Understanding the financial lives of female sex workers in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire: implications for economic strengthening interventions for HIV prevention

Figures & data

Figure 1. Relationship of economic strengthening to HIV prevention among FSWs.

Table 1. Demographic, sexual behavior, and financial management characteristics of samples.

	PO Walk-alongs		Financial diaries
Sample characteristic	N = 74^a	%	n = 33	%
Age (years)
Range	19–55		21–55
Median	28		27
Highest education level
None	33	45%	12	36%
Primary	14	19%	7	21%
Secondary	22	30%	13	39%
Country of origin
Côte d’Ivoire	44	59%	17	52%
Ghana	9	12%	4	12%
Mali	7	9%	5	15%
Nigeria	5	7%	2	6%
Other (Benin, Burkina Faso, Guinea)	4	5%	4	12%
Years FSW in ABJ
<1	9	12%	6	18%
1–5	47	64%	21	64%
6–10	8	11%	4	12%
>10	6	8%	1	3%
Sex work environment
Bar/Hotel	16	22%	9	27%
Brothel	23	31%	13	39%
Luxury	17	23%	6	18%
Street	18	24%	5	15%
Number sex partners, past two weeks
3–5	14	19%	7	21%
6–10	36	49%	19	58%
≥11	19	26%	6	18%
Number paid sex acts, past two weeks
4–10	28	38%	16	48%
11–20	23	31%	8	24%
21–30	8	11%	1	3%
>30	10	14%	7	21%
Any other income source	15	20%	6	18%
Borrowed money > once in past month	44	59%	20	61%
Number of dependents
0	15	20%	7	21%
1-2	34	46%	15	45%
≥3	20	28%	10	30%

^aSome categories do not sum to 74 due to missing data. One woman’s demographic data was missing from the FD sample.

Table 2. Entry into sex work – illustrative narratives.

Providing for children after leaving an abusive relationship

Twenty-five year old Geneviève^a became a FSW after divorcing her abusive husband. She described her ex-husband as an alcoholic who beat her and put her luggage out every day. She moved her two daughters into the home of a friend, who is a FSW. This FSW trained Geneviève on how to make a living doing bar-based sex work. Geneviève left the home of her FSW peer after earning over $500 in one month for a down payment on a house. She expects to have about a $425 payout from her tontine (informal savings group) to undertake a business. Her daughters know she is a waitress in a large open-air restaurant; she does not want her daughters or her parents to know she’s a sex worker because they would be disappointed in her, as “sex work is a profession frowned upon in Côte d’Ivoire.”

Moving to the city to help her family

Thérèse traveled to Abidjan last year at age 18 from a central city, where her parents live with her younger siblings. A friend of her mother brought her to Abidjan to be a housekeeper. She spent six months working in a home without pay. She then left for another household job in the city where she was paid about $25/month. She often let a friend – who was a FSW – stay in her room, because the friend had no home. When the owner of the home found out, Thérèse was fired. Her friend advised her to become a FSW to earn more money, which is how she became a bar-based FSW, living and splitting rent with another FSW from the bar. She stated that her parents think she is still a maid in Abidjan and that they would ask her to return home if they knew she was doing sex work. She prefers to stay in Abidjan to have enough money to take care of them.

^aAll names in this article are pseudonyms.

Table 3. Source and value of cash income during six-week period, FD sample (n = 33).

Item type	Number of participants reporting	Total value over six-week period	Mean weekly value^a
Sex work	33	$18,300.08	$92.43
Cash gifts	28	$2,661.02	$15.84
Loan	18	$1,828.55	$16.93
Sales profits	4	$871.14	$36.29
Petty trading	5	$611.25	$20.38
Theft	3	$228.70	$12.70
Tips	7	$115.18	$2.74
Salary	3	$76.09	$4.23
Intra-household transactions	2	$53.02	$4.42
Total value of cash income		$24,745.03
Median weekly income per capita		$114.35

^aFor those women reporting.

Table 4. Cash expenditures over six-week period, FD sample (n = 33).

