Sustainable Livelihoods and Rural Development looks at the role of social institutions and the politics of policy, as well as issues of identity, gender and generation. The relationships between sustainability and livelihoods are examined, and livelihoods analysis situated within a wider political economy of environmental and agrarian change.
'The book's radical message "save livelihoods not just lives" should be on the desk of every policy-maker concerned with relief and development and demands a rethink of policy and practice across the board.' - Robert Chambers, Institute of Development Studies 'A book on development I really enjoyed. An entriguing story emerges: the real expert on saving lives and livelihoods are the people facing famine and insecurity themselves. This book details the evolution of the local food monitoring system, showing that by concentrating on what people can do in response to change, rather than what they cannot do, we can devise more permanent and effective responses to food insecurity than emergency food aid distribution.' - Mike Aaronson, Save the Children Poor people living in high-risk environments live continuously with uncertainty which often threatens their livelihoods. They have therefore developed effective means of predicting and responding to large fluctuations in rainfall, harvest levels and natural resource production. These methods of prediction and response often out-perform conventional early warning systems promoted by donors and governments, and yet are rarely considered in the conception and implementation of food security programmes.
We all view the ubiquitous term ‘sustainability’ as a worthwhile goal. But how can we apply the principles of sustainability in the real world, at the sharp end of communities in developing nations where income insecurity is the troubled norm? This volume provides some practical answers, explaining the precepts of the ‘sustainable livelihood approach’ (SLA) through the case study of a microfinance scheme in Africa. The case study, centered around the work of the Catholic Church’s Diocesan Development Services organization, involved an SLA implemented over two years designed in part to help enhance its existing microfinance operation through closer links between local communities and international donors. The book’s central conclusion is that we must move beyond the concept of sustainable livelihood itself, with its in-built polarities between developed and developing nations, and embrace a more global notion of ‘sustainable lifestyle’; a more nuanced and inclusive approach that encompasses not just how we make a sustainable living, but how we can live sustainable lives.
People employ various methods to extract gold in the rainforests of the Chocó, in northwest Colombia: Rural Afro-Colombian artisanal miners work hillsides with hand tools or dredge mud from river bottoms. Migrant miners level the landscape with excavators, then trap gold with mercury. Canadian mining companies prospect for open-pit mega-mines. Drug traffickers launder cocaine profits by smuggling gold into Colombia and claiming it came from fictitious small-scale mines. Through an ethnography of gold that examines the movement of people, commodities, and capital, Shifting Livelihoods investigates how resource extraction reshapes a place. In the Chocó, gold enables forms of “shift” (rebusque)—a metaphor for the fluid livelihood strategy adopted by forest dwellers and migrant gold miners alike as they seek informal work amid a drug war. Mining’s effects on rural people, corporations, and politics are on view in this fine-grained account of daily life in a regional economy dominated by gold and cocaine.
What do you want to be when you grow up? The answers were our childhood dreams. The reality of adulthood is that what we are and do now is what we became. Finding Livelihood is a book about work for grown-ups. It's about not just the work we thought we wanted but the work we found and the work that found us. It's also about the work we have lost. At once a shrewd challenge of Buechner's assertion that "the place God calls you to is the place where your deep gladness and the world's deep hunger meet" and also a lyrical journey to the place where labor and love meet, Finding Livelihood explores the tensions between the planned life and the given, between desire and need, between aspirations and limits. Through story, collage, and juxtaposition, Finding Livelihood invites you to consider work in its many facets. Who gets to decide if our work is "good"? How do we deal with forces and routines that leave us longing for escape? How do questions about money and meaning change when you are holding a pink slip in your hand? How are we transformed when our current work becomes part of a spiritual journey that encompasses all of life? Drawing from thinkers as diverse as St. Aquinas, Josef Pieper, and Simone Weil, Nordenson affirms the doctrine of Imago Dei and brings it into the real world of work: a world full of brokenness and hope, of dead-end jobs and live-saving interventions, of daily bread and transcendent meaning. In the midst of it all, we find our livelihood.
