an Eldis Resource
Seminar: Applying Sustainable Livelihoods Approaches: Food Security & Social Protection, Heaton Mount, University of Bradford, UK
Dates: 02 June 2010 - 02 June 2010
Seminar convened by University of Bradford, as part of the ESRC Sustainable Livelihoods Seminar Series
As part of an international series, the Department of Development & Economic Studies and the John & Elnora Ferguson Centre for African Studies (University of Bradford) are hosting a seminar bringing together academics, practitioners and policy-makers to explore the links between the application of a Sustainable Livelihoods Approach to issues of Food Security and Social Protection.
This seminar series has been initiated to explore the lessons learnt from a decade of theoretical development and practical application of Sustainable Livelihoods Approaches (SLAs). Although there is no single definition of a sustainable livelihood approach, ‘SLA’ it is now generally considered to be both a set of principles for good development practice (people-centred, multi-level, conducted in partnership, sustainable and holistic); and an analytical framework to better understand how people draw on a range of different assets in their livelihoods strategies and how such assets can be created or strengthened through appropriate insititutional and policy support. Clearly, food security, is a fundamental issue in building productive and sustainable livelihoods, and SLAs may have analytical and practical value in addressing where and how social protection may be directed in order to build the necessary assets to increase food security.
Of particular interest to this seminar is how social protection mechanisms can increase the sustainability and productivity of smallholder agriculture, which continues to support 70% of the global population. Support to livelihoods to increase food security may take many forms including: cash transfers, insurance schemes, proactive and appropriate government support to agricultural infrastructure, food transfers and storage, access to credit, fiscal policy mechanisms, improving management of natural resources, reducing economic and social inequalities, food pricing, agricultural subsidies.
