poverty and livelihoods: whose reality counts? - … · environment and urbanization, vol. 7, no....

Environment and Urbanization Vol 7 No 1 April 1995 173

LIVELIHOODS

Poverty and livelihoodswhose reality counts

Robert Chambers

SUMMARY This paper explores how professionalsrsquo univer-sal reductionist and standardized views of poverty differ fromthose of the poor themselves Poverty line thinking concernedwith income-poverty and employment thinking concerned withjobs project Northern concerns on the South where the reali-ties of the poor are local diverse often complex and dynamicExamples illustrate how poor peoplersquos criteria differ from thoseassumed for them by professionals The paper also discussesneglected dimensions of deprivation including vulnerabilityseasonality powerlessness and humiliation In the newunderstandings of poverty wealth as an objective is replacedby wellbeing and ldquoemploymentrdquo in jobs by livelihood The finalsections argue for altruism and reversals to enable poor peopleto analyze and articulate their own needs and they concludewith the implications for policy and practice of putting first thepriorities of the poor

I SUMMARY OVERVIEW (1)

ANTI-POVERTY RHETORIC is widespread and some indica-tors of human well-being have improved However current con-ditions are often appalling trends in many places negative andfuture prospects for hundreds of millions of people very bad

In assessing conditions and seeing what to do professionalsrsquorealities are universal reductionist standardized and stableThose of economists dominate expressed in poverty thinkingconcerned with income-poverty and employment thinking con-cerned with jobs Both project Northern more industrial andurban conditions concerns and categories onto Southern moreagricultural and rural realities Both have force but miss muchand mislead Professional biases have been challenged but theyremain deep secure and distorting

The realities of poor people are local complex diverse anddynamic Income-poverty though important is only one as-pect of deprivation Participatory appraisal confirms many di-mensions and criteria of disadvantage ill-being and well-beingas people experience them In addition to poverty these in-clude social inferiority isolation physical weakness vulnerabil-ity seasonal deprivation powerlessness and humiliation

Sustainable livelihoods are an objective on which most poorpeople and professionals can agree Household livelihood strat-

Robert Chambers is a Fellowof the Institute of DevelopmentStudies at the University ofSussex He has worked onrural development in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asiaand is currently concentratingon the development andspread of the approaches andmethods of participatory ruralappraisal He is author of RuralDevelopment Putting the LastFirst Longman Harlow 1983

Address The Institute ofDevelopment Studies Uni-versity of Sussex FalmerBrighton BN1 9RE UK Fax(44) 1273 621202

1 This is a corrected and up-dated version of Poverty andLivelihoods Whose Reali tyCounts A Policy Paper No 1commissioned by UNDP for theWorld Summit for Social Devel-

174 Environment and Urbanization Vol 7 No 1 April 1995

LIVELIHOODS

egies often involve different members in diverse activities andsources of support at different times of the year Many of thesesuch as home-gardening exploiting common property resourcesshare-rearing livestock family splitting and stinting are largelyunseen by normal professionals A sustainable livelihood in-tensive strategy stresses natural resources management re-distribution of livelihood resources prices and payments healthabolishing restrictions and hassle and safety nets for poor peo-ple during bad times

A paradigm of reversals and altruism demands a new pro-fessionalism The paradigm and the new professionalism putpeople before things and poor people and their priorities firstof all The challenges presented are institutional professionaland personal The policy and practical means to promote andsustain well-being livelihoods and equity include two comple-mentary agendas one conventional and one new Underlyingthe new agenda is the basic human right of poor people toconduct their own analysis Four elements in this new agendaare

Analysis and action by local people especially the poor Sustainable livelihoods Decentralization democracy and diversity Professional and personal change

Reversals and a radical rethink are required if the realities ofthe poor are to count

II GLOSSARY OF MEANINGS

MUCH CONFUSION AND some false consensus arises fromvague and different uses of words The senses in which somekey words will be used in this paper are as follows

Deprivation refers to lacking what is needed for well-beingIts dimensions are physical social economic political andpsychologicalspiritual It includes forms of disadvantage suchas physical weakness isolation poverty vulnerability andpowerlessness

Development means good change Employment means having a job with an employer who pro-

vides remuneration (usually a wage or salary) for work doneIt does not include sporadic casual labour

Ill-being is the experience of bad quality of life Income-poor and income-poverty refer to low per capita income Livelihood refers to the means of gaining a living including

livelihood capabilities tangible assets and intangible assets(2)

Employment can provide a livelihood but most livelihoods ofthe poor are based on multiple activities and sources of foodincome and security

Normal professionalism is the thinking values methods andbehaviour dominant in a profession or discipline(3)

Paradigm means a coherent and mutually supporting pattern

opment UNDP New YorkAugust 1994 It is also publishedas Discussion Paper 347 by theInstitute of Development StudiesUniversity of Sussex BrightonBN1 9RE UK For insights intoNorth-South upper-lower rela-tionships I am grateful to JennyChambers and for comments ondrafts of this paper to RosalindEyben Simon Maxwell andGunilla Olsson

2 Chambers Robert andGordon Conway (1992) Sustain-able Rural Livelihoods PracticalConcepts for the 21st CenturyDiscussion Paper 296 Instituteof Development Studies Univer-sity of Sussex Brighton UKFebruary pages 9-12

3 Normal professionalism andthe new paradigm are elaboratedon in Chambers Robert (1993)Challenging the ProfessionsFrontiers for Rural DevelopmentIntermediate Technology Publi-cations London chapters 1 5 6and 8


LIVELIHOODS

of concepts values methods and action amenable to wideapplication

Poor is allowed its common and imprecise usage This goesbeyond being the adjective for poverty referring to lack ofphysical necessities assets and income to include the broadersense of being deprived in a bad condition and lacking basicneeds

Poverty refers to lack of physical necessities assets and in-come It includes but is more than being income-poor Pov-erty can be distinguished from other dimensions of depriva-tion such as physical weakness isolation vulnerability andpowerlessness with which it interacts(4)

Social development means ldquoenhanced individual and commu-nity well-being and autonomy within an integrated equitableand just societyrdquo(5)

Sustainable livelihood refers to a living which is adequate forthe satisfaction of basic needs and secure against anticipatedshocks and stresses(6)

Vulnerability means not lack or want but exposure and de-fencelessness It has two sides the external side of exposure toshocks stress and risk and the internal side of defenceless-ness meaning a lack of means to cope without damaging loss

Well-being is the experience of good quality of life

Thus well-being and ill-being refer more to experience pov-erty more to physical lack and deprivation to a much widerrange of lacks and disadvantages

ldquoIt is not that we should simply seek new and better waysfor managing society the economy and the world The pointis that we should fundamentally change how we behaverdquoVaclav Havel(7)

III POVERTY AND LIVELIHOODSWHOSE REALITY COUNTS

a Professionals and the Poor Whose Reality Counts

THIS PAPER IS written as a challenge to all development pro-fessionals including myself and especially to those who pre-pare take part in and follow up on the Social DevelopmentSummit It asks whose reality counts The reality of the few incentres of power Or the reality of the many poor at the periph-ery It argues that these realities differ more than most profes-sionals recognize Insights into these differences and their im-plications are generating a new paradigm and a new and hope-ful agenda To recognize accept act on and evolve that newagenda is a personal professional and institutional challengedemanding deep change in the ways we think and behave Thisrequires altruism and reversals of much that is now normalThe Social Development Summit provides an opportunity forthis change for putting first the reality of the poor and makingit count Will the opportunity be recognized and seized

4 Chambers Robert (1983)Rural Development Putting theLast First Longman Harlowpages 108-139

5 Rosalind Eyben personalcommunication

6 This is a limited meaning forthe purposes of this paper Theconcept of sustainability appliedto livelihood has much widerimplications for rich as well as forpoor For a fuller definition andexploration of the wider impli-cations for the North as well asthe South see reference 2

7 Condensation of a speech tothe Davos Development Confer-ence reported in the New YorkTimes 1 March 1992


LIVELIHOODS

b The Context and Record

For those weary of pedestrian reviews of the human condi-tion let me recommend skipping to the last paragraph of thissection Any normal balance sheet of development has to ac-knowledge achievements According to the figures presented inTable 1 aggregate percentage improvements have been shownin some of the usual indicators of human well-being over recentdecades(8)

Table 1 Reported Improvements in Indicators ofHuman Well-being in ldquoDeveloping Countriesrdquo

All developing Least developedcountries countries

1960 1992 1960 1992

Life expectancy 46 63 39 50

Infant Mortality per1000 live births 149 69 170 112

Adult literacy rate 46 69 29 46

Real GDP per capita (US$) 950 2730 580 880

SOURCE United Nations Development Programme (1994) Human DevelopmentReport 1994 Oxford University Press New York Oxford page 137

Smallpox has been eradicated from the earth and polio andguinea worm disease greatly reduced In little more than a gen-eration the proportion of rural families with access to safe wa-ter is reported to have risen from less than 10 per cent to morethan 60 per cent and the proportion of children in primaryschool from less than one-half to more than three-quarters Factsand figures like these can lull one into an impression of laud-able achievement

The downside of the record is though stark Things are lessbad than they would have been had nothing been done andwithout the efforts of many organizations and individuals Butthe glass that looks half full is also half empty and as popula-tion grows the glass gets bigger Averages conceal adverse in-come distribution and the condition of underclasses Some econ-omies are on a downward slide especially where there is civilwar Malaria and tuberculosis spread again HIV menaces wholepeoples and economies with its insidious spread Life expect-ancy in some countries has fallen with civil disorder famineand breakdown in government services Nearly one billion peo-ple remain illiterate and the primary school drop-out rate is 30per cent Some 40 million people are refugees or displaced withintheir countries Globally the number of people conventionallydefined as in ldquoabsolute povertyrdquo is often quoted as being overone billion that is between one person in five and one in fourup from an estimated 800 million ten years ago (see Table 2)

Scholastic argument about figures will never end The dan-ger is that debate distracts from seeing what to do Aggregation

8 For a fuller balance sheet seeUNDP Human DevelopmentReport 1993 pages 12-13 andAdamson Peter (1993) TheProgress of Nations the Nationsof the World ranked according totheir Achievements in HealthNutrition Education FamilyPlanning and Progress forWomen UNICEF New York andsubsequent publications in theseseries


LIVELIHOODS

Table 2 One Estimate of Population Living inAbsolute Poverty

Number of Percentage ofpeople (millions) total population

Asia 675 25

Sub-Saharan Africa 325 62

Middle East and North Africa 75 28

Latin America 150 35

Total 1225 23

SOURCE Kates RW and V Haarman (1992) ldquoWhere the poor live are theassumptions correctrdquo Environment Vol34 No4 pages 4-28 citing ldquotheWorldwatch Institutersquos country estimates of absolute poverty and other socialand economic indicators Estimates should be viewed as midpoints in a range ofplus or minus 10 per centrdquo These are the most recent comparative figures of thistype that I have been able to trace and probably refer to the late 1980s sincewhen there will have been changes

Box 1 Comparing 1990 with 1970 the poor are still concentrated in rural areasin Asia but are

MORE LIKELY TO BE LESS LIKELY TO BE

African Asian and Latin American

Children urban women and recently Other adultsin some regions the elderly

Landless Small farmers

Living in resource-poor areas Living in well-endowed areas

Urban Rural

Refugees or displaced Settled

SOURCE Lipton Michael and Simon Maxwell (1992) with assistance from J Edstrom andH Hatashima The New Poverty Agenda an Overview IDS Discussion Paper 306 August

and generalization are tempting and difficult but changes haveoccurred as shown in Box 1

These trends seem evident that poverty suffering and otherdeprivations are increasingly perceived as diverse that condi-tions are moving in different directions in different countriesand for different groups of people and that for hundreds ofmillions of people these have a downward momentum and arebecoming worse Poverty suffering and deprivation seem to bebecoming more regional concentrated more in those countrieswhich are least able to improve conditions as in many in sub-


LIVELIHOODS

Saharan Africa or in regions within countries as with the threeIndian states of Uttar Pradesh Bihar and Madhya Pradesh withtheir combined population (1994) of over 300 million As thescourge of HIV spreads the hitherto localized impacts of AIDSdeaths will soon be regional 8 million AIDS related deaths areprojected by the year 2000(9) the target year of ldquoHealth for AllrdquoIn the longer term the time bomb of HIV mocks developmentand makes a fantasy of much current debate about develop-ment With AIDS as in other ways the South is more exposedand vulnerable will suffer more and will be far more devas-tated than the North

Ill-being and early death take many forms and those whichare in the news - genocide and civil wars in Rwanda Angolathe former Yugoslavia and elsewhere and the denials of humanrights as in Myanmar Tibet East Timor and many other placesall demand attention But much more widely less conspicuousill-being and early death prevail Much of it is hidden or tabooas with the selective elimination persecution and plight of fe-males - foetuses girls and women The enormity of the abusesexual and other of girl children is still concealed everywhereby the sacred secrecy of the family Worldwide and with a con-centration in South Asia there are 110 million missing femaleswho would have been alive at the sex ratios of the industrialcountries These missing women almost total the (female andmale) population of Pakistan or four Canadas or any two to-gether of France Iran Italy Turkey or the UK or the combinedpopulation of Sudan Kenya Uganda Tanzania Malawi andZambia The scale of the discrimination deprivation and suf-fering which underlie these figures beggars the imagination

The scale and awfulness are the worse because as never be-fore the powerful can see so much of what is happening andhave power to act The nightmare foreseen by CP Snow in1959 has come about Communications have brought us alldramatically closer and have made it easier and quicker to dothings Now we the rich sit in our warm rooms and comfyseats and watch the poor die on television turning them on andoff at will Frequent viewing inoculates against compassionThere is more insight than ever before accessible to those whowant it about how to enable poor people to do better yet manyof the same mistakes and misdemeanours persist at every levelof interaction There is more wealth in the world than ever be-fore and the peace dividend presents a windfall to give Yet aiddeclines and hundreds of millions of the poorest are on a down-ward slide to become poorer and more vulnerable

