| Abstract: |
This paper surveys qualitative crisis monitoring data from sites in 17
developing and transition countries to describe crisis impacts and analyze the
responses and sources of support used by people to cope. These crises included
shocks to export sectors as a result of the global financial crisis, as well
as food and fuel price volatility, in the period from 2008 to early 2011.
Respondents reported the crisis had resulted in significant hardships in the
form of foregone meals, education, and health care, food insecurity, asset
losses, stress, and worsening crime and community cohesion. Although the
export-oriented formal sector was most exposed to the global economic
downturn, the crises impacts were more damaging for informal sector workers,
and some of the adverse impacts will be long-lasting and possibly
irreversible. There were important gender and age differences in the
distribution of impacts and coping responses, some of which diverged from what
has been seen in previous crisis coping responses. The more common sources of
assistance were family, friends, and community-based and religious
organizations; formal social protection and finance were not widely cited as
sources of support in most study countries. However, as the crisis deepened,
the traditional informal safety nets of the poor became depleted because of
the large and long-lasting shocks that ensued, pointing to the need for better
formal social protection systems for coping with future shocks. |