The LCS-EN indicator measures how households cope with challenges in meeting essential needs, encompassing not only food but also shelter, health, education, and other basic services. It captures medium- and long-term coping behaviours that reflect a household’s ability to manage and recover from shocks such as conflict, climate events, or economic crises.
Households are asked whether they engaged in specific strategies in the past 30 days or exhausted them in the past 12 months due to a lack of resources to meet essential needs. These strategies are categorized by severity - stress, crisis, and emergency - based on their long-term impact on household well-being and productivity.
Available Resources
Please find below some resources to help you collect, calculate, and analyze the LCS-EN:
Technical Guidance Note
Read the detailed guidance document for accurate implementation, data collection, and analysis steps for LCS-EN.
List of Strategies
The list of strategies and their definitions are available in the following languages:
Questionnaire Modules
These are three modules for the LCS-EN indicator, which can be downloaded in Word format:
Generic version of Livelihood Coping Strategies – Essential Needs is applicable for both data collection conducted in rural and urban settings.
Urban version of Livelihood Coping Strategies – Essential Needs is applicable for data collection conducted in urban settings only.
Rural version of Livelihood Coping Strategies – Essential Needs is applicable for data collection conducted in rural settings only.
XLS Form
You can access the XLS modules for LCS-EN, designed in WFP Survey Designer. This can be converted to ODK form for consistent data collection across mobile and web platforms:
Generic version of the XLS form.
Urban version of the XLS form.
Rural version of the XLS form.
Qualitative Tools
You can find the LCS-EN qualitative tool for conducting focus group discussions in the following languages:
Arabic (Coming Soon)
French (Coming Soon)
Training Presentation
A training presentation on LCS-EN for use by enumerators and RAM staff is available in the following languages:
Scripts and Sample Data
Calculation scripts are available in the following formats:
The sample data is also available on GitHub for training and analysis.
Additional Resources
You can find a short FAQ document compiling questions received from the field
For more context, refer to the ENA Guidance, which describes how the LCS-EN is used in essential needs analysis
The Data Quality Guidance provides practical steps to maintain data quality across all phases of evidence generation cycle
For more context, refer to the CARI guidance document and the CRF indicator sheet, which provides detailed information about how the indicator integrates with food security analysis frameworks.
For more information, please contact the Assessments and Targeting Unit in HQ VAM at global.assessmentandtargeting@wfp.org.