If Children Aren’t Full, Can Adults Eat?: Adaptation Mechanisms of Poor Households Facing Price Shocks in Côte d’Ivoire

This paper presents the results of a qualitative study aimed at generating knowledge on intra-household and gendered impacts of food and energy price shocks among the poor in Côte d’Ivoire, with a focus on the adaptation and coping strategies adopted in response to the price crisis. Increased costs of living induced by multiple and often intersecting shocks, such as COVID-19, climate change, and the war in Ukraine - have had strong negative impacts on poor Ivorian households. They have disrupted access to basic services, increased financial and food insecurity, limited employment opportunities, and eroded intrahousehold cohesion. The study shows that low-income Ivorian households adopt negative coping strategies to mitigate the impacts of price shocks, such as reducing their food consumption, selling assets, accumulating debts, cutting down on socialization, and increasing reliance on traditional medicine. Importantly, the impacts of price spikes are not age and gender neutral. For instance, Ivorian women are struggling with an increased emotional and financial burden of childcare, whereas men are largely impacted by unemployment and loss of income. Moreover, children are disproportionally affected by food insecurity, and many encounter the risks of school dropout and child labor. For girls in particular, the price crisis has exacerbated the time burden of domestic work and indirectly increased the risks of early pregnancy. Participating in a safety net program and informal savings groups, receiving financial support from relatives, and having formal employment have been identified as factors that help to stop the downward spiral into deeper poverty. These findings highlight the potential long-term risks of a poverty trap and the need for targeted policies to protect the poor from the adverse effects of price shocks.