(Source: DFID 1999)
What type of information is required to analyse the vulnerability context?
Livelihoods analysis does not have to be exhaustive to be effective. Rather than trying to develop a full understanding of all dimensions of the Vulnerability Context, the aim is to identify those trends, shocks and aspects of seasonality that are of particular importance to livelihoods. Effort can then be concentrated on understanding the impact of these factors and how negative aspects can be minimised. This requires a prior understanding of the nature of local livelihoods - what types of livelihood strategies are employed by local people and what factors constrain them from achieving their objectives. Such understanding cannot be gained without social analysis so that particular social groups and their relationship with factors within the Vulnerability Context can be identified.
While it is important to narrow down the extent of analysis, it is also important to think broadly about factors within the Vulnerability Context that might affect local people, so that less-obvious issues are not neglected. For example, when thinking about seasonality, it is important to consider both immediate and more distant effects.
In a rural setting, it may be necessary to find answers to the following types of question:
What type of information is required to analyse human capital?
There are many quite well-developed indicators of human health, though some - such as life expectancy - may be difficult to assess at local level. Rather than focusing on exact measures, it may be more appropriate to investigate variations. Do different social groups have obviously lower or higher life expectancy? Are the children of indigenous groups, for example, more poorly nourished than other children? Does the quality of health care available to different groups differ markedly?
Education indicators may be easier to assess. It is relatively simple to determine the average number of years a child spends in school, or the percentage of girls who are enrolled in school. What is far more difficult is understanding the quality, impact and value to livelihoods of these years in school, the correlation - if there is one - between years in school and knowledge, and the relationship between either of these and leadership potential.
Formal education is certainly not the only source of knowledge-based human capital. It is equally important to understand existing local knowledge, how this is shared, added to and what purpose it serves. For example, some knowledge can be highly useful for production - think of knowledge about modern, intensive farming techniques - but be neutral or negative in terms of its effect upon the environment and environmental sustainability. Or some knowledge - again, think of knowledge for production, either agricultural or industrial - may be effectively useless unless it is coupled with other types of knowledge (knowledge about how to market goods, about appropriate quality standards, etc.)
The following types of questions are likely to be important when thinking about human capital:
What type of information is required to analyse social capital?
Levels of social capital are hard to gauge from the outside. They may be discernible only after lengthy analysis (which may be beyond project/programme resources) and it is unlikely that they will be quantifiable. For example, simply counting the number of registered groups in a community is not likely to yield a measure of social capital; group nature and quality is as important as group numbers. Often we will be looking at trends - whether the state of social organisation appears to be becoming better or worse for livelihoods - rather than trying to gauge exact levels of social capital.
It is very important not to permit these difficulties to cause neglect of social factors when working with communities. Over time it will be vital to develop an understanding of the nature of civic relations at a wider community level, of the types of social resources upon which households rely and of who is excluded from these benefits. Groups with overlapping membership can be particularly problematic if it emerges that people with a particular social profile are excluded from all groups.
Another important point for observation is people’s coping strategies in times of crisis and the extent to which they have relied on social resources to see them through.
What kind of information is required to analyse natural capital?
It is not only the existence of different types of natural assets that is important, but also access, quality and how various natural assets combine and vary over time (e.g. seasonal variations in value). For example, degraded land with depleted nutrients is of less value to livelihoods than high quality, fertile land, and the value of both will be much reduced if users do not have access to water and the physical capital or infrastructure that enables them to use that water.
With natural resources it is also very important to investigate long-term trends in quality and use. This is familiar territory for those skilled in the practice of rural appraisal techniques (mapping, transect walks, etc.). Typical issues for analysis might include:
Environmental economists have invested considerable effort in trying to determine overall values for natural assets that take into account:
This type of valuation exercise helps remind us of the many uses of natural resources and also of our obligations as ‘custodians’ rather than ‘owners’. However, most livelihoods analysis of natural capital will not go this far. Indirect use values are likely to feature prominently in calculations only when they are problematic or where they offer significant income prospects.
For example:
What kind of information is required to analyse physical capital?
The approach to analysing physical capital must be participatory. Users may place a greater importance on some services than others and these priorities must be taken into account. For example, people may prefer to use a surface water supply a long way away rather than to pump a well near at hand.
Access is also a key concern. Sometimes costly infrastructure exists in an area, but this does not mean that the poor have access to it. This might be because the user-fees are too expensive for them or because richer groups use their strength and influence to control or monopolise access.
What kind of information is required to analyse financial capital?
First it is important to gain a straightforward understanding of:
Understanding the nature of savings behaviour requires finding answers to questions such as:
In the past, the existence and effects of what can be quite sizeable flows of remittance income have often been over-looked. To correct this, it is important to understand:
What type of information is required to analyse structures?
It is relatively straightforward - though time-consuming - to analyse through observation and survey which structures exist and what they do. What is more difficult to understand is how different structures relate to each other (the processes that govern their interactions) and how, in conjunction with various processes, they impact upon the poor, and vice versa.
Depending upon the importance attributed to various structures it may be important to understand the:
At the same time it is obviously important to understand how they operate (processes), the extent to which they are held in popular trust and the nature of their relations with other structures.
This type of information is required in order to establish whether and how existing structures can act as building blocks for the promotion of the interests of the poor.
What type of information is required to analyse processes?
In order to understand the impact of existing processes on livelihoods, it is necessary to be able to trace through the effects of given processes on particular groups. The understanding gained through this analysis will then assist with the development of more effective processes, if this is a priority.
Analysis of policies and legislation is complicated by the need to know:
Some policies and legislation - including some of governments’ more impressive pronouncements -are never acted upon or are not enforced. In other cases they may have perverse outcomes (e.g. legislation preventing tree-felling may reduce the amount of trees planted, changes in factor prices under adjustment policies may not have the expected impact on production). Unless this is known, it will not be easy to think about the effects of processes on livelihoods and whether change is a priority.
Further work is required to develop more effective methodologies for analysing policies, their effects on livelihoods and how they themselves are influenced by what happens at local level.
What type of information is required to analyse livelihood strategies?
It is very important that preconceptions about what the poor do - what their livelihood strategies are - should be put aside. It has been common in the past to make untested assumptions about the poor, and as a consequence, to misdirect support (e.g. supporting agriculture on the assumption that most of the poor are farmers, when the poorest of the poor may be wage labourers outside agriculture).
The following types of issues are important when thinking about livelihood strategies.
As always, it is important to take a socially differentiated view of livelihood strategies in order to focus support in the most appropriate area. This means thinking about variations in livelihoods strategies between different social groups, why these exist and what effect they have.
What information is required to analyse livelihood outcomes?
When thinking about Livelihood Outcomes, it is important to understand not only the aims of particular groups, but also the extent to which these are already being achieved. If certain social groups are systematically failing to achieve their aims, it may be because their aims conflict with the aims of other, more powerful groups. Or it may be because they do not have the means (assets) to achieve them. This distinction will help inform activity in support of the weaker groups.
Assessing non-tangible outcomes, which may be very subjective and private, is a challenge. When thinking about well-being, for example, the following types of issues might be important:
For all issues it will be important to investigate what the current situation is, how it is changing over time, and whether securing change is a priority for local people.