To those who read this paper all this will be familiar evenboring It has all been said before and will be said again Andone wonders about the diverse and different realities behindthe statistics But in an overview paper it seemed right to bowto convention by starting with statements such as these Theexcitement comes when we ask whether anything has changedin our insights and what we should and could now do

The thrust of this paper is to see better what to do develop-ment professionals have more power to change the world for thebetter than is normally realized To grasp and use that power

9 HIVAIDS Pandemic 1993Overview Global Programme onAIDS WHO Geneva There ismuch uncertainty about projec-tions and locally especially inparts of Africa the impact isalready devastating


LIVELIHOODS

requires questioning conventional concepts and realities ex-ploring and embracing a new paradigm adopting a new profes-sionalism empowering the poor to analyze and express theirreality and then putting that reality first

c Professional Reality Rhetoric and Concepts

We are all part of a world system which perpetuates povertyand deprivation Those who are poor and deprived do not wishto be poor and deprived We who are well off and who havepower say that poverty and deprivation are bad and should bereduced or eliminated Yet whatever else does not last povertyand deprivation prove robustly sustainable Why

The usual reflex is to seek answers to this question by analyzingpoverty and deprivation themselves Papers on the poor prolif-erate like this one And there are many like me who are notpoor willing to write about those who are Papers on povertyare commissioned for conferences and roundtables for sympo-sia and summits One may speculate on what topics the poorand powerless would commission papers if they could conveneconferences and summits perhaps on greed hypocrisy andexploitation But the poor are powerless and cannot and do notconvene summits and those papers are rarely written It is notsurprising we do not like to examine ourselves To salve ourconsciences we rationalize Neo-liberalism paints greed as in-advertent altruism The objects of development are anywaythe poor not us It is they who are the problem not us We arethe solution So we hold the spotlight to them (from a safe dis-tance) The poor have no spotlight to hold to us

But poverty and deprivation are functions of polarization ofpower and powerlessness Any practical analysis has to exam-ine the whole system - ldquousrdquo the powerful as well as ldquothemrdquo thepowerless Since we have more power to act it is hard to evadethe imperative to turn the spotlight round and look at ourselves

In doing this rhetoric and concepts can provide a startingpoint Our views of the realities of the poor and of what shouldbe done are constructed mainly from a distance and can beseen to be constructed mainly for our convenience We embodythose views in the words and concepts which we use Two whichreceive much prominence and which are much stressed in theagenda for the Social Development Summit are poverty andemployment

d Thinking about Income-Poverty

ldquoPovertyrdquo is used in two main senses in its first common us-age in development it is a broad blanket word used to refer tothe whole spectrum of deprivation and ill-being in its secondusage poverty has a narrow technical definition for purposes ofmeasurement and comparison(10) In the words of one author-ity ldquorsquopovertyrsquo has to be given scientifically acceptable univer-sal meaning and measurementrdquo(11) Poverty is then defined aslow income as it is reported recorded and analyzed or often aslow consumption which is easier to measure This is the nor-

10 For a detailed theoretical andempirical critique see Beck Tony(1994) ldquoCommon propertyresource access by poor andclass conflict in West BengalrdquoEconomic and Political WeeklyJanuary 22 pages 187-197 seealso Beck Tony (1994) TheExperience of Poverty Fightingfor Respect and Resources inVillage India Intermediate Tech-nology Publications Londonespecially chapters 1 and 8

11 Townsend Peter (1993) TheInternational Analysis of PovertyHarvester Wheatsheaf New Yorkand London page 3


LIVELIHOODS

mal meaning of poverty among economists and is used formeasuring poverty lines for comparing groups and regions andoften for assessing progress or backsliding within poverty indevelopment In this paper it is described as income-poverty

In much professional discourse the narrow technical defini-tion colonizes the common usage Income-poverty starts as aproxy or correlate for other deprivations but then subsumesthem The classic pattern in erudite analysis is to start with arecognition that poverty is much more than income or consump-tion but then to allow what has been measured to take over anddominate Thus Montek Ahluwalia(12) acknowledges that ldquolon-gevity access to health and education facilities and perhapsalso security of consumption levels from extreme shocksrdquo areequally relevant in analysis of poverty but points out that he isconstrained because

ldquotime series data on all of these dimensions are not avail-able Data from a series of consumption surveys conductedby the National Sample Survey Organization (NSS) are avail-able and these data have been used in most of the studiesof rural poverty in Indiardquo

and which he then goes on to useSimilarly Lipton and Ravallion(13) acknowledge the potential

breadth of a definition of economic welfare but then continue

ldquoWhile recognizing the limitations of the concept of lsquoeconomicwelfarersquo as lsquocommand over commoditiesrsquo we will largely con-fine ourselves to that definition in order to review the manyimportant issues treated in the literature that has evolvedaround itrdquo

The analysis is then narrowed because past discussion hasbeen narrow

What is recorded as having been measured usually low con-sumption as a proxy for low income then easily comes to mas-querade in speech and prose as the much larger reality a trapinto which almost all fall including the writer from time to timeIt is then but a short step to treating what has not been meas-ured as not really real Patterns of dominance are then rein-forced of the material over the experiential of the physical overthe social of the measured and measurable over the unmeasuredand unmeasurable of economic over social values of econo-mists over disciplines concerned with people as people It thenbecomes the reductionism of normal economics not the experi-ence of the poor that defines poverty

The pre-eminence of income-poverty seems wrong but it isunderstandable Standing back four reasons can be seen forits widespread acceptance and use as a measure and concept

First economists and their concepts still dominate the devel-opment discourse There can be few multilateral or bilateralaid agencies and few ministries of planning where economistsare not the most numerous profession (unless accountants)Economistsrsquo concepts measures and methods are accepted as

12 Ahluwalia Montek S (1986)ldquoRural poverty agriculturalproduction and prices a re-examinationrdquo in Mellor John Wand Gunvant M Desai (editors)Agricultural Change and RuralPoverty Variations on a Themeby Dharm Narain OxfordUniversity Press Delhi page 59

13 Lipton Michael and MartinRavallion (1993) ldquoPoverty andpolicyrdquo monograph for Chapter42 in Behrman Jere and TNScrimivasan Handbook ofDevelopment Economics Vol3North-Holland Amsterdam


LIVELIHOODS

the norm in much development practice and policy-making Thisis not to undervalue the utility of economic concepts and meth-ods But it is to note that one way of seeing things prevails andwhat is poverty to economists tends to become the normal mean-ing and measure for other disciplines and professions

Second income-poverty is a concept and measure generatedand sustained in the cores of power reflecting and reinforcedby conditions in the rich industrial North Poor people in theNorth have been mainly urban in an industrial milieu and havetended to rely on cash income whether wages or social securitypayments much of their economic status can then be capturedin cash income or largely cash based consumption Projectingand applying this Northern concept of poverty to the South as-sumes that similar conditions prevail

Third poverty defined as income-poverty or consumption-pov-erty is measurable Non-monetary flows for subsistence or con-sumption can in principle be given monetary values andconflated into a single scale This allows comparisons world-wide between the income or more usually consumption levelsof different households regions and nations It also makes pos-sible the measurement and assessment of poverty lines (mean-ing income-poverty or consumption-poverty lines) These pro-vide time series measurements to show how income-poverty orconsumption-poverty are changing and so how well a govern-ment can be presumed to be doing in the reduction of poverty inthese senses The utility of these measures for centrally placedprofessionals gives them a primacy and pride of place whichtends to go unquestioned What is measurable and measuredthen becomes what is real and what matters standardizing thediverse and excluding the divergent and different

Fourth it is held that the worse-off people are the more theyare preoccupied with income and consumption with the needto gain subsistence food and basic goods in order to survive Ina recent article Martin Greeley argued for an income based con-cept of welfare and that ldquoonly when absolute poverty [mean-ing absolute income-poverty] is no longer the core issue shouldour measure of development encompass a broader agenda ofhuman needrdquo(14) The worse the condition in which people findthemselves then the more justified is the economic reductionismof income-poverty income-poverty reductionism becomes pro-poor

Given these four factors and beliefs it is not surprising to findthat income-poverty has some primacy as a measure in the WorldBank A widely quoted statement by Lewis Preston former Presi-dent of the World Bank (in the foreword to the Poverty ReductionHandbook) illustrates this

ldquoSustainable poverty reduction is the overarching objectiveof the World Bank It is the benchmark by which our per-formance as a development institution will be measuredrdquo(15)

The overarching objective is defined as something which willbe measured - sustainable poverty reduction The handbookelaborates on this thinking giving primacy to the technical mean-

14 Greeley Martin (1994)ldquoMeasurement of poverty andpoverty of measurementrdquo inDavies S (editor) ldquoKnowledgeis powerrdquo IDS Bulletin Vol25No2 pages 50-58

15 World Bank (1993) PovertyReduction Handbook WorldBank Washington DC April


LIVELIHOODS

ing of poverty as income-poverty which becomes the end or ob-jective of development Thus the preface states that ldquoinvest-ments in human resources help to increase incomes and re-duce povertyrdquo (my emphasis) The World Development Report1990rsquos approach to sustainable poverty reduction is it says two-pronged consisting of ldquobroadly based economic growth to gen-erate efficient income-earning opportunities for the poor and im-proved access to education health care and other social servicesso the poor can take advantage of these opportunitiesrdquo (myemphasis)(16) In this thinking income is the end improved ac-cess to education health care and other social services are justi-fied as means to that economic end They are not presented hereas justified ends in themselves or as a means to enhance capa-bilities or reduce suffering or to increase self-respect fulfilmentor other human values (all hard to measure) Social develop-ment is a means not an end the end is economic development

That the World Bank makes sustainable poverty reduction (andnot just being a good bank) its overarching objective is a matterfor celebration Nor should the narrowness and circularity ofthe thinking be cause for surprise in an organization which iscalled a bank with many economists and conditioned by thenormal economic thinking But Prestonrsquos quite simple state-ment contrasts with the more complex mission statement of theOverseas Development Administration the British Governmentrsquosaid agency where social development advisers are relatively morenumerous and influential

ldquoThe aim of our overseas aid effort is to promote sustainableeconomic and social development and good government inorder to improve the quality of life and reduce poverty suf-fering and deprivation in developing countriesrdquo(17)

Going beyond economic development to include social devel-opment and good government and beyond reducing poverty toimprove the quality of life and reduce suffering and deprivationembodies a much broader set of values

Few would want to deny that measures of income-poverty haveuses They point to one dimension of inequality and inequitybetween nations and within nations But income-poverty is onlyone dimension among many and it is suspect because it servesthe needs of professionals in the cores of power rather thanemerging from the realities of the poor at the peripheries

e Thinking about Employment

As with poverty so with employment the normal professionalcategories have been applied worldwide Employment unem-ployment job workplace and workforce are concepts and cat-egories derived from urban industrial experience in the NorthAs with poverty attempts have been made to impose and applythem in the South including the rural and agricultural SouthIn his magisterial work on Asian poverty a quarter of a centuryago Gunnar Myrdal agonized over the misleading preconcep-tion of Western economics as applied to Asian conditions

16 World Bank (1990) WorldDevelopment Report OxfordUniversity Press Oxford

17 FCO (1992) Foreign andCommonwealth Office includingOverseas Development Admin-istration Departmental Report1992 Cm 1902 HMSO Londonpage 28


LIVELIHOODS

ldquoWhen new data are assembled the conceptual categoriesused are inappropriate to the conditions existing as forexample when the underutilization of the labour force inthe South Asian countries is analyzed according to Westernconcepts of unemployment disguised unemployment andunderemployment The resulting mountains of figures haveeither no meaning or a meaning other than that imputed tothemThe very fact that the researcher gets figures to playwith tends to confirm his original biased approachthecontinuing collection of data under biased notions only post-pones the day when reality can effectively challenge inher-ited preconceptionsrdquo(18)

And he called for behavioural studies founded on observa-tions of the raw reality(19)

Since Myrdal wrote the above the informal sector has beendiscovered and explored and livelihood has been proposed as abetter word than employment to capture the complex and di-verse reality of most of the poor Indeed livelihood is a largermore universal and more useful concept for seeing what best todo encompassing as it does for many of the poor so much morethan the employment of a job which for many is not and cannot be a reality Employment can rather be seen as a subset orcomponent of livelihood

Reductionist employment-thinking in terms of jobs is thoughnot only alive and well but flourishing The obsession in coun-tries of the North and of elites in the South with employmentand unemployment which affects them and their families hasdominated much of the discussion and writing leading up to theSocial Development Summit In the background note for theStockholm Roundtable of June 1994 the third section was en-titled ldquoExpansion of Productive Employment and SustainableLivelihoodsrdquo But in the whole section the word livelihood ap-peared only twice in contrast with employment 28 times un-employment 11 underemployment five jobs six and workforcefour times all words and concepts derived from and linkedwith formal employment Even more marked were the employ-ment industrial and urban biases of the major document de-bated at the Second Preparatory Committee for the Social De-velopment Summit in New York in August 1994 In the 6500words of the third section on ldquoProductive Employment and theReduction of Unemploymentrdquo livelihood appears only once butldquojobsrdquo features 13 times on one page alone and the urban in-dustrial bias is reflected in rural and agricultural concerns re-ceiving only four paragraphs out of 48

Employment-thinking is deep rooted and livelihood-thinkingremains a marginalized orphan The Society for InternationalDevelopment convened regional conferences on sustainable live-lihoods as part of the run-up to the Social Development Summitbut it is doubtful whether these will even ripple the mainstreamWhatever happens to the poor full employment seems assuredfor normal economists and statisticians as they continue toanalyze the available data on employment and unemploymentand to project their categories and concerns onto the raw and