Item type	Total value of transactions	% of overall expenditures	# participants reporting	Mean weekly value^a
Food	$ 5,940.92	22	33	$ 30.01
Household supplies	$ 2,880.19	10	33	$ 14.54
Clothing	$ 2,864.98	10	30	$ 15.91
Transportation	$ 2,503.21	9	33	$ 12.65
Cash gifts	$ 2,333.46	8	31	$ 12.54
Beauty	$ 1,941.45	7	30	$ 10.78
Communication	$ 1,815.87	7	33	$ 9.17
Child expenses	$ 1,645.90	6	11	$ 24.94
House rent	$ 1,619.61	6	19	$ 14.21
Loan/debt payments	$ 797.96	3	23	$ 5.78
Alcohol	$ 620.09	2	23	$ 4.49
Health	$ 549.21	2	26	$ 3.52
Petty trading	$ 311.35	1	5	$ 10.37
Family expenses	$ 295.23	1	4	$ 12.30
Water	$ 274.44	1	20	$ 2.28
Payments to police	$ 230.78	1	1	$ 38.46
Cigarettes	$ 229.27	1	9	$ 4.25
Right-to-work	$ 154.69	1	10	$ 2.58
Condoms	$ 125.37	<1	15	$ 1.39
Miscellaneous	$ 116.84	<1	9	$ 2.16
Church offering	$ 115.80	<1	8	$ 2.41
Funeral	$ 91.48	<1	6	$ 2.54
Security	$ 41.58	<1	1	$ 6.93
Education	$ 39.71	<1	4	$ 1.66
Sex work products	$ 31.19	<1	4	$ 1.30
Total expenditures			$27,570.58
Mean weekly expenditure per capita			$105.07

^aFor those women reporting.

Table 5. Summary of cash income and expenditure data, balance sheets for FD sample.

	Aggregate (N = 33)	Bar/hotel (n = 9)	Brothel (n = 13)	Luxury (n = 6)	Street (n = 5)
Weekly cash income
Range	$0–$338.14	$0–$220.79	$0–$517.69	$0–$352.82	$24.95–$572.76
Median	$114.24	$79.27	$98.76	$132.02	$126.82
Weekly expenditures
Range	$7.28–1,325.62	$7.28–$294.92	$20.89–$1325.62	$20.43–$449.08	$19.96–$719.83
Median	$104.14	$56.66	$125.66	$166.78	$94.76
# women with negative balance
week 1	14	4	8	3	0
week 2	12	0	5	5	2
week 3	12	2	8	2	0
week 4	13	3	5	4	1
week 5	16	4	7	3	2
week 6	15	3	7	3	2
Overall for 6-week period	15	1	9	4	1

Table 6. Costs of doing business in different working environments.

Working in a bar setting	Audrey is a 21-year old FSW who describes working independently (without a pimp) at a local bar. Audrey sells beverages as an ordinary waitress. On each beverage she earns a small commission, less than a dollar, depending on the quality/price of the drink. These commissions represent her wages. She is also free to provide sexual services in the bar and can request a room for her sexual activities for the amount of about $4 per hour. If she leaves the bar to go with a client, she must register with the bar manager and pay about $6 to the manager for her “right of absence”. The minimum price for sex outside the bar is $19; sexual activities within the bar start at $6. Audrey can also fix an appointment for after her shift to avoid paying fees. On a typical week, she earns about $38 from this work; she does not have another source of income.
Working on the streets	In Yopougon, Kady is a 28-year old street-based sex worker. When she has “enough” clients, she makes roughly $25/day. Her standard rate is around $2/sexual act; some men give her $2-$3 more after sex. In Kady’s area there is a site manager, a policeman, who comes every evening to collect from the FSWs what they call a “labor law” payment. He then works to free FSWs when they are arrested by the central police, who conduct sweeps each month. FSWs phone peers to signal the arrival of the central police in the neighborhood. She says they all wear very flat shoes, to be able to run as fast as possible when the central police arrive. FSWs who are caught are taken to jail where they must pay over $95 for their freedom. Those who are not caught often organize themselves and contribute ∼$4 each to support those who have been imprisoned.
Working in a brothel	Aimée is a 31-year old from Burkina Faso who works in two areas of Abidjan, Site A and Site B. She began sex work two years ago when her father died, so she could take care of her mother. She rents a room in an informal brothel in Site A for $57/month and meets her clients during the afternoon twice a week. The rest of the week she works from Site B at a brothel with about 20 other FSWs. She must pay to work in the brothel in Site B. To avoid these right-to-work payments, she often tries to leave a little early before the owner, who Aimée identifies as a policeman, returns. However, her peers reported her and she now owes over $90 in back payments. She reports that the owner of the site wants to have sex with her, and might write off some of her debt if she does, but she has not yet agreed to have sex with him. She is paying off the debt at about $2/day.

Table 7. Deposits into “savings” over six-week period, FD sample (n = 33) (savings categories are not mutually exclusive).

	Total value of deposits	No. of participants reporting (n = 19)	Number of transactions	Mean value per transaction
Tontine	$2,186.37	14	48	$45.55
Mobile platforms	$773.50	7	12	$64.46
Informal location	$54.60	2	3	$18.20
Total deposits over 6 weeks			$3,014.47