Achieving
sustainable livelihoods
Restoring, conserving, building,
and mobilizing assets
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Sustainable Livelihoods Framework
Vulnerability
context
Trends
Shocks
Seasonality
Asset building to diversify
and manage risk
Community level activity to
build livelihood strategies
Supported by a policy and
institutional environment
offering protection and opportunity
Institutions: public, private and civil society organizations
Policies: incentives, opportunities, constraints
Processes governing transactions: laws, cultural practices etc.
These structures and processes determine
Access to various types of capital, decision-makers, information
The terms of exchange between different types of capital (e.g. the
value of wage labour
Returns (economic or otherwise) to any given livelihood strategy
Social capital
Bonding social capital helps us to get by
Bridging social capital helps us to get
ahead
Financial capital:
Savings
Land that can be used for collateral
Livestock that can be sold for cash
Increasing financial
capital
Micro-finance services
for the poor
Building non-financial
assets that can be
used as collateral for
loans (land) or sold
for cash (livestock)
Value-added
production, petty
trading etc.
Strategies for increasing human capital
Basic service delivery:
Education
Increases people’s employment prospects
Enables people to access information, read newspapers, avoid
being cheated in market transactions
In women, is associated with improved children’s health and well
being
Generates awareness– starting point for challenging status quo
Health care:
prevents ill health (immunisation, health education etc.)
Cures disease enabling people to return to functioning at their best
Increasing other assets/capital so that people can provide
for their families adequately and participate fully as active
citizens
Increasing human capital: education
Education
Increases people’s
employment prospects
Enables people to
access information,
read newspapers,
avoid being cheated in
market transactions
In women, is
associated with
improved children’s
health and well being
Generates awareness–
starting point for
challenging status quo
Increasing human capital: health
Adequate nutrition
Functional
consequences in
terms of physical
and mental
development
Health care:
prevents ill health
(immunisation,
health education
etc.)
Cures disease
enabling people to
return to
functioning at their
best
Increasing natural capital:
At the global or state level, regulations
and legislation to
Reduce greenhouse gas emissions to
prevent climate change (Kyoto)
Regulate land use practices, institute
land reform
Reduce industrial pollution
Promote sustainable agriculture and
forest practices
Prevent over fishing
At local and community levels, efforts
to
Reduce population pressure on
resources, including overgrazing
Reclaim degraded land
Shift to organic agriculture
Promote sustainable agriculture and
forest practices
Conserve energy and water
Invest in renewable energy (solar,
micro hydro)
Sustainable Livelihoods Framework
Sustainable Livelihoods Framework
through a gender lens
Vulnerability context: Women
More vulnerable to food, fuel, fertilizer price increases
More vulnerable to impacts of environmental degradation
Less access to and control over productive resources (land,
financial resources etc.)
Because of HIV AIDS and male outmigration, 30-60% of
households in eastern and southern Africa are female-
headed (Coon, 2008).
The more vulnerable their situation, the heavier the
workload, and the more difficult it is to care for children
…and the more likely girls are withdrawn from school
Promoting food security means
addressing gender inequality
“Small holder farming systems need to be
at the heart of a new generation of
agricultural development policies” World
Development Report, 2008, cited in Coon
2008
But, unless women’s roles are factored in,
we will fail to address root causes of
chronic food insecurity
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dHDo6U