18 Myrdal Gunnar (1968) AsianDrama an Inquiry into thePoverty of Nations PenguinBooks Harmondsworth

19 See reference 18


LIVELIHOODS

rather different reality of most of the poor in the South Myrdalwould be sad to learn how little has changed

f Offsetting Normal Professional Biases

Efforts have been made to offset the biases towards the in-come measure of poverty and deprivation and towards an em-ployment measure of livelihood Those offsetting income-pov-erty are well known The World Bankrsquos World Development Re-ports since their inception have ranked countries according toper capita GDP However the weak relationship between percapita GDP and human well-being is commonplace Incomedistribution is critical Much of the good life is uncounted inGDP (friendship love story-telling self-sacrifice laughter mu-sic health creativity) and much of the bad life adds to it (in-surance claims security guards fossil fuel consumption cut-ting down forests)(20) Very different perspectives have beengiven by UNICEFrsquos annual State of the Worldrsquos Children whichranks countries according to their under-five mortality ratesby the Physical Quality of Life Index (PQLI) which combines in asingle scale life expectancy at one year adult literacy and infantmortality the Human Development Index (HDI) of UNDPrsquos an-nual Human Development Report which combines per capitaGDP life expectancy at birth and literacy and by the WorldBank itself with its Social Indicators of Development (1993)which lists poverty indicators such as public expenditure onsocial services immunization and fertility rates(21)

All these show up weaknesses in the correlations between in-come-poverty and some other deprivations Strikingly the lat-est Human Development Report shows Sri Lanka NicaraguaPakistan and Guinea all with per capita incomes in the US$400-500 range but with life expectancies of respectively 71 65 58and 44 and infant mortality rates of respectively 24 53 99and 135(22) Whatever the criticisms of these measures andscales they have been useful for comparisons and for forcingreflection on priorities

Efforts to offset the bias towards employment measures areless developed Livelihoods are harder to measure than mortal-ity rates life expectancy or literacy So they are treated as lessreal Labour intensive growth as an objective is designed toincrease employment and may indeed do so But it is not thesame as sustainable livelihood intensity where livelihoods de-pend on a multiplicity of activities and resources

The root problem is that professionals and poor people seekexperience and construct different realities Some contrastingtendencies are summarized in Table 3

The view from on high seeks and sees sameness and simplify-ing stereotypes

The World Bank highest of us allLooks down to see poor people smallLike atoms all a shape and sizeFor which itrsquos right to standardize(23)

20 See for example this extractof a letter from Bob LackAuckland New Zealand printedin the Guardian Weekly 5September 1993 ldquoSo Prof LesterThurow believes that real percapita GDP is the best overallmeasure of standard of living(August 22) May I respectfullydisagree If after writing hisarticle Prof Thurow had eaten ahealthy meal of home-grownvegetables gone to bed madelove to his partner and thenenjoyed a good nightrsquos sleep hewould have contributed preciselynothing to GDP If on the otherhand he had driven to a casinogot drunk crashed his car on theway home and injured himselfand some passing pedestrianshe would have increased hiscountryrsquos GDP by thousands ofdollars The fuel the liquor thetow truck and the ambulance thecar repairs and the hospital billsall contribute to GDP and henceby his reasoning to the standardof livingrdquo

21 See annual reports fromUNICEF State of the WorldrsquosChildren and from UNDP HumanDevelopment Report and WorldBank (1993) Social Indicators ofDevelopment 1993 The JohnsHopkins Press Baltimore MAApril

22 United Nations DevelopmentProgramme (1994) HumanDevelopment Report 1994Oxford University Press NewYork and Oxford page 15

23 With apologies to the IMF thePresident of the United Statesand the Secretary-General of theUnited Nations


LIVELIHOODS

Table 3 Contrasting Tendencies in Professionalsrsquo andPoor Peoplersquos Realities

PROFESSIONALS POOR PEOPLE

Universal local specificSimplified complexReductionist holisticStandardized diversePhysical experientialQuantified unquantifiedIncome-poverty multi-dimensional deprivationEmployment livelihood

The question is whether concepts and measures that are uni-versal standardized measurable generated by and designedfor conditions in the urban industrial North can be universallyapplied in the more rural and agricultural South and whetherthey fit or distort the diverse and complex realities of most ofthe poor

IV THE REALITIES OF THE POOR

A PERSON WHO is not poor who pronounces on what mattersto those who are poor is in a trap Self-critical analysis sensi-tive rapport and participatory methods can contribute somevalid insight into the values priorities and preferences of poorpeople We can struggle to reconstruct our realities to reflectwhat poor people indicate to be theirs But there will always bedistortions We can never fully escape from our conditioningAnd the nature of interactions between the poor and the non-poor affect what is shared and learnt In what follows howevermuch I try I cannot avoid being wrong in substance and em-phasis For I am trying to generalize about what is local (andboth rural and urban) complex diverse dynamic personal andmultidimensional and to do this from scattered evidence andexperience perceived filtered and fitted together inevitably in apersonally idiosyncratic way Error is inherent in the enter-prise There must always be doubts But if the reality of poorpeople is to count more we have to dare to try to know it better

Help comes from field researchers especially social anthro-pologists from those who have been facilitating new participa-tory methods of appraisal and increasingly from poor peoplethemselves The new methods enable poor people to analyzeand express what they know experience need and want Theybring to light many dimensions of deprivation ill-being and well-being and the values and priorities of poor people Three setsof findings provide illustrative insights

1 Jodharsquos Paradox Income-poorer but better off Jodhaasked farmers and villagers in two villages in Rajasthan for their


LIVELIHOODS

own categories and criteria of changing economic status(24) Theynamed 38 criteria Comparing data from his fieldwork in 1964-66with 1982-84 he found that the 36 households which were morethan 5 per cent worse off in per capita real incomes were onaverage better off according to 37 out of their own 38 criteria(The one exception was consumption of milk more of whichwas being sold outside the village) The improvements includedquality of housing wearing shoes regularly less dependence inthe lean season and not having to migrate for work (see Table 4)Several of the criteria reflected more independence

24 Jodha NS (1988) ldquoPovertydebate in India a minority viewrdquoEconomic and Political WeeklySpecial Number Novemberpages 2421-2428

Table 4 Indicators of Well-being in Two Rajasthan Villages of Householdswhose Per Capita Real Income declined 5 per cent or more over Two Decades

Percentage of the36 households

1963 -6 1982 -4

With one or more members working as attached or semi-attached 37 7

Residing on patronrsquos land or yard 31 0

Taking seed loans from patrons 34 9

Taking loans from others besides patrons 13 47

Marketing farm produce only through patrons 86 23

With members seasonally out-migrating for job 34 11

Selling over 80 per cent of their marketed produce during thepost-harvest period 100 46

Making cash purchases during slack-season festivals etc 6 51

With adults skipping third meal in the day during the summer(scarcity period) 86 20

Where women and children wear shoes regularly 0 86

With houses with only impermanent traditional structure 91 34

With separate provision of stay for humans and animals 6 52

SOURCE Jodha NS (1988) ldquoPoverty debate in India a minority viewrdquo Economic and Political Weeklyspecial number November pages 2421-2428

The reality which these income-poorer villagers presented toJodha contrasts with a normal economistrsquos reality They wereincome-poorer and so in an economistrsquos terms worse off butin their own terms they were on average much better off

2 Findings from Participatory Analysis Analysis by localpeople using participatory rural appraisal (PRA) methods hasshown similar outcomes In a PRA process in a Pakistan villagein April 1994

ldquothe local people did a matrix on their existing sources ofincome to determine the preferred income source Interest-ingly for me the criterion lsquomore incomersquo was the ninth or


LIVELIHOODS

tenth one listed (out of a total of about 20 criteria) lsquoMoretime at homersquo lsquoability to get involved in neighboursrsquo joys andsorrowsrsquo were listed earlierthe generally perceived-to-be-preferred source of income (high-paying skilledmanual la-bour in the Middle Eastern countries particularly Dubai) didnot emerge as victor the reason worked out by the localanalysts being that it did badly on their social criteriardquo(25)

Diverse criteria have also emerged from well-being rankingone of the methods of PRA In an economic tradition ldquowealthrdquowas originally the criterion by which local people were asked tocard sort the households in their community(26) Repeatedlywhen outsider facilitators have tried to focus discussion andranking on wealth local people have insisted on using a widerrange of criteria as contributing to their concepts of well-beingand ill-being of the good and bad life(27) Health and physicaldisability feature strongly A range of criteria from varioussources is presented in Box 2

3 Participatory Poverty Assessments The World Bank hasbeen breaking new ground in its poverty assessments In thewords of Sven Sandstrom these are designed

Box 2 A short illustrative list of some criteria used bylocal people in well-being grouping and ranking aselection from sources in Asia and sub-Saharan Africa(expressed here in the negative form)

Disabled (eg blind crippled mentally impairedchronically sick)

Widowed Lacking land livestock farm equipment grinding mill Cannot decently bury their dead Cannot send children to school Having more mouths to feed fewer hands to help Lacking able-bodied members who can fend for their

families in the event of crisis With bad housing Having vices (eg alcoholism) Being ldquopoor in peoplerdquo lacking social supports Having to put children in employment Single parents Having to accept demeaning or low status work Having food security for only a few months each year Being dependent on common property resources

SOURCES include Sarch MT (1992) ldquoWealth-ranking in theGambia which households participated in the FITT programmerdquoRRA Notes 15 May pages 14-26 also Redd Barna (1993) NotOnly the Well-off but also the Worse-off Report of a ParticipatoryRural Appraisal Training Workshop 4-22 October 1993 ChiredziZimbabwe Redd Barna Regional Office Africa Training andDevelopment PO Box 12018 Kampala Uganda and ARajaratnam and J Rajaratnam personal communication 1993

25 Personal communicationRashida Dohad

26 Grandin Barbara (1988)Wealth Ranking in SmallholderCommunities a Field ManualIntermediate Technology Publica-tions London

27 See Mukherjee Neela(1992) ldquoVillagersrsquo perceptions ofrural poverty through themapping methods of PRArdquo RRANotes 15 May pages 21-26Sarch Marie-Therese (1992)ldquoWealth-ranking in the Gambiawhich households participated inthe FITT Programmerdquo RRANotes 15 May pages 14-20Schaefer Stephanie S (1992)ldquoThe lsquobeans gamersquo - experienceswith a variation of wealth-rankingin the Kivu region Eastern ZairerdquoRRA Notes 15 May pages 27-28 and Rajaratnam J personalcommunication


LIVELIHOODS

ldquoto help us to address three fundamental issues Who ispoor Why are they poor What needs to be done to reducethe number of the poorrdquo(28)

The Participatory Poverty Assessments (PPAs) conducted un-der the auspices of the World Bank in Ghana Zambia Kenyaand some other countries now have the potential for going be-yond these questions to ask Who defines poverty Who arethe poor as defined within a society by local people themselvesWhat criteria of poverty or deprivation do they have What aretheir priorities The PPA sponsored by the World Bank in Zam-bia using participatory rural appraisal techniques gave insightsinto conditions trends and poor peoplersquos priorities with practi-cal implications(29) To illustrate some of the range

Health was repeatedly and consistently given a higher prior-ity than education Indeed education was not raised as apriority need in most communities

Payment of school fees was found to be required at the mostdifficult time of the year coinciding with food shortages heavywork in agriculture indebtedness expenditures for Christ-mas and high incidence of disease

The rude behaviour of health staff was a deterrent to poorpeople going for treatment

Food-for -work at bad times was highly valued All-weather roads were desired not only for marketing but also

to give access to clinics and hospitals during the rains Mangoes are good because they provide food at the worst times

of the year

Insights such as these indicate actions - postponing schoolfee payments training health staff to be more caring(30) food-for-work for all-weather roads improving and spreading man-goes and similar tree food crops - with high benefits in poorpeoplersquos own terms for relatively low financial costs

V DIMENSIONS OF DEPRIVATION

THESE AND OTHER examples illustrate the multi-dimension-ality of deprivation and disadvantage as poor people experiencethem Deprived people are often thought of as being uniformThe ldquorural massesrdquo commonly expresses a stereotype But ifanything there is more diversity among the poor than amongthe non-poor Under extreme deprivation as Viktor Frankl foundin his study of inmates of concentration camps people react insharply different ways(31) Disadvantage itself takes many formsAny list of dimensions will be provisional and personal Theeight which follow are an attempt to capture some of poor peo-plersquos reality but can surely be improved upon

The first three are among the better recognized dimensions ofdeprivation

1 Poverty refers to lack of physical necessities assets andincome It includes but is more than being income-poor Pov-

28 Sandstrom Sven (1994)ldquoThe learning curverdquo in BoerLeen and Jaap Rooimans(editors) The World Bank andPoverty Reduction contributionsto a seminar The Hague Novem-ber 17 1993 Ministry of ForeignAffairs Development Cooper-ation Information DepartmentThe Hague

29 Norton Andy Dan Owen andJT Milimo (1994) Zambia Par-ticipatory Poverty AssessmentVolume 4 of Zambia PovertyAssessment World Bank Wash-ington DC

30 The Ministry of Health actedquickly and already in 1994 hadinitiated a training programme forhealth staff (personal communi-cation Dan Owen)

31 Frankl Viktor (1978) TheUnheard Cry for MeaningPsychotherapy and HumanismSimon and Schuster New York


LIVELIHOODS

erty can be distinguished from other dimensions of deprivationsuch as physical weakness isolation vulnerability and power-lessness

2 Social inferiority can be ascribed acquired or linked withage and lifecycle It can be socially defined as genetically infe-rior or disadvantaged including gender caste race and ethnicgroup or being ldquolowerrdquo in terms of class social group or occu-pation or linked with age as with children and sometimesdaughters-in-law

