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Urban residents in Ethiopia have been struggling with the various state of food insecurity for decades. Government employees in general, and low-income urban residents in particular, have been suffering the most from food insecurity. The problem has intensified in recent years due to persistent inflation and lingering conflicts in different parts of the country, which have been seriously hampering food production and marketing. In order to ease the pressure on urban resident, the government has been undertaking a number of measures viz. implementing Urban Productive Safety Net Program (UPSNP) for the poorest section of urban residents; introducing school feeding program for children in primary schools; encouraging urban agriculture (e.g., garden vegetables & poultry production); establishing consumers’ association shops; and promoting Sunday markets- sprawling along portions of some major city streets where producers and cooperatives sell mostly agricultural products to urban consumers. The present project explores strategies adopted by low-income urban residents navigating through these and other options in order to survive food insecurity. While the project has adopted survey (forthcoming) as a main research method, this presentation is based on exploratory qualitative data (FGDs and KIIs) gathered in two districts of Addis Ababa, the capital and largest city of Ethiopia. Preliminary findings of this study show that: (1) almost all the research participants expressed food insecurity as their most significant concern; (2) daily street/neighborhood corner petty traders and mini-kiosks are major sources of food items households purchase; (3) purchase of food items is limited in volume and appears to be mostly on daily basis (for daily consumption); (3) change of dietary habit and food preparation traditions, and move towards less nutritious (fewer protein and more carbohydrate food items) have also come out as major strategies of survival.

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