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12. Measuring the Resilience of Livelihoods in Darfur: The Income Streams Index
- Author:
- Merry Fitzpatrick and Hassan Alattar Satti
- Publication Date:
- 03-2022
- Content Type:
- Special Report
- Institution:
- Feinstein International Center, Tufts University
- Abstract:
- Resilience is the recognition that people are active agents in their own survival in the face of crises. Understanding the dynamics of how households in crisis-prone contexts plan for and respond to crises can help structure policy, development, and humanitarian activities to support their strategies, reducing the impact of crises, speeding recovery, and reducing the amount of humanitarian assistance required. A resilience indicator that is both quantitative and descriptive is needed to see how crises affect households and the livelihoods through which they meet their needs. Previously proposed measures either use proxies of outcomes or combinations of economic and wealth measurements, but none measure livelihoods themselves in real-time. This report uses an innovative real-time index, the Income Streams Index (ISI), to teach us how households in South, West, and North Darfur states in Sudan managed and adapted their livelihood activities in the face of multiple shocks of various types and sizes over a three-year period (2018 to 2021).
- Topic:
- Development, Resilience, Livelihoods, and Structuralism
- Political Geography:
- Africa and Sudan
13. Transforming Livelihood Systems: Meeting needs in a changing world
- Author:
- Merry Fitzpatrick, Hassan Alattar Satti, and Manal Hamid Ahmed
- Publication Date:
- 03-2021
- Content Type:
- Policy Brief
- Institution:
- Feinstein International Center, Tufts University
- Abstract:
- This is the second in a series of learning briefs under the Taadoud II: Transition to Development project, a collaboration led by Catholic Relief Services. The collaboration includes Catholic Agency for Overseas Development (CAFOD), Norwegian Church Aid (NCA), World Vision, and Feinstein International Center, Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy at Tufts University. The project is funded by UK Aid. The learning brief series aims to promote awareness and understanding of natural resource use and management in Darfur to support the Taadoud II program and wider programs and policies to effectively build resilient livelihoods. Livelihood strategies are the way people support themselves. People change their strategies as their opportunities, risks, and limitations change. A change in a household’s strategies can affect members of the household differently. Often changes that benefit a household as a whole increase women’s risk and labor burdens. Furthermore, when nearly all livelihood strategies depend on natural resources, changes to the strategies will change demands on natural resources. How one set of households changes the way they use natural resources will affect other households who also depend on those same resources. This could cause conflict over those resources and deplete them.
- Topic:
- Agriculture, Climate Change, Natural Resources, Food, Food Security, and Livelihoods
- Political Geography:
- Africa and Darfur
14. Land governance and displacement in Zimbabwe: The case of Chilonga Communal Area, Chiredzi District
- Author:
- Malvern Kudakwashe Marewo, Senzeni Ncube, and Horman Chitonge
- Publication Date:
- 12-2021
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Journal:
- The Africa Governance Papers (TAGP)
- Institution:
- Good Governance Africa (GGA)
- Abstract:
- This article investigates the effect on rural livelihoods of the displacement of people in Chilonga communal area in Zimbabwe. Various studies in Africa, including Zimbabwe, have shown that land displacements happen where the political elite, in collusion with multinational companies and powerful individuals, take advantage of weak land governance systems particularly in communal areas to displace people. Lack of title over land, which is mostly vested in the state, makes communal areas most vulnerable to displacement. This is evident in the current case study of Chilonga, where various statutory instruments have been enforced to evict people. The Chilonga displacement, enforced by the state to accommodate large-scale lucerne farming, ignores that land is a source of livelihoods and identity for communal area dwellers. It has also shown that people from communal areas have limited freedom to resist displacement that curtails access and use of land. We argue that the Chilonga case study illustrates our contention that, where African land governance is weak, political elites and their connections use it to achieve narrow interests regardless of the impact on communal area dwellers through displacement and loss of livelihoods.
- Topic:
- Agriculture, Governance, Displacement, Rural, Elites, Land Reform, Livelihoods, and Communal Areas
- Political Geography:
- Africa and Zimbabwe
15. Fast-track land reform, politics and social capital: The case of Rouxdale farm in Zimbabwe
- Author:
- Senzeni Ncube
- Publication Date:
- 12-2021
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Journal:
- The Africa Governance Papers (TAGP)
- Institution:
- Good Governance Africa (GGA)
- Abstract:
- This article investigates the effect of the politicisation of land on the social capital and agricultural livelihoods of beneficiaries of the A1 villagised model of the Fast Track Land Reform Programme (FTLRP). The model allocates individual arable and residential plots to beneficiaries, while they share grazing land, social infrastructure and services. Beneficiaries rely on social capital to access resources for agricultural production. Proponents of the FTLRP have portrayed the model as successful because it creates livelihoods. Missing in these studies is the politicisation of land through reallocation of land within the model to advance individual political interests, and its effect on livelihoods. The resultant strain on social capital negatively affects agricultural production, which depends on it heavily. The article argues that Zimbabwe’s top-down land governance system leaves it open to manipulation by politically connected individuals in the service of their own personal and political interests. It further argues that this weakness in the governance system is due to the fact that the state owns the land, which means that beneficiaries of the programme do not have the power to challenge the decisions of politicians and bureaucrats.
- Topic:
- Politics, Governance, Social Capital, Elites, Land Reform, and Livelihoods
- Political Geography:
- Africa and Zimbabwe
16. Better livelihoods through income diversification in Tanzania
- Author:
- Oliver Morrissey and Milla Nyyssölä
- Publication Date:
- 04-2021
- Content Type:
- Policy Brief
- Institution:
- United Nations University
- Abstract:
- Diversifying income sources is an important livelihood strategy for households in low-income countries. Having several sources of income helps in increasing total income, and in spreading the risks. New findings on the benefits of income diversification from Tanzanian households can inform policy aiming to develop welfare at the grassroots level and beyond.
