Multiple Crises, Coping Strategies, and their Longer-Term Impacts

Abstract

The multiple economic shocks during the Covid-19 pandemic resulted in an estimated 1.6 million people falling into poverty in Bangladesh, especially in urban low-income areas, and for women, marginalised groups and those working in the informal sector. Four years later, recovery has been slow. This Synthesis Report gathers evidence from the Covid-19 Learning, Evidence and Research Programme in Bangladesh (CLEAR), looking at multiple crises, coping strategies, and their longer-term impacts. Quantitative, qualitative, and mixed-methods longitudinal research over the course of the pandemic and afterwards in Bangladesh illustrate the different strategies people used to try and cope with the multiple shocks they faced over time, and how depleting coping strategies affected their trajectories of poverty and recovery.