A framework for livelihood Analysis

(Frank Ellis)
Objective:
Offering a policy framework to analyse diversified rural livelihoods in
terms of sustainability, livelihood strategies and their implications for rural
poverty.
Assets:
Fundamental to understand options, survival strategies and vulnerability
Essential for anti-poverty policy
Positive approach to poverty
Purpose:
Guide micro policies concerned with poverty reduction in rural areas
Trace local impact of macro policies

WHAT IS A SUSTAINABLE LIVELIHOOD?

The term sustainable livelihoods relates to a wide set of issues which

encompass much of the broader debate about the relationships
between poverty and environment.
Drawing on Chambers and Conway (1992) among others, the IDS
teams definition is as follows:
A livelihood comprises the capabilities, assets (including both material
and social resources) and activities required for a means of living. A
livelihood is sustainable when it can cope with and recover from
stresses and shocks, maintain or enhance its capabilities and assets,
while not undermining the natural resource base.

Holistic understanding of livelihoods

Livelihood is more than material aspect
Long: the idea of individuals and groups striving to make a living,
attempting to meet their various consumption and economic
necessities, coping with uncertainties, responding to new opportunities,
and choosing between different value positions.
Wallman: Livelihood is never just a matter of shelter, income, food,
exchange in the market. It is also a matter of ownership & circulation of
information, management of skills and the affirmation of personal
significance and group identity. The task of meeting obligations, of
security, identity and status, and organizing time are as crucial to
livelihood as bread and shelter.
Bebbington: assets can give meaning to a persons world, can give
them capacity to be and to act production of meaning or participate in
shaping life

Assets
The basic building blocks upon which households are
able to undertake production, engage in labour markets,
and participate in reciprocal exchanges with other
households
Assets are owned, controlled, claimed or accessed by the
households
Natural capital
Physical capital
Human capital
Financial capital
Social capital

LIVELIHOOD RESOURCES: COMBINING DIFFERENT

TYPES OF CAPITAL

The ability to pursue different livelihood strategies is dependent on

the basic material and social, tangible and intangible assets that
people have in their possession.

Drawing on an economic metaphor, such livelihood resources may

be seen as the capital base from which different productive
streams are derived from which livelihoods are constructed.

Natural capital the natural resource stocks (soil, water, air, genetic
resources etc.) and environmental services (hydrological cycle,
pollution sinks etc) from which resource flows and services useful
for livelihoods are derived.

LIVELIHOOD RESOURCES: COMBINING DIFFERENT

TYPES OF CAPITAL

Economic or financial capital the capital base (cash, credit/debt,

savings, and other economic assets, including basic infrastructure
and production equipment and technologies) which are essential for
the pursuit of any livelihood strategy.

Human capital the skills, knowledge, ability to labour and good

health and physical capability important for the successful pursuit of
different livelihood strategies.

Social capital the social resources (networks, social claims, social

relations, affiliations, associations) upon which people draw when
pursuing different livelihood strategies requiring coordinated actions.

LIVELIHOOD RESOURCES: COMBINING DIFFERENT TYPES OF

CAPITAL

In order to create livelihoods, therefore, people must combine the

capital endowments that they have access to and control over.
These may be made up of personal capabilities, tangible assets
(e.g. stores and material resources) and intangible assets (claims
and access)

At any scale, livelihoods are composed in complex ways, with

multiple and dynamic portfolios of different activities, often
improvised as part of an on-going performance (cf. Richards 1989).
Following on from an analysis of livelihood resources, a checklist of
key questions arise:

Sequencing What is the starting point for successfully establishing

a particular livelihood strategy? Is one type of livelihood resource an
essential precursor for gaining access to others?

LIVELIHOOD RESOURCES: COMBINING DIFFERENT TYPES OF

CAPITAL

Substitution Can one type of capital be substituted for others? Or are

different capitals needed in combination for the pursuit of particular
livelihood strategies?

Clustering If you have access to one type of capital, do you usually

have access to others? Or is there a clustering of particular
combinations of livelihood resources associated with particular groups
of people or particular livelihood strategies?

Access Different people clearly have different access to different

livelihood resources. This is dependent on institutional arrangements,
organisational issues, power and politics (see below). A socially
differentiated view to analysing livelihoods is therefore critical, one that
disaggregates the chosen unit of analysis whether community,
village or household and looks at individuals or groups of social
actors and their relationships, in relation to the range of relevant
dimensions of difference (wealth, gender, age and so on) and the
distribution of control over resources.

LIVELIHOOD RESOURCES: COMBINING DIFFERENT TYPES OF

CAPITAL

Trade-offs In pursuing a particular portfolio of livelihood strategies,

what are the trade-offs faced by different people with different access
to different types of livelihood resource? Depending on who are you,
differential access to different types of capital may have positive or
negative implications in terms of the success or otherwise in the
pursuit of a sustainable livelihood

Trends What are the trends in terms of availability of different types

of livelihood resource? How are different capital assets being depleted
and accumulated, and by whom? What are the trends in terms of
access? What new livelihood resources are being created through
environmental, economic and social change?