This book is the outcome of an international conference held in the Department of Economics, Burdwan University, in 2013. The major part of the conference had been related to development, environment and livelihood issues which are also in some way linked to the theme of the ongoing DRS project in the Department, pertaining to issues on rural livelihood. The achievement of higher economic growth is one of the principal objectives of current government policies, and involves intensive resource development programmes with equitable access and distribution of output. It is a great challenge for developing countries and the only vehicle which can bring these countries out of poverty. India’s development path is based on its unique resource endowments. As a welfare state, its overriding priority lies in generating its citizens’ wellbeing with the multifarious programmes of eradicating poverty through providing means of earning income for a sustainable livelihood. While a number of programmes have been undertaken by the Government with the aim of eliminating poverty, the purpose of generating an all-round enhanced livelihood opportunity based on the creation of an improved ambience is only partially served by such programmes. The recent focus, therefore, has been on the assets/processes/activity framework concerned with not only poverty reduction, but also promoting sustainable livelihood enhancing strategies and access to assets like human capital, physical assets, social capital, financial capital and natural capital. In terms of the sustainable livelihood framework, livelihood comprises the activities, the assets, the capabilities and the access that combine to determine the standard of living attainable for an individual. A livelihood is deemed to be sustainable when it can absorb unforeseen shocks and recover from stresses and uncertainties, while maintaining or enhancing the capability and asset base both at present and for future periods without distorting the natural resources and creating social unrest. This book is composed of seventeen papers covering the socio- developmental aspects and natural resources connected with the concept of sustainable livelihood, as well as livelihood issues intimately linked with the farm and non-farm sectors and impacted by gender aspect.
This book presents a socio-economic and livelihood analysis of agriculturally-dependent communities of Mizoram, the eastern extension of the Himalaya, using the sustainable livelihood approach. Such an approach to poverty reduction is inevitable, particularly, in areas where livelihoods depend largely on biomass-based agriculture and livestock production. Mizoram possesses abundant natural resources – land, water and forest – but those resources are largely unused. The region suffers from chronic poverty and malnutrition, and climate change has further influenced livelihood patterns. This work studies all the aspects of natural potentials and livelihood status in Mizoram. It also discusses the major driving forces that influence livelihood patterns. Based on a detailed analysis of empirical data, several policy measures are suggested to cope with chronic poverty and malnutrition. The book is therefore highly useful for all stakeholders; students, researchers, academicians, policy makers and politicians involved in rural/community development.
This book is a bird's eye view of the livelihood and geographical conditions of backward rural areas in the central and northern Andes in Perú and in Argentina. There, people live in scattered settlements dedicated to subsistence agriculture and are also marginal to markets. NGOs are playing increasing roles in the development of peripheral rural regions, such as in Perú; while the State addresses the production at the commercial agricultural levels, the subsistence dwellers speak of the difficulties they continue to encounter to manage the marketing of their crops. In rural development, we found the need for interdisciplinary approaches to tackle the poor conditions of education, health protection, increased agricultural output, infrastructure, improved living (including sanitary) conditions and social development. In conclusion, we argue that rural development should be confronted within a systems approach that relies heavily on education. In fact the poor education of the peasantry is a hindrance to a better livelihood. All these thoughts are applied to Frias, Perú and Quebrada Lules in Argentina. The book is arranged in 15 chapters that discuss conceptual terms such as "livelihood "and continues to present the study area and its possibilities to development. This gives way to expand on a discussion on participatory research, programmes supporting livelihoods in developing countries, natural resources, and productive activity. The environmental characteristics of the district of Frias and its agriculture are examined, as well as the factors limiting the development of Frias, its threats, social vulnerability and dwellers' ways of life. The authors of this book also discuss the social ties and the role of local authorities in development taking, for example, the Quebrada de Lules in Argentina.
Livelihood and Resistance examines a Peruvian highland community where rural resistance has been endemic for over a century. Gavin Smith explores the way in which the villagers' daily economic interests and their political struggles contribute to their social and political identity.
This Study Goes Beyond Mere Macro-Statistics And Statistical Controversies Regarding The Impact Of Liberalisation On The Poor And Endeavours To Further The Understanding Of The Processes And Dynamics Involved In Various Urban Livlihoods.
