In the face of the global financial crisis a number of developing countries have proven to be remarkably resilient if judged purely in terms of economic growth. At the same time, it appears that the burden of coping has been borne disproportionately by poor and vulnerable people. This reality is poorly understood as it tends to fall below the radar of most traditional monitoring systems.
The qualitative findings presented in this report reveal that even where countries have been resilient and are returning to growth, the day-to-day costs of the crisis have been high for many households. Furthermore, where immediate impacts appear not to have been severe, the ongoing erosion of resilience has the potential to damage longer-term development prospects.
IDS were commissioned by the United Nations Global Pulse team to carry out the background research to produce the UN Secretary-General’s second report on the impacts of the ongoing economic crisis on vulnerable populations in developing countries.