Introduction
The Sustainable Livelihoods Approach - a reference frame for SDC!
Livelihood approaches emerged in the Zeitgeist of the 1990s and continue to prove their utility within today's international commitment of the Millennium Declaration and the Millennium Development Goals. The Sustainable Livelihoods Approach (SLA) as developed by the UK Department for International Development (DFID) has become as the most prominent framework among various concepts developed by other agencies. Basically, DFID subscribes to a system approach that attempts to capture the many factors that influence people's livelihoods and helps to identify priorities for action based on the needs and interests of poor people by reflecting their perceptions of poverty and well-being.
Today, the SLA represents the most appropriate of currently applied reference frameworks for effective poverty reduction. It takes into account that
- women and men have to be in the centre of attention
- specific contextual considerations are of great importance
- thorough links between macro level policy development and micro level realities need to be established
- participation is a means and an end to effectiveness.
From the beginning, DFID aimed to stimulate reflection and invited others to contribute to further development of the SLA concept. It is in this spirit that the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) initiated the present effort to blend the SLA concept of DFID with an alternative approach originating from a collaborative research effort on rural livelihood systems (RLS) conducted by NADEL (Postgraduate Studies on Development at ETH Zurich) and 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 RLS approach acknowledges the fact that development is also shaped by inner-human forces and factors. The present paper illustrates how adequate blending of the two approaches may contribute to a more holistic understanding of livelihood systems and strategies.
The paper has three sections, or modules, and covers the following:
- Module 1 establishes the conceptual link between current international thinking and the SDC policy paper "Principles Guiding SDC in its commitment to fighting poverty". It highlights the need for a livelihood focus in poverty reduction.
- Module 2 describes the main features of the SLA and the characteristics of the RLS and presents the advantages of a blending of the two concepts.
- Module 3 makes a step towards application: What questions need to be addressed in analysing and identifying options for improving the livelihoods of poor people?
The documents and visuals are meant to sensitise for and improve the poverty focus. The Social Development Division of SDC would like to encourage all readers to make comments and contributions. This reference framework for poverty reduction will be all the more useful the more it is nurtured and further developed by concrete experience.
The documentation is conceived as an open access resource for free use. Referencing is appreciated when used for academic purposes. SoDev and NADEL are are thankful for sharing of comments and contributions regarding concept and application.
Contacts
NADEL
baumgartner@nadel.ethz.ch
poverty-wellbeing.net
www.poverty-wellbeing.net
