After relatives and government, the next sources of support to households in the two subcounties during the lockdown were neighbours and town or community leaders. The presence of neighbours and relatives as common sources of support for needy households is evidence of the old age spirit of solidarity/oneness that is still very much prevailing in most communities despite the strong push of modernity and its individualistic tendencies. This is often reflected in slogans such as “muno mukabi” and similar connotations found in other languages. Overall, diversifying sources of income (78.4%), curtailing household expenditure (51.6%) and working longer hours (41.8%) were the main coping mechanisms that were employed by households to minimize the effects of Covid-19 and associated prevention measures as indicated in figure 46 below. Figure 46: Overall coping strategies adopted by households. 90 80
78.39
70
60
51.65
50
41.76
40 30 15.02
20
8.42
10 0 Diversified income sources
Curtailing HH expenditure
Working for longer hours
Increased borrowing
Other
As indicated above, other coping mechanisms included working longer hours and increased borrowing. It is worth noting however that some coping mechanisms such as increased borrowing could have long-term devastating on the socioeconomic status of livelihoods such as an untenable level of debt, that could make it difficult for households to provide for the basic needs of members as priority is expenditure is channelled to debt repayment. In some instances, loans have also been known to lead to the loss of household assets such as land and other productive assets.
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