Livelihood Approaches

Livelihood approaches emerged in the 1990s as a holistic framework for analyzing the factors that influence men and women in fulfilling their livelihoods, reflecting their perceptions of poverty and well-being. The Sustainable Livelihoods Approach (SLA) developed by the UK Department for International Development (DFID) has been the most prominent and widely used concept amongst various others developed by other agencies. Focusing on five assets – human, physical, natural, financial, and social – it has been a powerful tool for enhanced understanding of the dynamics of poor people’s livelihoods. It has, however, been sometimes criticized for providing insufficient explanation of the inner forces shaping human decision-making, or taking political aspects into adequate consideration. Building on the strengths of the SLA, the Postgraduate Studies on Development at ETH Zurich (NADEL) undertook collaborative research on rural livelihood systems (RLS) in collaboration with three research partners in India (ISEC, Institute for Social and Economic Change, Bangalore, IRMA, Institute for Rural Management and SAMPARC, a Bangalore-based NGO). The results have been taken up by SODEV to produce a didactical learning module, Poverty and Livelihoods in Development Cooperation. It comprises visual material produced by an Indian artist combined with brief explanations that can be used for self-learning or as a resource in workshops.

The learning module, as well as a briefing paper on the Sustainable Livelihoods Framework, can be access through More on Livelihood Approaches.