Learning about Livelihoods

Insights from Southern Africa

Learning about livelihoods is a handbook written for development workers, planners and fieldworkers who wish to strengthen their understanding of poor and vulnerable communities and improve the impact of poverty alleviation programmes.

The book

The livelihoods approach offers a holistic framework that helps to place people at the centre of development. Exploring the relative strengths and weaknesses of different livelihoods strategies, helps us understand why certain households are better able to cope with outside threats such as drought or HIV/AIDS. The book then builds on this understanding to enhance community development programmes.

The handbook provides trainers with a comprehensive introduction to the livelihoods approach through a series of 10 workshop sessions. This is followed by an overview of the livelihoods planning cycle that equips practitioners with the
tools they need to plan and evaluate local development initiatives using the livelihoods framework.

The video

The conceptual framework is brought to life through a series of case studies documented on video that show how different households from around southern Africa respond to threats and hazards such as retrenchment, flood, drought, HIV/AIDS and political violence and how diverse livelihoods strategies can increase the householdís ability to cope with loss.

Understanding households and livelihoods

The livelihoods approach starts by looking at the household and how households use their resources to make a living. Households come in different shapes and sizes and have access to a variety of resources or assets including:

• Human capital - our knowledge, skills and ability to labour
• Social capital - social networks of support such as friends, family, churches, NGOs and local government structures
• Natural capital - land and natural resources such as water, firewood, grazing, and building materials.
• Physical capital - buildings, tools and infrastructure such as clinics, schools, roads and electricity, and
• Financial capital - access to money including wages, pensions, credit and things that we can sell such as cattle.

Livelihoods are not just dependent on our assets. They are also determined by our capabilities. Do household members have the capacity to use their available assets to make a living? Who lives in the household and what is their potential
contribution? Finally, we need to look at the different activities that actually contribute to the livelihood of the household. This includes income generating work as well as domestic labour (child-care, cooking, maintenance) and maintaining links with
the wider community.

Why are sustainable livelihoods important?

Households drawing on multiple livelihood strategies tend to be more resilient than households dependent on one source of income ñ they are better equipped to cope with threats such as unemployment and can adapt to changing circumstances. Our
livelihoods also need to be sustainable over time. For example, overgrazing today, can lead to poverty in the future.

The big picture

No household exists in isolation and the livelihoods framework encourages us to explore how our livelihoods are shaped by external factors such as local politics, national policy and the global economy. These outside influences include opportunities and threats that can either strengthen or weaken the householdís
ability to achieve a secure and sustainable livelihood.

Moving beyond a problem solving approach

One of the key strengths of the book is its focus on people's strengths instead of their weaknesses. The book argues that what we focus on becomes our reality. Traditional problemsolving approaches tend to focus our attention on problems
and weaknesses while appreciative enquiry focuses on our successes and hopes for the future. We need to start looking at what does work in our home and community and explore how we can build on and strengthen this foundation.

Copies can be ordered from the Disaster Mitigation for Sustainable LIvelihoods Programme, University of Cape Town on (021) 650 2987 or email: holloway@enviro.uct.ac.za