Household shocks and coping mechanisms in Camiguin Province, Philippines

Island’s vulnerability is anchored towards stewardship to accommodate environmental conservation and economic activity. Vulnerability poses risk and uncertainty of island households. Household as an important entity plays a role for island development. This study aimed to identify the profile of rural households, evaluate the shocks as well as coping mechanisms employed by the rural households. Stratified random sampling was undertaken to identify the 377 randomly selected samples from the municipalities of Catarman and Sagay in the province of Camiguin, Philippines. The survey was conducted from February to March 2019. Household’s data collected includes age of the respondent, sex of the respondent, household size, household income in range, educational attainment of respondent, farm size, and tenurial status. Respondents were asked to rank the shocks and risks encountered as well as the coping mechanisms. Data collected were analysed using descriptive statistics. Results revealed that post-harvest losses played a significant role in agricultural shocks while could not buy food due to food price increase as economic shocks. Selling of livestock, land and other assets got the highest rank for mechanisms to cope up with shocks. Improved storage facilities and efficient transport system can be taken into consideration to improve the quality of agricultural products to be marketed inside and outside the island to minimize post-harvest losses.

Impact of household shocks on access to healthcare services in Kenya: a propensity score matching analysis

ObjectiveThis study examines the effects of household shocks on access to healthcare services in Kenya. Shocks are adverse events that lead to loss of household income and/or assets.Design and settingThe study used data from the Kenya Integrated Household Budget Survey 2015/2016, a nationally representative cross-sectional survey. A propensity score matching approach was applied for the analysis.ParticipantsThe study sample included 16 297 individuals from households that had experienced shocks (intervention) and those that had not experienced shocks (control) within the last 12 months preceding the survey.Outcome measuresThe outcome of interest was access to healthcare services based on an individual’s perceived need for health intervention.ResultsThe results indicate that shocks reduce access to healthcare services when household members are confronted with an illness. We observed that multiple shocks in a household exacerbate the risk of not accessing healthcare services. Asset shocks had a significant negative effect on access to healthcare services, whereas the effect of income shocks was not statistically significant. This is presumably due to the smoothing out of income shocks through the sale of assets or borrowing. However, considering the time when the shock occurred, we observed mixed results that varied according to the type of shock.ConclusionsThe findings suggest that shocks can limit the capacity of households to invest in healthcare services, emphasising their vulnerability to risks and inability to cope with the consequences. These results provoke a debate on the causal pathway of household economic shocks and health-seeking behaviour. The results suggest a need for social protection programmes to integrate mechanisms that enable households to build resilience to shocks. A more viable approach would be to expedite universal health insurance to cushion households from forgoing needed healthcare when confronted with unanticipated risks.

Food Insecurity and Water Insecurity in Rural Zimbabwe: Development of Multidimensional Household Measures

Background: With millions of people experiencing malnutrition and inadequate water access, FI and WI remain topics of vital importance to global health. Existing unidimensional FI and WI metrics do not all capture similar multidimensional aspects, thus restricting our ability to assess and address food- and water-related issues. Methods: Using the Sanitation, Hygiene and Infant Nutrition Efficacy (SHINE) trial data, our study conceptualizes household FI (N = 3551) and WI (N = 3311) separately in a way that captures their key dimensions. We developed measures of FI and WI for rural Zimbabwean households based on multiple correspondence analysis (MCA) for categorical data. Results: Three FI dimensions were retained: ‘poor food access’, ‘household shocks’ and ‘low food quality and availability’, as were three WI dimensions: ‘poor water access’, ‘poor water quality’, and ‘low water reliability’. Internal validity of the multidimensional models was assessed using confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) with test samples at baseline and 18 months. The dimension scores were associated with a group of exogenous variables (SES, HIV-status, season, depression, perceived health, food aid, water collection), additionally indicating predictive, convergent and discriminant validities. Conclusions: FI and WI dimensions are sufficiently distinct to be characterized via separate indicators. These indicators are critical for identifying specific problematic insecurity aspects and for finding new targets to improve health and nutrition interventions.

Early Life Transitions Increase the Risk for HIV Infection: Using Latent Class Growth Models to Assess the Effect of Key Life Events on HIV Incidence Among Adolescent Girls in Rural South Africa

Adolescent girls and young women (AGYW) in sub-Saharan Africa are at very high risk of HIV infection. 6% of adolescent AGYW ages 15-19 are infected with HIV, increasing to over 17% by age 20-24. Adolescents matter and yet we have limited, rigorous information on what matters for adolescents living in developing countries and how we can best help them transition safely to adulthood. This chapter uses longitudinal data on a cohort of over 2,000 adolescent girls in rural South Africa who have been followed over 8 years as they transition from adolescence into early adulthood to examine how the timing and occurrence of multiple, non-repeatable social and behavioral determinants shape the risk of HIV acquisition over the adolescent life course. The analysis uses multiple event process survival mixture modeling to examine how key exposures such as childhood sexual abuse, depression, household shocks, poverty, parental loss, early pregnancy, school leaving and gender based violence shape HIV risk during adolescence. This is a unique opportunity to examine key behavioral and social life events in combination and longitudinally among young women in rural Africa, providing unique insights into when best to intervene and on what.

The Effect of Microfinance on Inequality and Household Shocks Easing in Nigeria

The chapter aims at finding the microfinance effect on households' shocks easing of Nigerians, and estimating the inequality in the use of MFIs' services under the backdrop that rural farmers do not have access to credits to boost productivity and this affects their income and widens inequality. Based upon the World Bank microdata on financial inclusion survey for 2014 (the Global Fundex survey data set), the study employed the Heckman selection model and concentration index. The results show that households in urban areas have more access to MFIs services than rural households in terms of mobile money accounts, emergency funds, and receiving remittances to smooth their consumption shocks. The results also show wide disparities in deprivation of owning accounts, in loans for apartment, in trend of saving habits, in capacity to participate in MFIs services between the rich and the poor. The study, therefore, recommends that more MFIs can be established in rural areas and more awareness campaign be carried to reach out to the targeted households.