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Strategies for survival: the dynamics of livelihood diversity in Mali and Ethiopia

For rural families everywhere, reliance on income from farming has never been enough. A diverse range of jobs, markets and skills is often the only way to make ends meet. For the poorest, the right to collect wild fruit to trade in local markets may save them from starvation. For richer households, engaging in off-farm activities may be the key to investing against lean times ahead. With international development targets looming - in particular, the aim to halve acute poverty globally by 2015 - it is increasingly urgent to ask: what can families do to improve their livelihoods, and how can policy support them better? This Institute of Development Studies paper examines strategies for livelihood diversity (LD) in Mali and Ethiopia, raising critical questions about interventions to help families escape from poverty.

Mali and Ethiopia may seem starkly contrasting countries. But despite differences in social, economic and institutional settings, many of the questions - if not the answers - about how people survive are the same. Who diversifies? Is it the rich or the poor? What are the flows of capital and labor between farm and off-farm activities? How do patterns of LD change over time? And what role do institutions play in affecting access to capital and diverse activities? The paper firstly summarizes recent literature on rural household responses to risk and economic change. Secondly, it describes how individuals and households diversify in the two countries. Thirdly, it assesses the impact of diversification on the sustainability and well-being of individuals and groups. It then compares the major findings from the two countries. Finally, it identifies the forms of state intervention which might strengthen the positive aspects of LD to improve the long-term security of the rural poor.

Various findings include:

In all sites studied, the household remains the primary mechanism for the pooling of incomes, division of labor between tasks, and sharing of risks.
Patterns of LD follow a U-shaped curve, with poorer households trying to ensure survival while richer households diversify to accumulate wealth.
Larger, better-off households can often benefit from high-yielding off-farm assets, but these may in turn create such tension and competition amongst family members that the household breaks up.
In all case study sites, it is the younger generation who most often migrate in search of income.
Evidence from both countries shows there tends to be more LD activity in higher potential, higher density farming areas, because the local economy provides a broader range of options to pursue. In more marginal areas, people must migrate.
Nuclear households follow a marked development cycle linked to their structure and dependency ratio, which affects availability of labour and ability to diversify.

Policy implications include:

Policies should recognize the importance of diverse, dynamic and multi-dimensional livelihood strategies.
Poorer communities need better access to credit.
Barriers to migration should be eased, since it brings much-needed cash to households as well as increasing the knowledge and skills of the migrants.
Collective rights over natural resources must be strengthened, in particular to provide assured access to land and common property resources for poorer households and for women.
Transport and market development are a mixed blessing, creating openings for new skills and products, while threatening some trades and activities.
Large domestic groups may constrain the independence and interests of younger members and women, but also provide some protection from risk.

Source(s):
'Diversification of Livelihoods: Evidence from Mali and Ethiopia', IDS Research Report #47, Institute of Development Studies, Brighton, by Camilla Toulmin, Rebecca Leonard, Karen Brock, Ngolo Coulibaly, Grace Carwell and Data Dea (May 2000)

Funded by: UK Department for International Develoment (ESCOR)

id21 Research Highlight: 1 December 2000

Further Information:
Camilla Toulmin
Drylands Programme
International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED)
3 Endsleigh Street
London WC1H 0DD
UK

Tel: +44 (0)20 7388-2117
Fax: +44 (0)20 7388-2826
Contact the contributor: camilla.toulmin@iied.org / nicole.kenton@iied.org

IIED (International Institute for Environment and Development)

Institute of Development Studies (IDS), UK

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