• Introduction

Introduction to livelihoods and food security

This paper describes the theory and practice of Oxfam Great Britain’s livelihoods approach to assessing food security in emergencies. Adopting a livelihoods approach in such a context simply means that emergency programming is aimed at supporting livelihoods, as well as at saving lives. In terms of food-security assessments, a livelihoods approach involves assessing the longer-term risks to livelihoods, as well as short-term nutritional or life-threatening risks.

Oxfam’s approach entails two steps:

• a food-security assessment to determine the need, if any, for a food-security intervention
• the identification of the type of intervention required: this is influenced by the severity of food insecurity and may be determined from two perspectives:
  • by assessing whether people are able to meet their immediate food needs (the risks to lives)
  • the vulnerability and risks faced by different livelihood groups and their coping strategies (the risks to livelihoods)

After analysing some case studies, the paper ends by highlighting the key challenges posed by a livelihoods approach to assessing food security in emergencies, which include:

• deciding on the right quantities of food aid
• choosing which categories of people to target
• deciding how to combine food and non-food interventions effectively
• deciding when to shift from a food to a non-food approach
• issues of neutrality and impartiality, particularly, but not exclusively, in complex political emergencies

The paper concludes that a livelihoods approach to food-security assessments often means doing a more in-depth assessment than would be the case if lives alone were in question. An analysis of the food security of different livelihood groups will lead to the identification of different interventions for each group. Finally, a livelihoods approach to food-security assessments has implications for food-aid recommendations, because the proportion of the population targeted will increase, and more rations will be required.

[adapted from author]

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