Livelihood strategies
Livelihood strategies are the combination of activities that people choose to undertake in order to achieve their livelihood goals. They include productive activities, investment strategies and reproductive choices. Livelihoods approaches try to understand the strategies pursued and the factors behind people’s decisions; to reinforce the positive aspects of these strategies and mitigate against constraints.
The choice of strategies is a dynamic process in which people combine activities to meet their changing needs. For example, in farming households, activities are not necessarily confined to agriculture but often include non-farm activities in order to diversify income and meet household needs. Migration, whether seasonal or permanent, is one common livelihood strategy.
A major influence on people’s choice of livelihood strategies is their access to assets and the policies, institutions and processes that affect their ability to use these assets to achieve positive livelihood outcomes.
People are often forced to compete for limited resources: fundamental to livelihoods approaches is the principle that development support aimed at improving the livelihood strategies of some should not disadvantage those of others now or in the future. Social protection programmes can support the extreme poor to achieve their own positive livelihoods outcomes in cases where they are unable to compete with those with greater access to assets.
The choice of strategies is a dynamic process in which people combine activities to meet their changing needs. For example, in farming households, activities are not necessarily confined to agriculture but often include non-farm activities in order to diversify income and meet household needs. Migration, whether seasonal or permanent, is one common livelihood strategy.
A major influence on people’s choice of livelihood strategies is their access to assets and the policies, institutions and processes that affect their ability to use these assets to achieve positive livelihood outcomes.
People are often forced to compete for limited resources: fundamental to livelihoods approaches is the principle that development support aimed at improving the livelihood strategies of some should not disadvantage those of others now or in the future. Social protection programmes can support the extreme poor to achieve their own positive livelihoods outcomes in cases where they are unable to compete with those with greater access to assets.
Recommended reading
- Sustainable livelihoods guidance sheets: section 2
- ( Eldis Document Store , 1999)
-
This document, the second of a seven part series of Guidance Sheets, starts off by introducing the livelihoods framework. The framework is a tool to improve the understanding of livelihoods, p...
- Sustainable livelihoods guidance sheets: sections 4.8 to 4.13
- ( Eldis Document Store , 2000)
-
This is the fourth of a seven part series of guidance sheets on sustainable livelihoods (SL). This fourth section, for manageability purposes, is broken down in two: sections 4.1 - 4. 7 and section...
