COVID-19 Struggles and Coping Strategies of Women Food Vendors in Nairobi’s Informal Settlements

Whereas there is a growing body of literature on the impact of Covid-19 pandemic, limited evidence exists on the impact of the pandemic on informal female-owned enterprises, and especially those that are located in urban informal settlements. In this study, we explore the adverse impacts of COVID-19 pandemic on women food vendors enterprises and their coping strategies across four informal settlements in Nairobi, Kenya. The study is based on a quantitative survey of 448 women vendors selected through stratified random sampling. Our findings show that women food vendors face numerous challenges which intensified during the COVID-19 pandemic, leading to increased costs of business operations, spoilage of perishable products, and oscillating daily sales and profits, largely due to the unpredictable market supply and demand forces. The vendors adopted a number of strategies to cushion their business enterprises and households, including price and stock adjustments, use of mobile phones and hygiene measures at business enterprises, reliance on credit, loans, savings and social networks for survival, temporary closure of business, and relocation of household members to the rural home. These results underscore the critical need for context-specific strategies to support and foster resilience of informal economies during future global pandemics.