3 Isolation refers to being peripheral and cut off Poor peo-ple can be isolated geographically - living in a ldquoremoterdquo areaisolated in communication lacking contacts and informationincluding not being able to read isolated by a lack of access tosocial services and markets and isolated by a lack of social andeconomic supports

Five other dimensions prominent in the realities of the poorand weak have been relatively neglected by the developmentprofessions

4 Physical weakness Disability sickness pain and suffer-ing are bad in themselves Beyond this the body is for manytheir major resource Professionals dependent as they are ontheir brains more than their bodies tend to undervalue the im-portance to many of the poor of the asset of a fit strong bodyand the liability of a body which is sick weak or disabled Re-peatedly in defining ill-being and well-being poor people men-tion physical weakness sickness or disability both as bad inthemselves and in their effects on others Having a householdmember who is physically weak sick or handicapped unableto contribute to household livelihood but needing to be fed andcared for is a common cause of income-poverty and deprivationas graphically shown for river-blindness (32) and now spreadingwidely in new forms with AIDS The prominence of disability inthe consciousness of poor people in the South is shown by thefrequency with which in participatory social mapping villageanalysts spontaneously represent the disabled as a categoryThose who are sick are the concern of health services Thosewho are otherwise disabled are numerous yet neglected Thereare perhaps 200 million disabled persons in the South(33) andprobably more than another 200 million adversely affected andimpoverished through having to support the disabled Yet the1993 UNDP Human Development Report does not include dis-ability in any of its tables The disabled are among the mostunseen and politically powerless and not only in the South

5 Vulnerability Much prose uses ldquovulnerablerdquo and ldquopoorrdquoas alternating synonyms But vulnerability is not the same asincome-poverty or poverty more broadly defined It means notlack or want but exposure and defencelessness It has two sidesthe external side of exposure to shocks stress and risk and theinternal side of defencelessness meaning a lack of means tocope without damaging loss Loss can take many forms - be-coming or being physically weaker economically impoverishedsocially dependent humiliated or psychologically harmed

For hundreds of millions vulnerability has increased and sotheir livelihoods have become less securely sustainable even

32 Evans Timothy (1989) ldquoTheimpact of permanent disability onrural households river blindnessin Guineardquo IDS Bulletin Vol20No2 April pages 41-48

33 Helander Einar (1993)Prejudice and Dign ity anIntroduction to Community BasedRehabilitation UNDP Division forGlobal and InterregionalProgrammes New York page 5


LIVELIHOODS

when their incomes have risen In most cultures and contextspatron-client safety nets have weakened the extended familygives less support contingencies such as weddings funeralsbrideprice and dowry have become more costly and effectivehealth services have become less accessible or more expensiveor both More people have moved into insecure environmentsMore people live exposed to the risks of famine flood storm andsome human crop and animal diseases than before War andcivil disorder remain widespread And where there have beenpast disasters many are more vulnerable through the earlierloss of livelihood assets and means to cope It then takes less tomake a famine as in the current 1994 famine in Ethiopia

For poor people there are often trade-offs between income andsecurity Income-poverty thinking can neglect vulnerability inseeking to raise incomes On a huge scale the Integrated RuralDevelopment Programme in India provides subsidized loans topoor people to acquire assets aimed at raising their incomesBut as many have experienced this increases vulnerabilityloss of the asset can lead to debt and being worse off than be-fore At the margin poor people often prefer a lower incomewith less risk of debt and dependence

6 Seasonality The seasonal dimensions of deprivation areunder-perceived by professionals who are urban based and sea-son proofed Yet in tropical seasonality many adverse factorsfor the poor often coincide during the rains - hard agriculturalwork shortage of food scarcity of money indebtedness sick-ness the late stages of pregnancy and diminished access toservices and indicators such as birthweights body weightsinfant mortality and morbidity all bear this out In the words ofa mother in a novel about Sri Lanka

ldquoI say to the father of my child lsquoFather of Podi Sinhorsquo I saylsquoThere is no kurrakan in the house there is no millet and nopumpkin not even a pinch of salt Three days now and Ihave eaten nothing but jungle leaves There is no milk in mybreasts for the childrsquo Then I get foul words and blows lsquoDoesthe rain come in Augustrsquo he says lsquoCan I make the kurrakanflower in July Hold your tongue you foolrsquo August is themonth in which the children die What can I dordquo(34)

7 Powerlessness The poor are powerless Dispersed andanxious as they are about access to resources work and in-come it is difficult for them to organize or bargain Often physi-cally weak and economically vulnerable they lack influenceSubject to the power of others they are easy to ignore or exploitPowerlessness is also for the powerful the least acceptable pointof intervention to improve the lot of the poor

8 Humiliation Self-respect with freedom from dependenceis perhaps the dimension most overlooked and undervalued byprofessionals Indira Hirway in Gujarat found that poor peopledisliked taking on debts because what followed from them in-cluded ldquoabuses and insultsrdquo ldquohelplessness insults and painrdquoand ldquotouching the feet of the lenders and swallowing insultsand abusesrdquo(35) Jodha (see Table 4 above) grouped several of

34 Woolf Leonard (1991) ldquoThevillage in the junglerdquo in Gill GJSeasonality and Agriculture in theDeveloping World a Problem ofthe Poor and PowerlessCambridge University Press

35 Hirway Indira (1986)Abolition of Poverty in India withSpecial Reference to TargetGroup Approach in GujaratVikas Publishing House NewDelhi pages 142 144 147


LIVELIHOODS

the criteria of economic well-being he was given by villagers asnot being subject to ldquoindispensability of patronrsquos (rich peoplersquos)supportmercypatronagerdquo These criteria included not resid-ing on the patronrsquos land not taking seed loans from patronsnot taking loans only from patrons and not marketing produceonly through patrons When Beck asked very poor people inthree villages in West Bengal ldquoWhich do you value more food orself-respect 49 out of 58 said they valued self-respect morethree valued each equally and only six put food first(36) Typi-cally one replied ldquoIf I donrsquot have self-respect will food go intothe stomachrdquo Beck concluded that ldquoDespite their regular hun-ger most poorest people in the study villages felt it was moreimportant to be treated with respect than gratify immediateneedsrdquo It was his view that ldquoIf this feeling is widespread amongthe poor in India then plannersrsquo and academicsrsquo exclusive in-terest in income and nutrition is inadequate for understandingpovertyrdquo(37) But humiliation and self-respect do not lend them-selves to measurement are in practice not measured and sofor normal professionals barely exist and rarely count

Deprivation and well-being have then many dimensions Poorpeople have many priorities What matters most to them oftendiffers from what outsiders assume is not always easy to meas-ure and may not be measurable at all If poor peoplersquos realitiesare to come first development professionals have to be sensitivehave to decentralize and empower to enable poor people to con-duct their own analysis and express their own multiple priorities

There remain deep dilemmas over ldquoourrdquo knowledge and val-ues(38) and ldquotheirsrdquo Our knowledge has an advantage with thephysical universe and with whatever is microscopic macro-scopic large-scale or distant from where poor people live Inthese domains we are empowered by our linked communica-tions instruments and science But their knowledge has anadvantage with the local the social whatever is continuouslyobserved and experienced and whatever close to them touchestheir lives and livelihoods and they are the only experts on theirlife experiences and priorities But our power in the past hasoverwhelmed their knowledge hidden their analytical abilitiesand allowed us to assume that we know what they experienceand want The problem is one of balance between two realities- ours which is powerful and theirs which is weak Standingback and standing down we need to search for overlaps wheretheir realities and aspirations can give rise to practical conceptswhich we can then use to help empower them

VI SUSTAINABLE LIVELIHOODS

ONE SUCH OVERLAP is suggested by sustainable livelihoods(39)

For many of the poor livelihood seems to fit better than employ-ment as a concept to capture how poor people live what theirrealistic priorities are and what can help them ldquoSustainablerdquothen refers to the longer-term and ldquolivelihoodrdquo to the many ac-tivities which make up a living

On sustainability it is a common prejudice among those who

36 See reference 10 page 140

37 Beck Tony (1989) ldquoSurvivalstrategies and power among thepoor in a West Bengal villagerdquo inldquoVulnerability how the poorcoperdquo IDS Bulletin Vol20 No2pages 23-32

38 In this paper I am not treatingconflicts of values Suffice it tosay that the playing field is notlevel I feel free to criticize femalegenital mutilation or dowry but amaffronted when a poor personasks me how much my salary is

39 For an elaboration ofsustainable livelihoods as aconcept see Chambers Robert(1987) ldquoSustainable livelihoodsenvironment and developmentputting poor rural people firstrdquoDiscussion Paper 240 Instituteof Development StudiesUniversity of Sussex BrightonUK (out of print available fromthe author) also Conroy Czechand Miles Litvinoff (editors)(1988) The Greening of AidSustainable L ivelihoods inPractice Earthscan LondonBernstein Henry Ben Crow andHazel Johnson (editors) (1992)Rural Livelihoods Crises andResponses Oxford UniversityPress in association with theOpen University see alsoreference 2 Together with basicrights sustainable livelihoods arebeing debated and adopted byOXFAM as part of the theoreticaland practical basis of their work


LIVELIHOODS

are not poor that poor people inherently ldquolive hand-to-mouthrdquoand take the short-term view But in practice again and againthey show tenacity and self-sacrifice in trying to take the long-term view and safeguarding the basis for their livelihoods Smallfarmers with secure rights invest their labour in land-shapingterracing and creating fertile micro-environments in harvest-ing water silt and nutrients and in planting and protecting treesA desperately poor family in Bangladesh only cut down theirtwo trees as a near last resort(40) Alex de Waal (pers comm)found a woman in Darfur in Sudan on leaving her village in afamine preserving millet seed for planting on her hoped-for re-turn by mixing it with sand to prevent her hungry children eat-ing it On the basis of extended fieldwork during famine heconcluded that ldquoavoiding hunger is not a policy priority forrural people faced with faminerdquo and ldquopeople are quite pre-pared to put up with considerable degrees of hunger in order topreserve seed for planting cultivate their own fields or avoidhaving to sell an animalrdquo(41) It is now a widespread finding thatas soon as food shortage threatens poor people eat less andworse in order to protect their livelihood assets in the bad timesto come(42) It is less the poor and more the outsiders who takethe short-term view - contractors who cut the forest officialsfixated on the financial year and politicians who cannot see be-yond the next election

On livelihoods the strategies of the poor are usually diverseand often complex They can be compared to those of hedgehogsand foxes after the saying of Archilochus that ldquoThe fox has manyideas but the hedgehog has one big ideardquo Full-time employeesin the industrial world and industrial sectors are hedgehogs withone big idea a single source of support Those poor people oftenpowerless desperate or exploited who have or can have but onesurvival strategy are the same - slaves bonded labourersoutworkers tied to single supplier-buyers beggars some ven-dors prostitutes and some other occupational specialists Butmost poor people in the South and more now in the North arefoxes with a portfolio of activities with different members of thefamily seeking and finding different sources of food fuel animalfodder cash and support in different ways in different places atdifferent times of the year Their living is improvised and sus-tained through their livelihood capabilities through tangible as-sets in the form of stores and resources and through intangibleassets in the form of claims and access (see Figure 1)

Fox strategies are rarely fully revealed by conventional ques-tionnaire surveys Schedules construct a standardized short andsimple reality and investigatorsrsquo incentives are to record less notmore Much that matters is liable to be left out As the authors ofthe 1994 Participatory Poverty Assessment for Zambia put it

ldquoMany aspects of rural livelihoods are not captured in eitherincome or consumption based survey data This is becausethey are neither commoditized nor evident enough to theresearchers to be allocated lsquoimputed valuesrsquoEnergy(fuelwood) and herbal medicines are two examples A sig-nificant element of the lsquosafety netrsquo for many rural people in

40 Hartmann Betsy and JamesBoyce (1983) Quiet ViolenceView from a Bangladesh VillageZed Press London

41 De Waal A (1989) FamineThat Kills Clarendon Oxfordalso De Waal A (1991) ldquoEmer-gency food security in WesternSudan what is it forrdquo in MaxwellSimon (editor) To Cure AllHunger Food Policy and FoodSecurity in Sudan IntermediateTechnology Publications London

42 For example Corbett Jane(1988) ldquoFamine and householdcoping strategiesrdquo World Devel-opment Vol16 No9 pages1099-1112


LIVELIHOODS

times of stress consists of lsquofamine foodsrsquo which can be gath-ered from bush and fallow landsrdquo (43)

The ingenuity and opportunism of poor people and the diver-sity and complexity of their strategies can be illustrated by casestudies and the accounts of social anthropologists and others(44)

Even within the same village different social groups of thelandless can have completely different strategies(45) Strategiesand sources of food income support and survival include

Home-gardening (Both rural and urban) and the exploita-tion of micro-environments Six studies in Indonesia reportedthe proportions of household income deriving from home gar-dens as variously 10-30 20-30 over 20 22-33 41-51 and42-51 per cent while another Indonesia study found the pro-portion higher among the poor providing 24 per cent of theirincome compared with 9 per cent for the well off(46)

Common property resources (CPRs) Fishing hunting graz-ing and gathering in lakes ponds rivers the sea forestswoodlands swamps savannas hills wastelands roadsidesfor any of a vast range of fish animals fodders wild foodsfibres building materials fuel fertilizer medicines and muchelse CPRs are often a major source of livelihood for the poorin his study of the poorest in three villages in West BengalBeck estimated that CPRs accounted for between 19 and 29per cent of the householdrsquos income(47) From his extensivestudy of CPRs in India Jodha concluded that in general therural poor obtained the bulk of their fuel supplies and fodderfrom CPRs and that CPRs though likely to be underestimatedaccounted for 14 to 23 per cent of their household incomes(48)

