Gender Differences in Household Coping Strategies for COVID-19 in Kenya

Understanding how different households cope with COVID-19 among a vulnerable population is important for the policy design aiming at relieving hunger and poverty in a low income setting. This paper uses original household data from five waves of a...

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Main Authors: Xu, Yuanwei, Delius, Antonia Johanna Sophie, Pape, Utz Johann
Format: Working Paper
Language:English
Published: Washington, DC: World Bank 2022
Subjects:
Online Access:http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/861451646668280669/Gender-Differences-in-Household-Coping-Strategies-for-COVID-19-in-Kenya
http://hdl.handle.net/10986/37111
id okr-10986-37111
recordtype oai_dc
spelling okr-10986-371112022-03-10T05:10:50Z Gender Differences in Household Coping Strategies for COVID-19 in Kenya Xu, Yuanwei Delius, Antonia Johanna Sophie Pape, Utz Johann GENDER DIFFERENCE HOUSEHOLD HEAD AGE POVERTY AND EQUITY GENDER INEQUALITY INTIMATE PARTNER VIOLENCE ANALYSIS OF POVERTY HOUSEHOLD CONSUMPTION EXPENDITURE Understanding how different households cope with COVID-19 among a vulnerable population is important for the policy design aiming at relieving hunger and poverty in a low income setting. This paper uses original household data from five waves of a phone survey conducted between May 2020 and June 2021 in Kenya (sample size 31,715) and investigates the gender differences in household coping strategies during the COVID-19 shock. It finds that female-headed households are less likely to cope by selling assets or taking loans, compared with male-headed households. Instead, femaleheaded households rely more on social networks to cope. No difference in coping by reducing meals is observed across these two types of households. This paper documents that the reasons behind the gender difference include that female-headed households are poorer, and they are more likely to rely on friends and family to cope with shocks even prior to the COVID-19 shock. The findings suggest that widowed and divorced women are in high need of relief programs, and governments should provide easily accessible loans to avoid negative impacts in the long term from households selling assets. 2022-03-09T19:50:46Z 2022-03-09T19:50:46Z 2022-03-07 Working Paper http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/861451646668280669/Gender-Differences-in-Household-Coping-Strategies-for-COVID-19-in-Kenya http://hdl.handle.net/10986/37111 English CC BY 3.0 IGO http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/igo World Bank Washington, DC: World Bank Policy Research Working Paper Publications & Research Africa Africa Eastern and Southern (AFE) Kenya
repository_type Digital Repository
institution_category Foreign Institution
institution Digital Repositories
building World Bank Open Knowledge Repository
collection World Bank
language English
topic GENDER DIFFERENCE
HOUSEHOLD HEAD AGE
POVERTY AND EQUITY
GENDER INEQUALITY
INTIMATE PARTNER VIOLENCE
ANALYSIS OF POVERTY
HOUSEHOLD CONSUMPTION EXPENDITURE
spellingShingle GENDER DIFFERENCE
HOUSEHOLD HEAD AGE
POVERTY AND EQUITY
GENDER INEQUALITY
INTIMATE PARTNER VIOLENCE
ANALYSIS OF POVERTY
HOUSEHOLD CONSUMPTION EXPENDITURE
Xu, Yuanwei
Delius, Antonia Johanna Sophie
Pape, Utz Johann
Gender Differences in Household Coping Strategies for COVID-19 in Kenya
geographic_facet Africa
Africa Eastern and Southern (AFE)
Kenya
description Understanding how different households cope with COVID-19 among a vulnerable population is important for the policy design aiming at relieving hunger and poverty in a low income setting. This paper uses original household data from five waves of a phone survey conducted between May 2020 and June 2021 in Kenya (sample size 31,715) and investigates the gender differences in household coping strategies during the COVID-19 shock. It finds that female-headed households are less likely to cope by selling assets or taking loans, compared with male-headed households. Instead, femaleheaded households rely more on social networks to cope. No difference in coping by reducing meals is observed across these two types of households. This paper documents that the reasons behind the gender difference include that female-headed households are poorer, and they are more likely to rely on friends and family to cope with shocks even prior to the COVID-19 shock. The findings suggest that widowed and divorced women are in high need of relief programs, and governments should provide easily accessible loans to avoid negative impacts in the long term from households selling assets.
format Working Paper
author Xu, Yuanwei
Delius, Antonia Johanna Sophie
Pape, Utz Johann
author_facet Xu, Yuanwei
Delius, Antonia Johanna Sophie
Pape, Utz Johann
author_sort Xu, Yuanwei
title Gender Differences in Household Coping Strategies for COVID-19 in Kenya
title_short Gender Differences in Household Coping Strategies for COVID-19 in Kenya
title_full Gender Differences in Household Coping Strategies for COVID-19 in Kenya
title_fullStr Gender Differences in Household Coping Strategies for COVID-19 in Kenya
title_full_unstemmed Gender Differences in Household Coping Strategies for COVID-19 in Kenya
title_sort gender differences in household coping strategies for covid-19 in kenya
publisher Washington, DC: World Bank
publishDate 2022
url http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/861451646668280669/Gender-Differences-in-Household-Coping-Strategies-for-COVID-19-in-Kenya
http://hdl.handle.net/10986/37111
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