Children and Household Risk Management

Man conducting interviewWhat roles do children play in the risk management strategies of vulnerable households in West Africa? Do children shoulder a disproportional burden when households are at risk of, or exposed to shocks? Will this burden grow as West Africa increasingly experiences disturbances in regular climatic patterns like droughts, erratic rainfall, flooding, locust and animal diseases? Will fertility be affected in the absence of alterative social safety nets?

These are some of the questions investigated in the two interrelated Fafo research projects presented at this web site. Special focus will be given to the two issues of child mobility and sibling diversification.

The first part of this project, comprising two household surveys in Senegal, was funded by the . The second part covers analytical work and qualitative data collection in Benin and Senegal, and is funded jointly by and the .

The website and accompanying files (except for bibliography) is available in both French and English. You will need a PDF viewer to read some of the documents, see PDFreaders.org for software and information.