Figure 1 Components and Flows in a livelihood

People

LivelihoodCapabilities

Stores andResources

TangibleAssets

Claims andAccess

IntangibleAssets

A Living

permil

Dagger

ˆsect

Dagger

sect

ˆ

sect

ˆ

sect

Dagger

sect


44 For example see reference37 See also Breman Jan(1985) Of Peasants Migrantsand Paupers Rural LabourCirculation and CapitalistProduction in West India OxfordUniversity Press Delhi BombayCalcutta Madras DaviesSusanna (1993) Versat i leLivelihoods Strategic Adaptationto Food Insecurity in the MalianSahel Institute of DevelopmentStudies University of SussexFebruary Griffith Geoff (1994)Poverty Alleviation for RuralWomen Avebury Aldershot UKGulati Leela (1981) Profiles inFemale Poverty a Study of FivePoor Working Women in KeralaHindustan Publishing Corpor-ation (India) Delhi Hirway Indira(1986) Abolition of Poverty inIndia with Special Reference toTarget Group Approach inGujarat Vikas Publishing HouseNew Delhi Rahmato Dessalegn(1987) ldquoPeasant survivalstrategiesrdquo in Angela Penrose(editor) Beyond the Famine anExamination of the Issues behindFamine in Ethiopia International


LIVELIHOODS

The value of CPRs to the poor is heightened because they of-ten provide varied safety nets in the form of remunerative ac-tivity or food at times when other opportunities are lacking

Scavenging (Mainly urban) and gleaning (mainly rural) in-cluding traditional rights and access to private residues (but-termilk crop residues as fuel etc)

Processing hawking vending and marketing Includingproduce from home gardens and common property resources

Share-rearing of livestock Where livestock are lent for herd-ing in exchange for rights to some products andor offspring

The core of a livelihood can be expressed as a living withpeople tangible assets and intangible assets contributing to itThe tangible assets commanded by a household are stores suchas food stocks stores of value such as gold jewellery and wo-ven textiles and cash savings in thrift banks and credit schemesand resources such as land water trees livestock farm equip-ment tools and domestic utensils The intangible assets areclaims which can be made for material moral or other practicalsupport and access meaning the opportunity in practice touse a resource store or service or to obtain information mate-rial technology employment food or income(49)

Transporting goods with a horse donkey mule cart bicy-cle or head or backloading

Mutual help Including small borrowings from relatives andneighbours

Contract outwork Weaving rolling cigarettes making incensesticks

Casual labour and piecework especially in agriculture Specialized occupations Barbers blacksmiths carpenters

prostitutes tailors Domestic service Especially by girls and women Child labour Both domestically (collecting fuel-leaves twigs

branches dung collecting fodder weeding herding animalsremoving stones from fields and ticks from livestock) andworking in factories (making matches candles fireworks)restaurants peoplersquos houses

Craft work of many sorts Mortgaging and selling assets future labour and children Family-splitting Including putting out children to others Migration for seasonal work in agriculture brick-making

urban construction Remittances Seasonal food-for-work public works and relief Stinting in many ways with food and other consumption Begging Theft Triage especially with girl children and weaklingsand so on

The point of this incomplete list is to illustrate Often an indi-vidual or a household engages in many livelihood activities suchas these over a year This does not fit in with any concept of

Institute for Relief and Develop-ment Food for the Hungry Inter-national Geneva

45 For example Heyer Judith(1989) ldquoLandless agriculturallabourersrsquo asset strategiesrdquo IDSBulletin Vol20 No2 pages 33-40

46 Hoogerbrugge Inge D andLouise O Fresco (1993) Home-garden Systems AgriculturalCharacteristics and ChallengesGatekeeper Series No39 Inter-national Institute for Environmentand Development London page12


48 Johda NS (1991) RuralCommon Property Resources aGrowing Crisis GatekeeperSeries No24 InternationalInstitute for Environment andDevelopment London

49 See reference 2 also SwiftJeremy (1989) ldquoWhy are ruralpeople vulnerable to faminerdquoIDS Bulletin Vol20 No 2


LIVELIHOODS

ldquoemploymentrdquo in ldquoa jobrdquo Individuals and families diversify andcomplicate their livelihood strategies in order to increase incomereduce vulnerability and improve the quality of their lives

A similar pattern is shown by ldquothe third agriculturerdquo(50) Thefirst or industrial agriculture is standardized and simple andthe second or green revolution agriculture has high-yieldingpackages in controlled conditions The third agriculture whichprovides support for some 19 to 22 billion people is complexdiverse and risk-prone(51) Farmers working within complexdiverse and risk-prone farming seek to reduce risk and increasefood and income by complicating diversifying and where la-bour is available intensifying their farming systems adding totheir enterprises They multiply the internal links and flowswithin their farming systems for example through aquaculturecomposting cut-and-carry for stallfed livestock multiple crop-ping agroforestry home-gardening and the concentration ofnutrients soil and water in micro-environments such as siltdeposit fields and protected pockets of fertility

For these realities of the strategies employed by most of therural poor and many of the urban sustainable livelihood fitsbetter than employment as a concept Employment in the senseof having an employer a job a workplace and a wage is morewidespread as an aspiration than as a reality Where economiccrisis and structural adjustment cut urban jobs the proportionof foxes can be expected to increase Moreover however muchpoor people may seek employment and educate their childrenin the hope that they will find a secure and remunerative jobfor most such a job is not a realistic prospect Even in theNorth the classic concept of a single employment is being chal-lenged (52) and portfolio fox livelihoods are becoming more com-mon Even more so in much of the South most livelihoods ofthe poor will continue to be adaptive performances improvisedand versatile in the face of adverse conditions sudden shocksand unpredictable change

In identifying actions then it makes sense to shift thinkingfrom labour intensive growth towards sustainable livelihood in-tensive change This is not to argue against growth or againsta strategy of labour intensive growth but to qualify and com-plement it For labour intensity and sustainable livelihood in-tensity though overlapping are not identical As a conceptlabour intensity links with employment A sustainable livelihoodintensive strategy goes beyond employment to stress

Natural resources Sustainable management of natural re-sources especially common property resources and equita-ble access to them for the poorer

Redistribution of private and public livelihood resources tothe poor

Prices Marketing prices and prompt payment for what poorpeople sell and terms of trade between what poor people selland what they buy

Health Accessible health services for the prevention of dis-ease and for prompt and effective treatment of disabling acci-dents and disease

50 See Chambers Rober tArnold Pacey and Lori AnnThrupp (editors) (1989) FarmerFirst Farmer Innovation and Ag-ricultural Research IntermediateTechnology Publications Lon-don also Scoones Ian and JohnThompson (editors) (1994) Be-yond Farmer First Rural Peo-plersquos Knowledge AgriculturalResearch and Extension Prac-tice Intermediate TechnologyPublications London

51 Pretty Jules N (1995)Regenerating Agriculture Polic ies and Practice forSustainability and Self-RelianceEarthscan London

52 Handy Charles (1989) TheAge of Unreason Arrow BooksLondon


LIVELIHOODS

Restrictions and hassle Removal of restrictions on livelihoodactivities otherwise used to hassle and exploit the poor

Counter-seasonality and safety nets for poor people at badtimes mitigating seasonal stress and enabling them to con-serve their livelihood assets

To conclude deprivation and well-being as perceived by poorpeople and sustainable livelihoods as a shared goal of outsid-ers and the poor question the degree of primacy often attrib-uted to income-poverty The realities of the poor are many andparticular They can experience and agonize over acute trade-offs between different dimensions of deprivation and well-be-ing What they value and choose often differs from what out-sider professionals expect Income matters but so too do otheraspects of well-being and the quality of life - health securityself-respect justice access to goods and services family andsocial life ceremonies and celebrations creativity the pleas-ures of place season and time of day fun spiritual experienceand love If development means good change it is so muchmore than economic growth and income it is also these andmany other aspects of well-being and quality of life as poorpeople experience and wish them

VII THE PARADIGM OF REVERSALSTHE INSTITUTIONAL PROFESSIONAL ANDPERSONAL CHALLENGE

ANTI-POVERTY ACTION has often been justified to the richand powerful by appealing to enlightened selfishness this hasstressed mutual interests and the bad impacts of poverty suf-fering and deprivation on those who are better off and on theNorth as a whole The strongest argument was perhaps that ofthe Brandt Commission that the North had an economic inter-est in economic growth in the South To the extent that recipro-cal non-zero sums exist or can be found they must be wel-comed But such arguments do not always hold up Well-mean-ing casuistry about mutual interest argued during the devel-opment decades to justify helping the poor can prove a shiftingsand To rely on arguments about mutual material interests isto risk loss of support if they do not exist Ethical argumentsare stronger surer and better The prescriptions which followare founded not on self-interest on the part of the rich and pow-erful which may or may not be served but on the values ofcommon decency compassion and altruism

The differences between top-down reductionist definitions andobjectives and poor peoplersquos realities present development pro-fessionals with challenges which are institutional professionaland personal The challenges are paradigmatic to reverse thenormal view to upend perspectives to see things the other wayround to soften and flatten hierarchy to adopt downward ac-countability to change behaviour attitudes and beliefs and toidentify and implement a new agenda in sum to define andembrace a new professionalism


LIVELIHOODS

This new professionalism and its paradigm stress reversals de-centralization local diversity and complexity and empowerment

1 The Institutional Challenge Professionals whether inNGOs government departments training institutes and uni-versities or donor agencies have been slow to see that the finewords ldquoparticipationrdquo ldquoownershiprdquo and ldquoempowermentrdquo by andfor the poor demand institutional change ldquoby usrdquo Participationldquoby themrdquo will not be sustainable or strong unless we too areparticipatory ldquoOwnershiprdquo by them means non-ownership byus Empowerment for them means disempowerment for us Inconsequence management cultures styles of personal interac-tion and procedures all have to change

One indicator of the orientation of an agency is the composi-tion of its staff Middle-aged economists often Northern andmale still dominate international development organizations andthe development discourse In contrast social anthropologistssocial development advisers and psychologists remain fewModest increases in their numbers are patchily achieved num-bers of social anthropologists and sociologists working in theirprofessional capacities for the World Bank are hard to estimatebut they are outnumbered by their economist colleagues byperhaps between 20 and 50 to one(53) In contrast the ratio ofeconomists to social development advisers in the Overseas De-velopment Administration of the British Government is of theorder of three to one(54) still high but dramatically lower than inthe Bank Gains in the numbers and influence of non-econo-mist social scientists are also vulnerable The InternationalPotato Centre earlier demonstrated the big contributions socialanthropologists could make in agricultural research but hasnow reduced their number Astonishingly the InternationalCrops Research Centre for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT) isreported to have no anthropologists at all(55) The institutionalchallenge for all development agencies is to become learningorganizations(56) It is to flatten and soften hierarchy to developa culture of participatory management to recruit a gender anddisciplinary mix of staff committed to people and to adopt andpromote procedures norms and rewards which permit andencourage more open-ended participation at all levels Projectprocedures textbooks and training all require revision Top-down targets drives to disburse funds fast rewards for bigspenders and rushed visits meetings and decisions have all tobe restrained and reversed

2 The Professional Challenge The professional challenge isparadigmatic and profound Normal professional orientationsconcepts values methods and behaviour reinforce the domi-nance of the North and of whatever is industrial capital-inten-sive and ldquosophisticatedrdquo Its magnetic force repeatedly reassertsitself Small successes in reversing it are vulnerable to flippingback again to the norm In the CGIAR for instance farmer par-ticipatory research painstakingly established by a small numberof social and natural scientists is threatened by the currentldquoinfatuation with biotechnology as a top-down cure-allrdquo(57)

The challenge is to learn to see things the other way round to

53 This guess is a form ofcalculated irresponsibi l itycalculated in the sense of beingdesigned to provoke someone tocome up with a better figure Anybetter information will be appre-ciated especially if accompaniedby details of def inition ofcategories including whethersupported by core or trust funds

54 ODA increased the numbersof social development advisersfrom two in 1988 to 21 by mid-1994

55 Fujisaka Sam (1994) WillFarmer Participatory ResearchSurvive in the International Agri-cultural Research Centres Gate-keeper Series No44 Interna-tional Institute for Environmentand Development London page10

56 See Senge Peter M (1992)The Fifth Discipline the Art andPractice of the Learning Organ-izat ion Century BusinessRandom House London seealso Pretty JN and RobertChambers (1993) ldquoTowards alearning paradigm new profes-sionalism and institutions foragriculturerdquo Discussion Paper334 Institute of DevelopmentStudies University of SussexDecember

57 See reference 55


LIVELIHOODS

appreciate and grasp that other reality of local people In thewords of the recent vision paper for the CGIAR it is ldquoto reversethe chain of logic starting with the socio-economic demands ofpoor householdsrdquo(58) in order to identify appropriate researchpriorities But such reversals are impeded by normal profes-sionalism by disciplinary specialization and by the nature ofworldwide upper-lower interactions between those who are domi-nant and those who are subordinate(59) The stronger the dog-matism and drive of the upper (the World Bank task managerthe senior official the knowledgeable professional) so the morehe (most are men) is likely to be misled As with the remarkablestory of the misperceived ecological history of the Guinea for-est-savannah mosaic professional and bureaucratic misbeliefis perpetuated by the politeness and prudence of those whoknow another reality

ldquoVillagers faced by questions about deforestation and envi-ronmental change have learned to confirm what they knowthe questioners expect to hearrdquo(60)

So the prudent poor and weak perpetuate the fantasies andfallacies of the powerful and strong All power deceives

The professional challenge is to review and reorient normalprofessional concepts values methods and behaviour whichserve ldquoourrdquo purposes and instead enable the poor to expresstheir reality The new professionalism entails recognizing theextent to which ldquoourrdquo reality is generated by our training inter-actions power and central needs and then revising and revers-ing many normal concepts values methods and behaviours

