New ASC Infosheet: Shocks and coping strategies in rural Ethiopia: a policy brief

Rural households in Ethiopia are regularly confronted with a variety of risks and shocks that leave them vulnerable to economic deprivation. These shocks can be classified into four main categories: health-related events, natural events, economic events and crime/conflict-related events. Conventional wisdom argues that by drawing on informal risk-sharing networks, households are more successful at insuring themselves against household-specific shocks, such as illness, compared to the common shocks that also affect other members of a village or region. Based on a 2011 survey of 1632 households in four Ethiopian regions – Tigray, Amhara, Oromiya and SNNPR – and event-history interviews, this ASC Infosheet provides details of a multi-shock analysis and an examination of the coping responses triggered by different types of shocks. (Photo: Addis Abera)

 

This is ASC Infosheet nr 22. Read the full text.