In the last few years, from 2008 to 2011, many developing countries have been hit by varied and unpredictable economic shocks, often referred to as the global food, fuel, and financial crises that started in 2008 and are still affecting many parts of the world at the time of writing in 2011. At the same time, many of these countries have also faced climatic shocks and political turbulence. How have these shocks played out in people’s lives and what have they meant for those who were already living in conditions of poverty and vulnerability? The aggregate impacts of these shocks on poverty are still only beginning to emerge, and it is too soon to take a firm position on what these shocks will ultimately mean for poverty or wellbeing in the medium term.

However, a series of community monitoring exercises involving multiple rounds of qualitative research throughout the 2008-11 crisis period affords some insights into how these shocks played out in the everyday lives of poor and vulnerable people in 17 developing countries. While final outcomes and impacts on poverty are not yet known, this unique micro-level perspective on the unfolding shocks puts us in a good position to better understand dynamic coping responses to protracted economic crises. The research summarized here consisted of focus group discussions (FGDs) and interviews with respondents selected to represent groups exposed to economic shocks and food and fuel price volatility (e.g., workers in export-oriented sectors, informal sector workers, farmers). These data offer a view into the perceptions and behaviors of people as they struggle to cope with economic downturn.

The overriding theme of this paper is to what extent and by what means people were able to remain resilient against the shocks of recent years. This is important for informing the design of crisis response programs as well as for broader efforts aimed at building resilience. We address this theme through the following key questions:

- What were the most common coping responses used by the poor and vulnerable and how effective were they at averting major impacts?

- How were the costs of coping distributed among women, men, children, and youth?

- How did the crises impact gender roles and community cohesion?

- Which sources of support were the most useful and what role did social protection, other government programs, and community organizations play?

At our disposal to address the questions are thousands of pages of country reports and focus group discussion transcripts from up to four rounds of qualitative research at selected sites in Bangladesh, Cambodia, Central African Republic (CAR), Ghana, Indonesia, Jamaica, Kazakhstan, Kenya, Mongolia, Philippines, Senegal, Serbia, Thailand, Ukraine, Vietnam, Yemen, and Zambia. This is to our knowledge the most comprehensive qualitative research on crisis impacts and coping ever carried out in developing countries.<sup>2</sup>

> 2 The Voices of the Poor (Narayan, 2000) and Moving out of Poverty (Narayan, Pritchett, and Kapoor, 2009) studies had larger samples but were not specifically focused on crisis impacts and coping. The Moving out of Poverty study found large downward movements triggered by shocks (both idiosyncratic such as health shocks and covariate such as crop loss due to drought) and lack of effective social protection.

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