3 The Personal Challenge The personal dimension is asparamount as it is perversely overlooked(61) Again and againin the experience of Participatory Rural Appraisal the behav-iour and attitudes of outsiders have been the key to facilitatingparticipation to enabling people who are poor and weak to cometogether and express and analyze their reality Yet the personalis scarcely on the development agenda at all Psychologists andpsychotherapists are rare among development professionals andwhere they are found tend to be in other than their specializedroles It is though obvious to the point of embarrassment thatindividual personality perceptions values commitment andbehaviour are crucial for institutional and professional change

The personal challenge applies in all social spheres It is notlimited to professional work For example men can feel person-ally threatened by feminism and the focus on women in devel-opment For these imply changes in roles and relationshipsboth at work and at home And they can raise ethical questionsabout limits to inter-cultural tolerance as with dowry femalegenital mutilation and selective abortion

The personal challenge can be expressed as the paragon newprofessional She is committed to the poor and weak and toenabling them to gain more of what they want and need She isdemocratic and participatory in management style is a goodlistener embraces error and believes in failing forwards findspleasure in enabling others to take initiatives monitors and

58 Conway Gordon Uma LeleJim Peacock and Martin Pineiro(1994) ldquoSustainable agriculturefor a food secure world a visionfor international agriculturalresearchrdquo a statement by anexternal panel appointed by theCGIAR Oversight Committee ofthe Consultative Group on Inter-national Agricultural ResearchJuly page 11

59 Chambers Robert (1994)ldquoAll power deceivesrdquo in S Davies(editor) ldquoKnowledge is PowerrdquoIDS Bulletin Vol25 No2 pages14-16

60 Leach Melissa and JamesFairhead (1994) ldquoNatural re-source management the repro-duction and use of environmentalmis informat ion in Guinearsquosforest-savannah transition zonerdquoin S Davies (editor) ldquoKnowledgeis Powerrdquo IDS Bulletin Vol25No2 pages 81-87

61 For a fuller statement seeldquoNGOs and development theprimacy of the personalrdquoavailable on request from theauthor The paper applies at leastas much force to government anddonor agencies as to NGOs


LIVELIHOODS

controls only a core minimum of standards and activities is notthreatened by the unforeseeable does not demand targets fordisbursements and achievements abjures punitive manage-ment devolves authority expecting her staff to use their ownbest judgement at all times gives priority to the front-line andrewards honesty For her watchwords are truth trust and di-versity And throughout this paragraph she can also be a he

Much of the challenge is to give up power It is to enjoy hand-ing over the initiative to others enabling them to do more and todo it more in their way for their objectives This has its ownsatisfactions in seeing how well and how differently people dothings and what they achieve The need is for those with powerto learn to value and enjoy these satisfactions

VIII WELL-BEING AND LIVELIHOODSIMPLICATIONS FOR POLICY AND PRACTICE

THIS ANALYSIS REFRAMES and shifts the balance of objec-tives of development from reducing income-poverty to dimin-ishing deprivation and enhancing well-being and from increas-ing employment to sustaining livelihood Development thendemands and generates diversity as deprivation is so muchmore than lack of income livelihood is so multifarious and dy-namic and well-being as people experience and desire it has somany dimensions Equity also applies but now more to whatpoor people themselves define as priorities and strategies andless to what we suppose they ought to want

To support and achieve these objectives there are two agen-das one with elements that are current and familiar even it isoften convenient to overlook parts of it and a new one based onthe paradigm of reversals For completeness both are presentedbut the first in brief

1 A Current Agenda An updated and amended currentagenda overlaps with qualifies and adds to the two-legged or-thodoxy of the World Bank of labour intensive growth and basicservices with its add-on of safety nets(62) This agenda includes

i Peace and equitable law and order these have primacy aspre-conditions for sustainable well-being The horrors of Rwandaare an extreme example and civil disorder has spread since theend of the Cold War Much more widespread is the lack of theequitable rule of law to provide justice for the poor and powerless

ii International terms of trade given the dominance of greedand selfishness in the Western democracies it is unlikely thatanything much will be done about this until powerful peoplechange and exercise extraordinary leadership This requiresaltruism meaning that the powerful must value non-materialrewards and act against their own narrowly defined materialinterests for the sake of others

iii Debt relief and good aid to debtor countries (but not includ-ing the United States or other rich debtors) The need for theseis so widely recognized that no more will be said

iv Domestic macro-economic policy this includes livelihood

62 World Bank (1990) WorldDevelopment Report 1990 Oxford University Press Oxford


LIVELIHOODS

intensive growth Domestic macro-policy in all countries shouldbe informed more by the realities of the poor as they experienceand express them and less by the realities supposed for thepoor by the powerful Few would now deny that had structuraladjustment programmes been oriented in this manner from thestart much suffering would have been averted

v Redistribution redistributive policies from the rich to thepoor whether through assets such as land or through taxationdeserve revival and restoration from the limbo to which neo-classical orthodoxy has consigned them Redistribution forexample of land has been found again and again to be efficientas well as equitable

vi Rights and information the poorer people are the morethey need and can gain from secure rights and informationabout those rights This includes the credible abolition of rulesand restrictions which empower officials to extort bribes andorganization and legal support to ensure effective justice

vii Infrastructure and access to basic services this includeshealth education water transport credit and marketing Theseare well recognized but access by the poor remains crucial andis often neglected and weak or non-existent in practice

viii Access to affordable basic goods the ILO basic needs listdid not include access to affordable basic goods yet they mattermuch to poor people and are quite often beyond their reachespecially those who are rural and more remote from urbancentres

ix Safety nets safety nets the third sometimes lame policyleg of the World Development Report (1990) are vital for manyof the poor(63) Food-for-work and famine relief often come toolate after people have lost or been forced to dispose of livelihoodassets Some professionals and organizations still see food aidonly as famine relief and not as a livelihood-sustaining safetynet to help poor people avoid becoming poorer For sustain-able livelihoods the vulnerable poor need safety nets

2 Reversals and Altruism the New Agenda The new para-digm is people centred participatory empowering and sustain-able These nice words are more deeply embedded in the re-flexes of paper and speech-writers than in the mental framesand personal behaviour of those who write the papers and readout the speeches For the paradigm demands reorientation anupending of much of the normal upper-lower North-South domi-nance It combines reversals and altruism reversals to standthe norm on its head to see things the other way round toenable the poor and weak to express their reality and to putthat reality first and then altruism to act in the interests of thepoor and powerless The paradigm of reversals and altruismstands as a challenge for the Social Development Summit

The reversal of logic is fundamental Instead of starting withthe analysis of central professionals the logic starts with therealities of the peripheral poor Policy is not deduced and drivencentre-outwards with distant assumptions about effects on thepoor but induced and drawn up from the experience and analy-sis of those who live local realities and know what happens closeto them Nor is the argument that this should be the only logic

63 See reference 62


LIVELIHOODS

it is complementary But the scales are so weighted against itthat unless it is put first and kept first nothing like a goodbalance and mix of logics will ever be achieved

A key point for healthy sceptics is the cost-effectiveness ofthis agenda Good things which poor people want and whichhave not been done because they have not been recognized canhave high pay-offs Many measures which make a big differ-ence to poor people have low financial costs Rights secu-rity the rule of law information access changes in proceduresremovals of restrictions polite behaviour by officials timingactions for the right season timely delivery providing diverseldquobaskets of choicesrdquo (of crop varieties trees uses of credit andso on) - these are examples of actions which can have low finan-cial costs and high benefits to well-being The key is identifyingsuch measures and then implementing them

The paradigm of the new agenda has four pillars Each willbe illustrated with a few of its potential practical implications

i Analysis and action by local people and putting first the pri-orities of the poor central to the paradigm is the basic humanright of poor people to conduct their own analysis Peoplecentred development starts not with analysis by the powerfuland dominant outsiders - the ldquoNorthrdquo uppers and profession-als but with enabling local people especially the poor to con-duct theirs(64) In the past five years innovations in approachand methods some of them known as participatory rural ap-praisal (PRA) have contributed a new repertoire which hasproved powerful and popular when well used in enabling poorpeople and communities to undertake their own appraisal analy-sis and action(65)

Putting first the priorities of the poor can refer to whole com-munities which are poor but equally to those who are disadvan-taged - the poor weak and marginalized whether women or asocial or economic group - within communities To find con-vene and facilitate groups of the disadvantaged demands com-mitment to the analysis of difference(66) The outcomes can in-clude awareness and action by these groups joint action withoutside agencies and feedback into policy

PRA approaches and methods are now being used in over 40countries with a wide range of applications including naturalresource management agriculture health and nutrition andpoverty programmes PRA methods have been used in partici-patory poverty assessments (PPAs) sponsored by the World Bankand bilateral donors in Ghana Zambia(67) and Kenya(68) enablingpoor rural and urban people to analyze their conditions and toexpress their own values definitions of well-being and priori-ties in short to present their realities

Some practical implications are

Experiential training those with experience in participatoryapproaches and training are mainly in NGOs The spread ofPRA and similar approaches requires special field based train-ing which is still in short supply for both NGOs and govern-ment The multiplication personal development and deploy-

64 Freire Pau lo (1970)Pedagogy of the Oppressed TheSeabury Press New York Seealso Korten David C and RudiKlauss (editors) (1984) People-Centered Development Contri-butions toward Theory andPlanning Frameworks KumarianPress West Hartford Connect-icut USA Cernea Michael(editor) (1991) Putting PeopleFirst Sociological Variables inRural Development secondedition Oxford University Pressfor the World Bank Burkey Stan(1993) People First a Guide toSelf-reliant Participatory RuralDevelopment Zed BooksLondon and New Jersey

65 Mascarenhas James et al(1991) ldquoPartic ipatory ruralappraisal proceedings of theFebruary 1991 Bangalore PRATrainers Workshoprdquo RRA Notes13 IIED London and MYRADABangalore August ChambersRobert (1994) ldquoThe origins andpractice of participatory ruralappraisalrdquo World DevelopmentVol22 No8 July pages 953-969 See also Chambers Robert(1994) ldquoPartic ipatory ruralappraisal (PRA) analysis ofexperiencerdquo World DevelopmentVol22 No9 September pages1253-1268 Chambers Robert(1994) ldquoPartic ipatory ruralappraisal (PRA) challengespotentials and paradigmsrdquo WorldDevelopment Vol22 No10October pages 1437-1454 andStewart Sheelagh et al (1994)Participatory Rural AppraisalAbstracts of Selected SourcesInstitute of Development StudiesUniversity of Sussex BrightonFor further sources see Stewartet al as before

66 Welbourn Alice (1991) ldquoRRAand the analysis of differencerdquoRRA Notes 14 pages 14-23

67 See reference 29

68 Personal communicationCharity Kabutha and DeepaNarayan


LIVELIHOODS

ment of good trainers is a key to realizing the potential of par-ticipatory approaches

Local priorities and practice putting people first and poorpeople first of all generates local priorities requiring local dif-ferentiation PRA-type approaches and methods can thus re-inforce and support decentralization and local diversity

Participatory poverty assessments and policy PPAs give po-tential for poor peoplersquos problems and priorities and their defi-nitions of well-being to have direct impact on national policy

ii Sustainable livelihoods economic growth usually gener-ates niches for new or enhanced and diversified livelihoods andthe resources for services But economic growth can also de-stroy livelihoods Policies can also be livelihood intensivewithout economic growth To search for and implement live-lihood-generating and supporting policies is a priority It is es-pecially so in countries where economic growth is difficult Somepractical implications are(69)

Secure rights secure rights to land water and trees encour-age and support long-term investment by families Securerights to common property resources provide a basis for sus-tainable management by communities Secure rights of own-ership access and use are fundamental to the sustainabilityof livelihoods which rely on natural resources

Removal of restrictions which hamper and harm for exam-ple effective removal of restrictions on urban informal sectoractivities can reduce the insecurity anxiety and humiliationof poor artisans vendors and entrepreneurs and the pettyrents they otherwise have to pay to officials Or abolishingrestrictions on the cutting and transport of trees from privateland increases farm-gate values for trees encourages treeplanting and protection and so enhances livelihood securityby allowing trees to become savings banks for small and poorfarmers(70)

Access to effective health services the livelihoods of most poorpeople depend on their bodies Health and quick effectivetreatment especially for disabling accidents and sickness mat-ter more to them than to the less poor A livelihood cannot besustained if its main asset is the body and that is sick dam-aged or disabled Health services for prevention and promptand effective treatment of accidents and sickness and for rapidrecovery are basic for sustainable livelihoods for the poor

iii The three Ds decentralization democracy and diversityreversals require decentralization with transfers of power anddemocratic modes of operation Together these make space fordiversity and local fit of action to need The basic principle isthat of subsidiarity that every activity should be carried out aslow down as feasible Complementing this ownership and ac-countability are reframed

Ownership shifts downwards At a high level this was pres-aged in the World Bankrsquos Wapenhans Report ldquoEffective Imple-mentation Key to Development Impactrdquo(71) which recommended

69 For other practical implica-tions see Maxwell Simon(1994) ldquoFood security a post-modern perspectiverdquo WorkingPaper 9 Institute of DevelopmentStudies University of SussexOctober see also reference 2

70 Chambers Robert TushaarShah and NC Saxena (1989)To The Hands of the Poor Waterand Trees Oxford and IBH NewDelhi and Intermediate Tech-nology Publications London