- Topic:
- Labor Issues, Diversification, and Livelihoods
- Political Geography:
- Africa and Tanzania
17. Gibika Final Research Report
- Author:
- Sonja Ayeb-Karlsson, Kees van der Geest, and David Wrathall
- Publication Date:
- 09-2018
- Content Type:
- Special Report
- Institution:
- International Centre for Climate Change and Development (ICCCAD)
- Abstract:
- An overview of research findings from the 2013 to 2018 Gibika project. Understanding how environmental stress and climatic changes influence people’s livelihood resilience and lives in Bangladesh. A climate-resilient and sustainable future for people in vulnerable countries starts with resilient livelihoods. There is an urgent need to turn knowledge around livelihood threats, shocks, trajectories and opportunities into operable solutions. Gibika is a five-year research-to-action project between United Nations University – Institute for Environment and Human Security (UNU-EHS), International Centre for Climate Change and Development (ICCCAD) and Munich Re-Foundation (MRF) that aims to advance the scientific understanding of livelihood resilience in Bangladesh, and to apply conclusions towards community-led solutions that improve the living conditions of vulnerable people. When livelihood systems are not resilient, environmental shocks will have long-term impacts on human wellbeing and development goals. By using the analytical concept of resilience, the project brings researchers, practitioners and the community-members in the study sites together to debate and develop solutions that can improve the living conditions of extremely vulnerable people. Therefore, the project promotes livelihood resilience and sustainable development within Bangladesh and beyond.
- Topic:
- Climate Change, Development, Sustainability, Resilience, and Livelihoods
- Political Geography:
- Bangladesh and South Asia
18. Balancing Development and Community Livelihoods: A Framework for Land Acquisition and Resettlement in Uganda
- Author:
- Max A. Anyuru, Russell Rhoads, Onesmus Muyenyi, Joseph Ekwenyu, and Tom Balemesa
- Publication Date:
- 01-2016
- Content Type:
- Research Paper
- Institution:
- Advocates Coalition for Development and Environment (ACODE)
- Abstract:
- Land acquisition for development projects by government, private investors and land speculators is a critical source of tensions and conflicts in many parts of Uganda. Following the discovery of commercially viable oil reserves in 2006, Uganda turned attention to extractives and oil development as a matter of national priority. Evidence of this assertion can be found in the recent 2016-17 national budget allocations, where the portion for oil development is substantial. Development of petroleum and mining sectors requires substantial capital investments, often relying on foreign-based capitalization and multinational firms to construct facilities and operate them. Several foreign companies have drilled exploratory wells in Uganda, in which estimated reserves are at 6.5 billion oil barrels. The government of Uganda has issued production licenses to several foreign oil companies. All these activities have triggered land acquisition by Government for purposes of infrastructure development: - in the form of roads,dams and power grids, refineries and pipelines. Land acquisition is also triggered by private investment and the development of auxiliary services. Secondly, infrastructual developments have a “multiplier effect” since they generate businesses and services, and increase inflationary pressures on services and the land market. As expected, land speculation is also on the rise.
- Topic:
- Development, Land, Community, and Livelihoods
- Political Geography:
- Uganda and Africa
19. Building Resilience against Adverse Shocks: What are the determinants of vulnerability and resilience?
- Author:
- Lykke E. Andersen and Marcelo Cardona
- Publication Date:
- 09-2014
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Institute for Advanced Development Studies (INESAD)
- Abstract:
- This paper proposes a simple way to measure livelihood diversification, and uses this measure together with income levels to classify Bolivian households by level of vulnerability. Regression analysis is then carried out to determine the factors and strategies associated with high resilience or high vulnerability. The results show that the single most important strategy for resilience is to have a working and income earning spouse in the household. This is still much too uncommon in Bolivia. A second important factor is the age of the head of household. Young families are considerably more vulnerable than more mature families, as the former have not had time to build up assets (physical, human and social capital) that can provide alternative sources of livelihood. One of the most surprising results of the study is that urban households are considerably more vulnerable to adverse shocks than rural households, whereas gender and ethnicity are irrelevant. The paper finishes with a comprehensive list of policy recommendations.
- Topic:
- Diversification, Resilience, Livelihoods, Vulnerability, and External Shocks
- Political Geography:
- South America and Bolivia
20. Gender, Ethnicity and Climate Change in Mexico: An analysis of vulnerability and resilience based on household surveys
- Author:
- Lykke E. Andersen, Anna Sophia Doyle, Dorte Verner, and Manfred Wiebelt
- Publication Date:
- 11-2014
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Institute for Advanced Development Studies (INESAD)
- Abstract:
- This paper analyzes gender and ethnic differences in vulnerability and resilience to external shocks and stresses in Mexico. Vulnerability and resilience are measured by a combination of the level of household incomes per capita and the degree of diversification of these incomes. Thus, households which have poorly diversified incomes falling below the national poverty line are classified as highly vulnerable, whereas households which have highly diversified incomes above the poverty line are classified as highly resilient. The analysis shows that both gender and ethnicity are almost irrelevant as explanatory factors of vulnerability whereas education levels, dependency ratios and the age of the head of household are very important. Determining the true factors that affect vulnerability is important in order to devise effective policies to reduce vulnerability.
- Topic:
- Ethnicity, Diversification, Resilience, Livelihoods, Vulnerability, Gender, and External Shocks
- Political Geography:
- Latin America and Mexico
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