What is livelihood?• “A livelihood comprises – the capabilities, assets (store, resource, claims, and

access) and activities required for strengthening means of living.

– A livelihood is sustainable which can cope with and recover from stress and shocks, maintain or enhance its capabilities and assets

– and provide sustainable livelihood opportunities for the next generation

– and which contributes net benefits to other livelihoods at local and global level and in the long and short term”

– Robert Chambers and Conway

Livelihood Goals

• Families have varying livelihood goals–Basic need security–Reducing vulnerability– Income– Leisure– Social status–Growth

Five A’s

The conditions under which the family needs to make efforts

to achieve these goals can be described by 5 A’s

Assets

Access

Abilities

Assurances

Attitudes

The first four are objectively verifiable features

Attitudes are uniquely a personal, individual feature.

Assets• Physical assets such as land (with its

topography), animals, equipment (pump, tractor, implements), ponds, wells, cash, jewelry, bank balances, home stores of seed, grain and food and perhaps also goodwill with the traders, bankers etc

• People – both asset and liability• The quality of the asset, its carrying (or work)

capacity and the risk of its deterioration are relevant facets households need to consider.

Access• To assets – leased in/out, encroached, ownership for

women• To commons -canals, ponds, streams, rivers, forests,

wastelands, grazing lands etc• To information on things like market prices, demand,

seasonality, expected quality for the produce; on schemes and programmes

• To markets and institutions; to input suppliers-physical, social and financial

• To technology

Abilities• Physical prowess – strength, eye sight• Motor skills -- eye – hand co-ordination

in spinning and weaving• Special abilities unique to a specific trade

– rigour, regimentation, managerial skills• To envision, plan• To receive market signals, negotiate• “Street smartness”

Assurances

• Traditional coping mechanisms –bonded labour

• Crop diversification• Insurance• Futures• Savings• Social Capital

Need for differential as well as collectivisation approch

• Different people have different level of these As depending on their life stages and thus need different approaches even in same activity

• This framework also equality applicable at collective level such as village, Panchayat level etc.

• Collectivisation like SHG often fosters these As and thus livelihoods outcomes

Livelihoods of rural poor is the result of

a complex set of interactions among

various factors related to the

Community themselves, the Area where

they are situated and sector dynamics

Framework of Area-Community-Sector

AREA

SECTORCOMMUNITY

Community

• “Self” of the person is the most pivotal factor that guides livelihoods choices

• self-efficacy’, which helps explain what either constrains or supports people’s ability to seize opportunities

• Enhancing the “self-efficacy” or “sense of agency” of poor people must be a necessary and key element of strategies to remove poverty.

• This can only be done by engaging directly with them focusing on the “person”, her aspirations, her dreams, her dilemmas and internal blocks rather than the task / project at hand

• Collectives like SHGs, Cluster and federation can help the members women develop confidence, draw support from each other emotionally and help each other in times of crisis

Contd.

• The collectives also help in achieving scale of economies, share resources and knowledge, and also manage risks.

• Again to fight these structures which are inherently discriminatory, women have to be organized to collectives

Area• Poverty is also a function of the physical location a person

finds herself. • A vast majority of poor people in villages typically inhabit

regions with complex and vulnerable ecologies; for e.g., – the undulating, hilly and mountainous terrain, erratic rainfall.

• Need intervention in such ecologies that result in higher productivity and carrying capacity of natural resources, which would have a direct impact on livelihoods & well being of the people

• A booming farm economy also benefits a large number of people down the line such as the laourers, traders, transporters and a host of market players.

Sector

• The Sector here denotes the multifarious institutions of the Market and the State ( including policies and rules), Technology directly affecting choices.

• A vast majority of poor people live in regions with weakest institutions, including poorly developed markets and weak governance.

• Weak governance results in inadequate penetration of public resources and programmes into the rural areas which further exacerbates the already dismal situation.

• New opportunities/technology developments in different sectors influences production system and thus livelihoods