71 World Bank (1992) Effectiveimplementation Key to Develop-ment Impact (the WapenhansReport) World Bank WashingtonDC


LIVELIHOODS

a shift of ownership from Washington to national capitals in theBankrsquos response(72) which endorses partnership and participa-tion in the Report of the Participation Learning Group of theBank(73) which outlined and recommended practical actions forthe participation of the poor and in the final publication whichfollowed The World Bank and Participation(74) which presentedan agreed action plan by the Bank The implication for all de-velopment organizations is that at every level ownership ispushed down handed over and fostered Beyond this partici-pation at the community or group level is then not ldquotheirrdquo par-ticipation in ldquoourrdquo programme but our participation in theirsand participation by the poor is not only in the design and im-plementation phases of projects but also in identification moni-toring and evaluation and policy formulation

Accountability is reversed Downward accountability is to thepoor and weak It is to those who have been described in theWorld Bank as ldquoprimary stakeholders those expected to benefitfrom or be adversely affected by Bank supported operationsparticularly the poor and marginalizedrdquo(75) So professionals areresponsible to their clients health workers to the sick agricul-tural researchers and extensionists to farmers NGO workersand officials (whether national or foreign local or central) topoor villagers slum dwellers and others among the primarystakeholders who are or might be touched by their decisionsand actions


Procedures many procedures for central control impede de-centralization and diversity In the World Bank for examplechanges made or contemplated in the legal framework andprocedures for procurement and disbursement will supportdecentralization subsidiarity and participation

Appraisal action monitoring and evaluation these all shiftdownwards and become more participatory and more diverseIn particular poor people and communities conduct their ownmonitoring and evaluation using their own baselines and in-dicators to reflect their own concepts of ill-being and well-being and their insights into causality enhancing their un-derstanding and ownership and holding agencies to accountPoor people then monitor and evaluate the programmes andactions of development professionals and organizations

iv Professional and personal change the key to the new agendais as obvious as it is neglected To an extraordinary degree wedevelopment professionals abstain from looking at ourselves aspeople The subject is almost taboo Yet who we are where wego how we behave what we are shown and see how we learnare deceived and deceive ourselves the concepts we use thelanguage we speak what we believe and above all what we doand do not do - these so obviously affect all other aspects ofdevelopment and development policy It is bizarre that psychol-ogy psychotherapy and management learning scarcely exist indevelopment studies or practice As a matter not of evangelismbut of analytical rigour it would seem that it is we the profes-

72 See reference 15

73 World Bank (1994) TheWorld Bank and ParticipationReport of the Learning Group onPartic ipatory Developmentfourth draft April 28 1994

74 World Bank (1994) TheWorld Bank and ParticipationOperations Policy DepartmentWorld Bank Washington DCSeptember



LIVELIHOODS

sionals the powerful and the influential and those who attendroundtables and summits who have to reconstruct our reali-ties to change as people and enable and empower others tochange if the new paradigm of development is to prevail


More participatory management in development organizationsincluding multilateral and bilateral agencies NGOs both North-ern and Southern research institutes training colleges andinstitutes government departments in headquarters and inthe field and universities entailing the adoption of participa-tory personal styles and interactions

Interactive learning(76) to replace unidirectional lecturing andteaching as approach and method both in teaching and train-ing institutes and in universities and colleges This entails ashift from top-down teaching to learning which is shared lat-eral and experiential

Experiential learning from poor people meaning that thosewho are powerful step down sit listen and learn One initia-tive is the German Dialogue and Exposure Programme in whichsenior politicians officials and academics engage in unhur-ried learning in the field from individual poor families(77) PRAalso has been a means to enable outsiders to facilitate andgain insight from the analysis of poor local people both ruraland urban The practical implication is that agencies authori-tatively set aside time for field experiential learning for theirstaff so that they directly as people can see hear and un-derstand that other reality of poor people and then work tomake it count

Whose Reality will count at the Social Development Summit

In its concern with poverty and employment the Social Devel-opment Summit may be in danger of plodding in worthy butwell worn ruts which lead nowhere new The challenge is to gobeyond the normal agenda beyond poverty to well-being andbeyond employment to sustainable livelihoods It is to explorethe new paradigm to embrace the new professionalism and toconcern itself with whose reality counts To justify the costtime and effort of the Summit to make things better for thepoor it will have to question conventional concepts of develop-ment to challenge ldquousrdquo to change personally professionally andinstitutionally and to change the paradigm of the developmententerprise If the poor and weak are not to see the Summit as acelebration of hypocrisy signifying not sustainable well-beingfor them but sustainable privilege for us the key is to enablethem to express their reality to put that reality first and to makeit count To do that demands altruism insight vision and gutsWill these qualities show at the Summit Is there hope that thereality that counts at the Summit will be not ours but that of thepoor

76 See Pretty and Chambers(1993) reference 56

77 Kochendoumlrfer-Lucius G andK Osner (1991) DevelopmentHas Got a Face Life Stories ofThirteen Women in Bangladeshon Peoplersquos Economy Results ofthe international Exposure andDialogue Programme of theGerman Commission of Justiceand Peace and Grameen Bankin Bangladesh October 14-221989 Gerechtigkeit und Friedenseries Deutsche KommissionJustitia et Pax Kaiserstrasse163 D-5300 Bonn 1 also OsnerKarl Gudrun Kochendoumlrfer-Lucius Ulrika Muller-Glodde andClaudia Warn ing (1992)Exposure und DialogprogrammeEine Handreichnung furTeilnahme und OrganisatorenJustitia et Pax Kaiserstrasse163 5300 Bonn 1


LIVELIHOODS

egies often involve different members in diverse activities andsources of support at different times of the year Many of thesesuch as home-gardening exploiting common property resourcesshare-rearing livestock family splitting and stinting are largelyunseen by normal professionals A sustainable livelihood in-tensive strategy stresses natural resources management re-distribution of livelihood resources prices and payments healthabolishing restrictions and hassle and safety nets for poor peo-ple during bad times

A paradigm of reversals and altruism demands a new pro-fessionalism The paradigm and the new professionalism putpeople before things and poor people and their priorities firstof all The challenges presented are institutional professionaland personal The policy and practical means to promote andsustain well-being livelihoods and equity include two comple-mentary agendas one conventional and one new Underlyingthe new agenda is the basic human right of poor people toconduct their own analysis Four elements in this new agendaare

Analysis and action by local people especially the poor Sustainable livelihoods Decentralization democracy and diversity Professional and personal change

Reversals and a radical rethink are required if the realities ofthe poor are to count

II GLOSSARY OF MEANINGS

MUCH CONFUSION AND some false consensus arises fromvague and different uses of words The senses in which somekey words will be used in this paper are as follows

Deprivation refers to lacking what is needed for well-beingIts dimensions are physical social economic political andpsychologicalspiritual It includes forms of disadvantage suchas physical weakness isolation poverty vulnerability andpowerlessness

Development means good change Employment means having a job with an employer who pro-

vides remuneration (usually a wage or salary) for work doneIt does not include sporadic casual labour

Ill-being is the experience of bad quality of life Income-poor and income-poverty refer to low per capita income Livelihood refers to the means of gaining a living including

livelihood capabilities tangible assets and intangible assets(2)

Employment can provide a livelihood but most livelihoods ofthe poor are based on multiple activities and sources of foodincome and security

Normal professionalism is the thinking values methods andbehaviour dominant in a profession or discipline(3)

Paradigm means a coherent and mutually supporting pattern

opment UNDP New YorkAugust 1994 It is also publishedas Discussion Paper 347 by theInstitute of Development StudiesUniversity of Sussex BrightonBN1 9RE UK For insights intoNorth-South upper-lower rela-tionships I am grateful to JennyChambers and for comments ondrafts of this paper to RosalindEyben Simon Maxwell andGunilla Olsson

2 Chambers Robert andGordon Conway (1992) Sustain-able Rural Livelihoods PracticalConcepts for the 21st CenturyDiscussion Paper 296 Instituteof Development Studies Univer-sity of Sussex Brighton UKFebruary pages 9-12

3 Normal professionalism andthe new paradigm are elaboratedon in Chambers Robert (1993)Challenging the ProfessionsFrontiers for Rural DevelopmentIntermediate Technology Publi-cations London chapters 1 5 6and 8


