Livelihood Coping Strategies – Food Security (LCS-FS)

Outcome

Impact

% of households applying Livelihood Coping Strategies related to food security, by severity (no coping, stress, crisis, emergency)

The Livelihood Coping Strategies for Food Security (LCS-FS) indicator measures the extent to which households resort to various coping strategies in response to a lack of food or money to purchase it during the 30 days preceding the survey. These strategies are categorized by severity - stress, crisis, and emergency - based on their long-term impact on household well-being and productivity.

Determine the indicator's value by using the following methodology:

1) Identify Relevant Livelihood Coping Strategies: The first task is to identify the most common coping strategies households use to manage food access challenges. Consult Cash Working Group or other local coordination bodies for existing lists of such strategies and review them for local relevance using focus group discussions with affected populations. Examples of the standard LCS-FS question list grouped under stress, crisis and emergencies are available in the guidance below. You must select at least 10 coping strategies balanced across severity groups: four stress, three crisis, and three emergency strategies.

 

2) Determine Severity Weights for Each Coping Strategy: Assign severity weights based on WFP’s categorization of coping strategies into stress (weight = 1), crisis (weight = 2), and emergency (weight = 3) levels. Severity reflects the extent of negative impacts on future household food security and livelihood sustainability. Use locally validated severity classifications developed through focus group discussions with affected populations, ensuring that weights remain consistent for comparability. Contact the Food Security Cluster or other relevant actors to determine whether such a classification already exists. If not, refer to the WFP (2008) Coping Strategies Index – Field Methods Manual and the LCS-FS Guidance Note (see below) for detailed guidance on community validation and severity weighting procedures.

 

3) Conduct a Household Survey Using a Standardised Questionnaire: Interview a representative sample of households using probability sampling. Ask whether each strategy was used within the recall period. Survey response options should include:

   - Yes (used within the 30-day recall period)

   - No, not necessary

   - No, exhausted (already sold assets or could not continue practice within the last 12 months)

   - Not applicable (don’t have access to this strategy)

Additionally, for sensitive strategies such as begging, also include the option “Prefer not to answer."

 

4) Calculate the Livelihood Coping Strategies for Food Security Score using the following steps:

• First, group the coping strategies based on the severity levels: stress, crisis, and emergency. If more than the required number of strategies were used in the survey, then 1) look at how often each strategy was used, and 2) within each severity group, keep the most prevalent strategies only until you have 4 stress, 3 crisis, 3 and emergency strategies.

• Next, create binary variables for each severity level: A household is classified under a severity category only if it actually relied on the strategy (i.e. the answer is "Yes") or exhausted at least one coping strategy (i.e. the answer is "No, exhausted"). The option "exhausted" is included because it shows that the household already relied on that option recently and has no capacity left there.

• Then, classify each household into no coping, stress, crisis, or emergency category based on the highest-severity coping strategy they used (or had already exhausted). In practice, this means: if they used at least one emergency strategy, classify them as Emergency; if not, but they used at least one crisis strategy, classify them as Crisis; if not, but they used at least one stress strategy, classify them as Stress; and if none of these were used, classify them as No coping. This way, every household is counted only once, at the most serious level of livelihood coping they relied on.

5) To determine the indicator’s value, calculate the percentage of households in each coping severity category (no coping, stress, crisis, emergency):

   - For each category, count the number of households classified in that category.

   - Divide this count by the total number of surveyed households.

   - Multiply by 100 to express the result as a percentage.

Disaggregate the data by gender of the head of household, geographical area, population area, wealth and other relevant criteria, provided the sample size is sufficient to ensure reliable representation.

1) Stress strategies typically include actions such as borrowing money or spending household savings to meet food needs. They indicate a reduced ability to deal with future shocks due to a current reduction in resources or increase in debts. Crisis strategies are more severe and often undermine productive capacity — for example, selling productive assets or withdrawing children from school to reduce expenses. Emergency strategies represent the most extreme responses, such as selling land or housing, begging, or permanently migrating in search of income. They affect future productivity and are extremely difficult to reverse or more dramatic in nature.

2) Consider continuous re-assessment of “Not applicable” responses against each of the strategies. High prevalence may indicate that the selected strategies for the module are not relevant or that a majority of households have already exhausted the strategies years earlier – which no longer fall within the exhausted recall period (12 months).

3) Consider reporting also the prevalence of "exhausted" coping strategies to understand the depletion of livelihood assets and predict future vulnerability.

 

4) The LCS-FS methodology requires contextual adaptation, but must maintain comparability with standard severity weights and classification thresholds. Always consult the recommendations provided by relevant coordination groups (e.g., a Cash Working Group) who should lead this process locally.

 

5) Ensure consistent recall period for coping strategies (30 days for “Yes” and 12 months for “Exhausted”) to ensure data comparability.

 

6) The Livelihood Coping Strategies indicator exists in two versions: For food security (= this indicator) and for essential needs (available on this site). The version for essential needs should be used in Essential Needs Analysis, or whenever the context is broader than food security. The Food Security version should be used when a narrow focus on food security is intended.

 

7) Refer to the full WFP LCS-FS guidance for detailed methodology, example questionnaires, and analysis guidance (see below).