From food crisis to fair trade: livelihoods analysis, protection and support in emergencies

This article begins with an overview of livelihoods programming in the context of emergencies; an increasingly popular approach, going beyond a focus on food aid alone. In general there is a lack of written analysis of emergency livelihoods interventions. This article attempts to fill that gap with a range of original case study material analysing the implementation of emergency livelihoods interventions and lessons learnt.

The chapters in this supplement have been grouped around the Sphere minimum standards for disaster response in food security: income and employment support, market access, and production support. Food aid is covered in a separate chapter. The case studies in each chapter are designed to provide insights for agencies with limited livelihoods programming experience. Through these the article demonstrates the criteria for identifying the right kind of livelihoods approach in emergency contexts.

The authors discuss the relationship between the livelihoods approach and assessment models that look at household food security such as the household economy approach (HEA). They make distinctions and identify the linkages between the different approaches and illustrate through case studies how the models can be used in conjunction with one another.

The article explores key areas of progress in utilising the livelihoods approach in emergencies including:

• cash in order for people to meet their immediate and livelihood needs is increasingly recognised as the most appropriate response by humanitarian agencies
  
• seed fairs and emergency livestock interventions are emergent trends in agricultural programming for emergencies
• both development and humanitarian communities are engaged in social safety net programmes which can provide the basis for coherent dialogue between development and humanitarian professionals. This offers new opportunities for linking relief and development.
  

The article also includes a discussion of issues and challenges in relation to livelihoods analysis of policies, institutions and processes and the structural causes of livelihood insecurity. It also discusses the need for agreed systems of monitoring and evaluation and the coherent development of criteria for identifying appropriate responses.