LADDER is a research project funded by the Policy Research Programme of the UK Department for International Development (DFID) that seeks to identify alternative routes by which the rural poor can climb out of poverty. LADDER is working with nearly 40 villages and 1,200 households in Uganda, Tanzania, Malawi and Kenya to discover the blocking and enabling agencies in the institutional environme...

Livelihoods approaches emerged from a broad range of efforts to understand how people live in particular places. They have since cohered into often instrumentally applied frameworks that rest on the broadly held assumption that livelihoods are principally about the management of one’s material circumstances. This assumption limits the explanatory power of livelihoods approaches by shifting a ra...

Two decades after their rapid rise to prominence, the place of livelihoods approaches in contemporary development conversations and programming is unclear. This status is in many ways deserved, as such approaches have often failed to deliver rigorous explanations of observed livelihoods decisions and outcomes. However, the recent refocusing of development and climate change discourses around th...

A core aim of this paper is to situate the discussion of food security and livelihoods approaches in the broader context of the evolution and application of livelihoods approaches across departments within FAO and elsewhere, and draw practical lessons for FIVIMS. This Annex provides some initial background on linkages between concepts of food security and livelihoods and issues surrounding the ...

Inshore marine resources play an important role in the livelihoods of Pacific Island coastal communities. However, such reliance can be detrimental to inshore marine ecosystems. Understanding the livelihoods of coastal communities is important for devising relevant and effective fisheries management strategies. Semi-structured household interviews were conducted with householders in Langalanga ...

In recent times, there has been an increased outbreak of conflicts across the globe, particularly in areas experiencing livelihood fragility. Available literature suggests that in a society where livelihoods are threatened, minimal, or non-existent, the people are generally more overwhelmed and prone to violence and conflict. This paper consolidates the available literature on livelihoods and c...

This paper investigates the impacts of Communal Property Associations on rural livelihoods in the Northern Province, South Africa. After a brief review of livelihoods and a short background to land reform in South Africa the paper details findings regarding the impact of land reform in the province. Quantitative and qualitative interviews were conducted from July 1999 until May 2000 and in Janu...

An interdepartmental programme for Improving support for enhancing livelihoods of the rural poor. Cover photograph from FAO Photo-library This paper was prepared under contract with the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO). The positions and opinions presented are those of the author alone, and are not intended to represent the views of FAO. The Livelihood Support Progr...

The security and quality of livelihoods for peasant households is the core issue for rural areas in China. A stable livelihood contributes to the harmonious development of related polices, poverty eradication and sustainable use of resources. In Qinghe County, located in the extremely arid zone of Northwest China, 238 validated surveys were conducted. The analysis focuses on the importance of l...