If children aren't full, can adults eat?

How poor women shoulder the price of crisis in Côte d'Ivoire

In Niamasso, Kabadougou, in northern Côte d’Ivoire, a single mother explains why she hasn’t had a full and satisfying meal in many days. “If children aren’t full, can adults eat?” she asks. That’s the impossible choice facing many mothers in Côte d’Ivoire when food, fuel, and basic services prices soar, pushing already vulnerable families to the edge. But the burden of survival is not shared equally. Among the poor, it is women who are making innumerous sacrifices to keep their families going, as our recent qualitative research shows. The study sheds light on how these families are coping, and how the burden, especially on women and girls, comes at a heavy and lasting cost.

The poor adapt – to survive. But the strategies employed weaken their future resilience

“We prefer not to eat so that the children can go to school. We didn't go to school, so we want them to go to school” — Mother, living with a partner, in Anyama, near Abidjan and recipient of Côte d’Ivoire’s Productive Cash Transfer Program¹.

The research illustrates how experiencing shocks triggers a spiral down to deeper poverty and even less resilience in the future. In the face of soaring prices, the poorest households are adapting—but at great risk to their long-term well-being. The study reveals that short-term survival strategies are quietly undermining future resilience. Here’s how: 

• Reducing food consumption: Families are reducing the quantity, quality, and diversity of their food intake. Men are sometimes served larger portions, highlighting the unequal distribution of resources within families.
• Increasing reliance on traditional medicine: The high cost of healthcare, at least before the expansion of the universal health coverage (CMU), leads to reduced visits to formal health facilities, even for children. 
• Selling essential assets: To meet immediate needs, families sell business equipment, livestock, and land, making them more vulnerable.
• Minimizing energy and transport use: Without money for transport, families walk instead, especially affecting women’s time, health, and safety. Reducing energy use also increases domestic work for women and girls.
• Accumulating debt: Most, especially women, borrow money for essentials, deepening debt and further reducing their ability to withstand future shocks.
• Reducing social engagements: Families are cutting back on social events, prioritizing only obligatory gatherings or those involving their immediate family.
• Temporarily pulling children out of school: Unable to afford tuition, transportation, and school supplies many parents make this decision as a last resort. 

Each of these coping mechanisms offers momentary relief. But collectively, they erode a family’s ability to withstand future shocks, undermining both human capital and economic productivity. 

Poor women and girls are the ones hardest hit

“Women work hard; they dedicate themselves to work. They would do any kind of work they can to earn a little food for their children” (Mother of an adolescent daughter and living with a partner, Plango, Gbêkê, recipient of the Côte d’Ivoire’s Productive Cash Transfer Program).

The study highlights the gendered impacts of price shocks: Men are disproportionately affected by unemployment and loss of income, impacting their status as household heads and their mental health.  Women and girls are carrying a disproportionate burden: They face heightened emotional strain as they take on responsibility for their families’ financial survival, while also managing heavier workloads that combine paid and unpaid labor, leaving them time-poor. At the same time, girls are at greater risk of leaving school early and entering relationships for economic support, which increases the likelihood of early pregnancy.

Strengthening the resilience of the poor – while acknowledging specific needs of subgroups - is critical

“In any case, it's thanks to the safety net program that I've been able to send my children to school” concludes a beneficiary of the program.

The price shocks in Côte d'Ivoire are pushing many poor households into a downward spiral of poverty. Addressing these challenges requires a multi-sectoral approach that focuses on protecting investments in human capital, sustaining productive capacity, and building resilience to future shocks. The Productive Safety Net Program has successfully adopted this holistic approach since 2017, demonstrating its capacity to respond to shocks. The research identified several factors that strengthen poor households’ resilience to price shocks, including access to safety net programs, participation in informal savings and credit groups (AVEC), and having formal sector or higher-quality employment. Consequently, the study concludes with a set of the following policy recommendations:

Promoting productive and human capital investments ahead of crisis, so the poor are better able to withstand shocks:

• Address financial constraints to education through the provision of school supplies and expansion of the National School Feeding Program;
• Increase coverage of well-targeted cash transfer programs (Productive Safety Net Program) promoting continuous investments in human capital and income generating activities;
• Expand access to healthcare through the noncontributory Medical Assistance Scheme (RAM);
• Support low-income families’ continued access to trusted community-based savings and credit mechanisms.

Expand and consolidate during/after crisis hit:

• Set up targeted relief measures to help low-income families cope with rising food and electricity prices, using social registry or similar approaches.
• Expand existing safety net programs as done during COVID).

Support women and adolescent girls’ specifically with targeted measures: 

• Support women's economic activity through enhanced and affordable childcare.
• Implement girl-focused measures, including those to prevent early pregnancy, reducing school dropout and promoting comprehensive sex education.

The Bottom Line

Behind every data pointed in the report is a woman making impossible choices, a child missing school, a family selling the little they have to make it to the next week. Having a more resilient Côte d’Ivoire, means listening to those on the frontlines. The women who ask, “If children aren’t full, can adults eat?” already know what’s at stake. The question now is: do we?

By implementing the policy recommendations outlined in this study, Côte d'Ivoire can work towards a more equitable and resilient future for its entire population.

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¹ The government flagship program is known as Productive Safety Net Program or, in the original French, as Programme des Transferts Monétaires Productifs (PTMP) or Filets Sociaux Productifs. The Program is supported financially and technically by the World Bank.