Introduction to livelihoods, conflict and disasters

Over the past two decades humanitarian response to conflict and disasters has increasingly recognised the importance of early recovery, and better links between emergency relief and longer-term development activities. Livelihoods approaches are now being used by many humanitarian organisations in this early recovery phase, with the UN Cluster working group on early recovery recommending the use of a sustainable livelihoods framework as an overarching model for local-level needs assessments.

Livelihoods approaches not only focus on needs at the household or community level, but also aim to provide an understanding of the overall livelihoods context and strategies prior to, during and after shocks, such as natural disasters or conflicts.

These approaches:

• focus on understanding the vulnerability context of local populations
• take into account power relations at different levels
• differentiate between the skills, needs, assets, vulnerabilities, responsibilities and potential of women and men
• help to analyse changes in household composition, displacement, forced migration or relocation, and how these may impact on labour capacity, productivity and income generation
• consider the loss, depletion or maintenance of assets as a result of shocks and how these affect people’s livelihood strategies and outcomes.

Livelihoods approaches can also help identify:

• local production capacity
• existing market systems
• land and water use practices
• social and institutional interactions, policies and processes at local, regional and national levels.

As well as guiding the design of early recovery programmes, livelihoods approaches are used in disaster risk reduction to strengthen disaster preparedness and resilience through helping people to reduce their vulnerability to shocks.

Through recommended reading and a regularly updated list of latest resources, this section examines what livelihoods approaches can bring to understanding and addressing the effects of conflicts and disasters, including through disaster risk reduction, conflict management, and emergency and humanitarian response.