LIVELIHOODS


















LIVELIHOODS





1960 1992 1960 1992











LIVELIHOODS



Asia 675 25




Total 1225 23








Urban Rural






LIVELIHOODS








LIVELIHOODS












LIVELIHOODS














LIVELIHOODS











LIVELIHOODS











LIVELIHOODS







19 See reference 18


LIVELIHOODS














LIVELIHOODS










LIVELIHOODS





1963 -6 1982 -4


















LIVELIHOODS













LIVELIHOODS








of the year











LIVELIHOODS











LIVELIHOODS










LIVELIHOODS













LIVELIHOODS









LIVELIHOODS







People


Stores andResources

TangibleAssets

Claims andAccess

IntangibleAssets

A Living

permil

Dagger

ˆsect

Dagger

sect

ˆ

sect

ˆ

sect

Dagger

sect




LIVELIHOODS






















LIVELIHOODS













LIVELIHOODS








LIVELIHOODS










57 See reference 55


LIVELIHOODS













LIVELIHOODS













LIVELIHOODS









63 See reference 62


LIVELIHOODS












67 See reference 29



LIVELIHOODS














LIVELIHOODS







72 See reference 15





LIVELIHOODS











LIVELIHOODS


















LIVELIHOODS





1960 1992 1960 1992











LIVELIHOODS



Asia 675 25




Total 1225 23








Urban Rural






LIVELIHOODS








LIVELIHOODS












LIVELIHOODS














LIVELIHOODS











LIVELIHOODS











LIVELIHOODS







19 See reference 18


LIVELIHOODS














LIVELIHOODS










LIVELIHOODS





1963 -6 1982 -4


















LIVELIHOODS













LIVELIHOODS








of the year











LIVELIHOODS











LIVELIHOODS










LIVELIHOODS













LIVELIHOODS









LIVELIHOODS







People


Stores andResources

TangibleAssets

Claims andAccess

IntangibleAssets

A Living

permil

Dagger

ˆsect

Dagger

sect

ˆ

sect

ˆ

sect

Dagger

sect




LIVELIHOODS






















LIVELIHOODS













LIVELIHOODS








LIVELIHOODS










57 See reference 55


LIVELIHOODS













LIVELIHOODS













LIVELIHOODS









63 See reference 62


LIVELIHOODS












67 See reference 29



LIVELIHOODS














LIVELIHOODS







72 See reference 15





LIVELIHOODS











LIVELIHOODS





1960 1992 1960 1992











LIVELIHOODS



Asia 675 25




Total 1225 23








Urban Rural






LIVELIHOODS








LIVELIHOODS












LIVELIHOODS














LIVELIHOODS











LIVELIHOODS











LIVELIHOODS







19 See reference 18


LIVELIHOODS














LIVELIHOODS










LIVELIHOODS





1963 -6 1982 -4


















LIVELIHOODS













LIVELIHOODS








of the year











LIVELIHOODS











LIVELIHOODS










LIVELIHOODS













LIVELIHOODS









LIVELIHOODS







People


Stores andResources

TangibleAssets

Claims andAccess

IntangibleAssets

A Living

permil

Dagger

ˆsect

Dagger

sect

ˆ

sect

ˆ

sect

Dagger

sect




LIVELIHOODS






















LIVELIHOODS













LIVELIHOODS








LIVELIHOODS










57 See reference 55


LIVELIHOODS













LIVELIHOODS













LIVELIHOODS









63 See reference 62


LIVELIHOODS












67 See reference 29



LIVELIHOODS














LIVELIHOODS







72 See reference 15





LIVELIHOODS











LIVELIHOODS



Asia 675 25




Total 1225 23








Urban Rural






LIVELIHOODS








LIVELIHOODS












LIVELIHOODS














LIVELIHOODS











LIVELIHOODS











LIVELIHOODS







19 See reference 18


LIVELIHOODS














LIVELIHOODS










LIVELIHOODS





1963 -6 1982 -4


















LIVELIHOODS













LIVELIHOODS








of the year











LIVELIHOODS











LIVELIHOODS










LIVELIHOODS













LIVELIHOODS









LIVELIHOODS







People


Stores andResources

TangibleAssets

Claims andAccess

IntangibleAssets

A Living

permil

Dagger

ˆsect

Dagger

sect

ˆ

sect

ˆ

sect

Dagger

sect




LIVELIHOODS






















LIVELIHOODS













LIVELIHOODS








LIVELIHOODS










57 See reference 55


LIVELIHOODS













LIVELIHOODS













LIVELIHOODS









63 See reference 62


LIVELIHOODS












67 See reference 29



LIVELIHOODS














LIVELIHOODS







72 See reference 15





LIVELIHOODS











LIVELIHOODS








LIVELIHOODS












LIVELIHOODS














LIVELIHOODS











LIVELIHOODS











LIVELIHOODS







19 See reference 18


LIVELIHOODS














LIVELIHOODS










LIVELIHOODS





1963 -6 1982 -4


















LIVELIHOODS













LIVELIHOODS








of the year











LIVELIHOODS











LIVELIHOODS










LIVELIHOODS













LIVELIHOODS









LIVELIHOODS







People


Stores andResources

TangibleAssets

Claims andAccess

IntangibleAssets

A Living

permil

Dagger

ˆsect

Dagger

sect

ˆ

sect

ˆ

sect

Dagger

sect




LIVELIHOODS






















LIVELIHOODS













LIVELIHOODS








LIVELIHOODS










57 See reference 55


LIVELIHOODS













LIVELIHOODS













LIVELIHOODS









63 See reference 62


LIVELIHOODS












67 See reference 29



LIVELIHOODS














LIVELIHOODS







72 See reference 15





LIVELIHOODS











LIVELIHOODS












LIVELIHOODS














LIVELIHOODS











LIVELIHOODS











LIVELIHOODS







19 See reference 18


LIVELIHOODS














LIVELIHOODS










LIVELIHOODS





1963 -6 1982 -4


















LIVELIHOODS













LIVELIHOODS








of the year











LIVELIHOODS











LIVELIHOODS










LIVELIHOODS













LIVELIHOODS









LIVELIHOODS







People


Stores andResources

TangibleAssets

Claims andAccess

IntangibleAssets

A Living

permil

Dagger

ˆsect

Dagger

sect

ˆ

sect

ˆ

sect

Dagger

sect




LIVELIHOODS






















LIVELIHOODS













LIVELIHOODS








LIVELIHOODS










57 See reference 55


LIVELIHOODS













LIVELIHOODS













LIVELIHOODS









63 See reference 62


LIVELIHOODS












67 See reference 29



LIVELIHOODS














LIVELIHOODS







72 See reference 15





LIVELIHOODS











LIVELIHOODS














LIVELIHOODS











LIVELIHOODS











LIVELIHOODS







19 See reference 18


LIVELIHOODS














LIVELIHOODS










LIVELIHOODS





1963 -6 1982 -4


















LIVELIHOODS













LIVELIHOODS








of the year











LIVELIHOODS











LIVELIHOODS










LIVELIHOODS













LIVELIHOODS









LIVELIHOODS







People


Stores andResources

TangibleAssets

Claims andAccess

IntangibleAssets

A Living

permil

Dagger

ˆsect

Dagger

sect

ˆ

sect

ˆ

sect

Dagger

sect




LIVELIHOODS






















LIVELIHOODS













LIVELIHOODS








LIVELIHOODS










57 See reference 55


LIVELIHOODS













LIVELIHOODS













LIVELIHOODS









63 See reference 62


LIVELIHOODS












67 See reference 29



LIVELIHOODS














LIVELIHOODS







72 See reference 15





LIVELIHOODS











LIVELIHOODS











LIVELIHOODS











LIVELIHOODS







19 See reference 18


LIVELIHOODS














LIVELIHOODS










LIVELIHOODS





1963 -6 1982 -4


















LIVELIHOODS













LIVELIHOODS








of the year











LIVELIHOODS











LIVELIHOODS










LIVELIHOODS













LIVELIHOODS









LIVELIHOODS







People


Stores andResources

TangibleAssets

Claims andAccess

IntangibleAssets

A Living

permil

Dagger

ˆsect

Dagger

sect

ˆ

sect

ˆ

sect

Dagger

sect




LIVELIHOODS






















LIVELIHOODS













LIVELIHOODS








LIVELIHOODS










57 See reference 55


LIVELIHOODS













LIVELIHOODS













LIVELIHOODS









63 See reference 62


LIVELIHOODS












67 See reference 29



LIVELIHOODS














LIVELIHOODS







72 See reference 15





LIVELIHOODS











LIVELIHOODS











LIVELIHOODS







19 See reference 18


LIVELIHOODS














LIVELIHOODS










LIVELIHOODS





1963 -6 1982 -4


















LIVELIHOODS













LIVELIHOODS








of the year











LIVELIHOODS











LIVELIHOODS










LIVELIHOODS













LIVELIHOODS









LIVELIHOODS







People


Stores andResources

TangibleAssets

Claims andAccess

IntangibleAssets

A Living

permil

Dagger

ˆsect

Dagger

sect

ˆ

sect

ˆ

sect

Dagger

sect




LIVELIHOODS






















LIVELIHOODS













LIVELIHOODS








LIVELIHOODS










57 See reference 55


LIVELIHOODS













LIVELIHOODS













LIVELIHOODS









63 See reference 62


LIVELIHOODS












67 See reference 29



LIVELIHOODS














LIVELIHOODS







72 See reference 15





LIVELIHOODS











LIVELIHOODS







19 See reference 18


LIVELIHOODS














LIVELIHOODS










LIVELIHOODS





1963 -6 1982 -4


















LIVELIHOODS













LIVELIHOODS








of the year











LIVELIHOODS











LIVELIHOODS










LIVELIHOODS













LIVELIHOODS









LIVELIHOODS







People


Stores andResources

TangibleAssets

Claims andAccess

IntangibleAssets

A Living

permil

Dagger

ˆsect

Dagger

sect

ˆ

sect

ˆ

sect

Dagger

sect




LIVELIHOODS






















LIVELIHOODS













LIVELIHOODS








LIVELIHOODS










57 See reference 55


LIVELIHOODS













LIVELIHOODS













LIVELIHOODS









63 See reference 62


LIVELIHOODS












67 See reference 29



LIVELIHOODS














LIVELIHOODS







72 See reference 15





LIVELIHOODS











LIVELIHOODS














LIVELIHOODS










LIVELIHOODS





1963 -6 1982 -4


















LIVELIHOODS













LIVELIHOODS








of the year











LIVELIHOODS











LIVELIHOODS










LIVELIHOODS













LIVELIHOODS









LIVELIHOODS







People


Stores andResources

TangibleAssets

Claims andAccess

IntangibleAssets

A Living

permil

Dagger

ˆsect

Dagger

sect

ˆ

sect

ˆ

sect

Dagger

sect




LIVELIHOODS






















LIVELIHOODS













LIVELIHOODS








LIVELIHOODS










57 See reference 55


LIVELIHOODS













LIVELIHOODS













LIVELIHOODS









63 See reference 62


LIVELIHOODS












67 See reference 29



LIVELIHOODS














LIVELIHOODS







72 See reference 15





LIVELIHOODS











LIVELIHOODS










LIVELIHOODS





1963 -6 1982 -4


















LIVELIHOODS













LIVELIHOODS








of the year











LIVELIHOODS











LIVELIHOODS










LIVELIHOODS













LIVELIHOODS









LIVELIHOODS







People


Stores andResources

TangibleAssets

Claims andAccess

IntangibleAssets

A Living

permil

Dagger

ˆsect

Dagger

sect

ˆ

sect

ˆ

sect

Dagger

sect




LIVELIHOODS






















LIVELIHOODS













LIVELIHOODS








LIVELIHOODS










57 See reference 55


LIVELIHOODS













LIVELIHOODS













LIVELIHOODS









63 See reference 62


LIVELIHOODS












67 See reference 29



LIVELIHOODS














LIVELIHOODS







72 See reference 15





LIVELIHOODS











LIVELIHOODS





1963 -6 1982 -4


















LIVELIHOODS













LIVELIHOODS








of the year











LIVELIHOODS











LIVELIHOODS










LIVELIHOODS













LIVELIHOODS









LIVELIHOODS







People


Stores andResources

TangibleAssets

Claims andAccess

IntangibleAssets

A Living

permil

Dagger

ˆsect

Dagger

sect

ˆ

sect

ˆ

sect

Dagger

sect




LIVELIHOODS






















LIVELIHOODS













LIVELIHOODS








LIVELIHOODS










57 See reference 55


LIVELIHOODS













LIVELIHOODS













LIVELIHOODS









63 See reference 62


LIVELIHOODS












67 See reference 29



LIVELIHOODS














LIVELIHOODS







72 See reference 15





LIVELIHOODS











LIVELIHOODS













LIVELIHOODS








of the year











LIVELIHOODS











LIVELIHOODS










LIVELIHOODS













LIVELIHOODS









LIVELIHOODS







People


Stores andResources

TangibleAssets

Claims andAccess

IntangibleAssets

A Living

permil

Dagger

ˆsect

Dagger

sect

ˆ

sect

ˆ

sect

Dagger

sect




LIVELIHOODS






















LIVELIHOODS













LIVELIHOODS








LIVELIHOODS










57 See reference 55


LIVELIHOODS













LIVELIHOODS













LIVELIHOODS









63 See reference 62


LIVELIHOODS












67 See reference 29



LIVELIHOODS














LIVELIHOODS







72 See reference 15





LIVELIHOODS











LIVELIHOODS








of the year











LIVELIHOODS











LIVELIHOODS










LIVELIHOODS













LIVELIHOODS









LIVELIHOODS







People


Stores andResources

TangibleAssets

Claims andAccess

IntangibleAssets

A Living

permil

Dagger

ˆsect

Dagger

sect

ˆ

sect

ˆ

sect

Dagger

sect




LIVELIHOODS






















LIVELIHOODS













LIVELIHOODS








LIVELIHOODS










57 See reference 55


LIVELIHOODS













LIVELIHOODS













LIVELIHOODS









63 See reference 62


LIVELIHOODS












67 See reference 29



LIVELIHOODS














LIVELIHOODS







72 See reference 15





LIVELIHOODS











LIVELIHOODS











LIVELIHOODS










LIVELIHOODS













LIVELIHOODS









LIVELIHOODS







People


Stores andResources

TangibleAssets

Claims andAccess

IntangibleAssets

A Living

permil

Dagger

ˆsect

Dagger

sect

ˆ

sect

ˆ

sect

Dagger

sect




LIVELIHOODS






















LIVELIHOODS













LIVELIHOODS








LIVELIHOODS










57 See reference 55


LIVELIHOODS













LIVELIHOODS













LIVELIHOODS









63 See reference 62


LIVELIHOODS












67 See reference 29



LIVELIHOODS














LIVELIHOODS







72 See reference 15





LIVELIHOODS











LIVELIHOODS










LIVELIHOODS













LIVELIHOODS









LIVELIHOODS







People


Stores andResources

TangibleAssets

Claims andAccess

IntangibleAssets

A Living

permil

Dagger

ˆsect

Dagger

sect

ˆ

sect

ˆ

sect

Dagger

sect




LIVELIHOODS






















LIVELIHOODS













LIVELIHOODS








LIVELIHOODS










57 See reference 55


LIVELIHOODS













LIVELIHOODS













LIVELIHOODS









63 See reference 62


LIVELIHOODS












67 See reference 29



LIVELIHOODS














LIVELIHOODS







72 See reference 15





LIVELIHOODS











LIVELIHOODS













LIVELIHOODS









LIVELIHOODS







People


Stores andResources

TangibleAssets

Claims andAccess

IntangibleAssets

A Living

permil

Dagger

ˆsect

Dagger

sect

ˆ

sect

ˆ

sect

Dagger

sect




LIVELIHOODS






















LIVELIHOODS













LIVELIHOODS








LIVELIHOODS










57 See reference 55


LIVELIHOODS













LIVELIHOODS













LIVELIHOODS









63 See reference 62


LIVELIHOODS












67 See reference 29



LIVELIHOODS














LIVELIHOODS







72 See reference 15





LIVELIHOODS











LIVELIHOODS









LIVELIHOODS







People


Stores andResources

TangibleAssets

Claims andAccess

IntangibleAssets

A Living

permil

Dagger

ˆsect

Dagger

sect

ˆ

sect

ˆ

sect

Dagger

sect




LIVELIHOODS






















LIVELIHOODS













LIVELIHOODS








LIVELIHOODS










57 See reference 55


LIVELIHOODS













LIVELIHOODS













LIVELIHOODS









63 See reference 62


LIVELIHOODS












67 See reference 29



LIVELIHOODS














LIVELIHOODS







72 See reference 15





LIVELIHOODS











LIVELIHOODS







People


Stores andResources

TangibleAssets

Claims andAccess

IntangibleAssets

A Living

permil

Dagger

ˆsect

Dagger

sect

ˆ

sect

ˆ

sect

Dagger

sect




LIVELIHOODS






















LIVELIHOODS













LIVELIHOODS








LIVELIHOODS










57 See reference 55


LIVELIHOODS













LIVELIHOODS













LIVELIHOODS









63 See reference 62


LIVELIHOODS












67 See reference 29



LIVELIHOODS














LIVELIHOODS







72 See reference 15





LIVELIHOODS











LIVELIHOODS






















LIVELIHOODS













LIVELIHOODS








LIVELIHOODS










57 See reference 55


LIVELIHOODS













LIVELIHOODS













LIVELIHOODS









63 See reference 62


LIVELIHOODS












67 See reference 29



LIVELIHOODS














LIVELIHOODS







72 See reference 15





LIVELIHOODS











LIVELIHOODS













LIVELIHOODS








LIVELIHOODS










57 See reference 55


LIVELIHOODS













LIVELIHOODS













LIVELIHOODS









63 See reference 62


LIVELIHOODS












67 See reference 29



LIVELIHOODS














LIVELIHOODS







72 See reference 15





LIVELIHOODS











LIVELIHOODS








LIVELIHOODS










57 See reference 55


LIVELIHOODS













LIVELIHOODS













LIVELIHOODS









63 See reference 62


LIVELIHOODS












67 See reference 29



LIVELIHOODS














LIVELIHOODS







72 See reference 15





LIVELIHOODS











LIVELIHOODS










57 See reference 55


LIVELIHOODS













LIVELIHOODS













LIVELIHOODS









63 See reference 62


LIVELIHOODS












67 See reference 29



LIVELIHOODS














LIVELIHOODS







72 See reference 15





LIVELIHOODS











LIVELIHOODS













LIVELIHOODS













LIVELIHOODS









63 See reference 62


LIVELIHOODS












67 See reference 29



LIVELIHOODS














LIVELIHOODS







72 See reference 15





LIVELIHOODS











LIVELIHOODS













LIVELIHOODS









63 See reference 62


LIVELIHOODS












67 See reference 29



LIVELIHOODS














LIVELIHOODS







72 See reference 15





LIVELIHOODS











LIVELIHOODS









63 See reference 62


LIVELIHOODS












67 See reference 29



LIVELIHOODS














LIVELIHOODS







72 See reference 15





LIVELIHOODS











LIVELIHOODS












67 See reference 29



LIVELIHOODS














LIVELIHOODS







72 See reference 15





LIVELIHOODS











LIVELIHOODS














LIVELIHOODS







72 See reference 15





LIVELIHOODS











LIVELIHOODS







72 See reference 15





LIVELIHOODS











LIVELIHOODS










poverty and livelihoods: whose reality counts? - … · environment and urbanization, vol. 7, no....

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