Abstracts
Theme: Livelihoods
Panel I: South Asian Livelihoods at Risk
Session II: Vulnerability and Resilience to Natural Disasters
 Vulnerabilities of the Livelihood Groups in the Coastal Zone of Bangladesh
Atiq Kainan Ahmed*
Abstract
The nature of vulnerability perceived by various livelihood groups residing in the coastal zone of Bangladesh relate to several major domains: a generally high degree of exposure to natural disasters, the socio-cultural structures of the local population, and difficulties in obtaining sufficient and stable incomes to respond to risk factors.
Under the innovative livelihoods vulnerability study (Titled: Vulnerability Analysis of the Major Livelihood Groups in the Coastal Zone of Bangladesh), the major vulnerabilities of the residing livelihood groups were looked at using a well-constructed methodology. Four livelihood groups were analyzed, i.e. small farmers, artisanal fishers, urban wage laborers and rural wage laborers. These four groups account for approximately 74% of the overall coastal population and are mostly poor. Vulnerability varies in nature and intensity across the four livelihood groups. This calls for specific policies addressing the diversity of vulnerabilities experienced by these large groups in Bangladeshi population of the coastal zone.
While small farmers in the coastal zone face principally economic and financial vulnerability, artisanal fishers’ vulnerability is rather a function of continued exposure to physical and natural disasters. Both urban and rural wage laborers are subject to severe economic constraints that prevent them from realizing the full potential of their livelihoods. This situation is exacerbated in urban areas by social issues.
However, recurrence of disasters and environmental problems affect only in a limited manner the capacity of urban and rural wage laborers to respond to crises. Finally, across all four livelihood groups, results of the study indicate that vulnerability is rather perceived to be the function of exogenous factors but due to endogenous characteristics of individuals and households than a function of exposure to risk.
* Atiq Kainan Ahmed is an applied anthropologist who has widely worked on themes such as Livelihoods-Vulnerability Assessments, Poverty Analysis, Climate change adaptations and so forth. Presently he is working with the Center for Environmental and Geographic Information Services (CEGIS), Dhaka.
Tribal Livelihoods in a Limbo: Changing Tribe-Nature Relationships in South Asia
*Dr. R. Siva Prasad and K. Eswarappa**
Abstract
There is an intricate relationship between the livelihood pursuits of tribal communities and the surrounding natural resources like forest, land, water-bodies and other flora and fauna. The critical balance between the two is very essential for the sustainable livelihoods of the tribals in South Asia, in particular, and in other parts of the world, in general. The coping mechanisms evolved by them are cultural responses to combat the scarcity and poverty conditions that threaten them periodically. This paper attempts to analyse the changing equations of tribal communities with the natural resources and their access to them. This paper assumes that a breakdown of this organic unity affects the conditions of their living and alters various traditional arrangements evolved over generations leading to uncertainty, thereby affecting the balance between them and the surrounding natural environment. The implications of this are myriad, besides they affect their identity and existence.
This paper bases its inferences on the data gathered from official reports and records, Census records, published as well as unpublished research reports, papers, etc., with reference to India. Besides, it also draws its inferences from the studies made by the authors and other scholars in Andhra Pradesh, India. It also takes into account the studies made in other parts of South Asia.
The study expects to find whether cultural knowledge plays an important role in sustaining the livelihoods and managing the available resources. It will analyse if coping mechanisms are a social and cultural response to vulnerability. Development programs are lopsided and have caused greater harm than benefit as they have broken the organic unity of the tribal communities with the surrounding nature. Policy makers are insensitive to the tribal customs, practices and livelihood strategies. Recommendations to strengthen self-governance of tribal areas, including judicial and revenue functions will be discussed.
*Dr. R. Siva Prasad is an Associate Professor, Department of Anthropology, University of Hyderabad, Central University, Andhra Pradesh, India. He has extensive fieldwork experience in different states of India and has also worked on diverse themes focusing on the poor and vulnerable sections of Indian society.
** K. Eswarappa is an ICSSR Doctoral Fellow, Department of Anthropology, University of Hyderabad, Central University, Andhra Pradesh, India.
Reflections on Post-tsunami Relief Work
Aneela Babar*
Women’s livelihoods in tsunami hit areas have not only been affected by the initial devastation of the tsunami but also by the policies and practices of the government and the humanitarian aid to community’s post-disaster response. For instance in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu, relief and reconstruction work and assistance in restoring women’s livelihoods is still determined by the menial roles traditionally assigned to them. The adivasi and dalit women engaged in fishing face double discrimination – being women and belonging to a marginal group. The paper explores principles for ‘engendered relief and reconstruction’. As disaster relief practitioners claim ‘the "window of opportunity" for change and political organization closes very quickly’. How can one ensure that organizations respond in ways that empower women and local communities and rebuild in ways that address the root causes of vulnerability, including gender and social inequalities?
* Aneela Babar got her PhD (2005) from the Centre for Cultural Research, University of Western Sydney, Australia. Her dissertation dealt with transnational gendered religious networks. She has worked with the Gender and Development Program at the Asian Institute of Technology, Thailand, and the Sustainable Development Policy Institute, Pakistan on gender mainstreaming in development projects.
The Impact of Forest Reforms on some Factors of Livelihoods Vulnerability in the Highlands of the Northwest Pakistan
Babar Shahbaz* and Tanvir Ali**
The vulnerability context refers to the external environment in which people exist. People’s livelihoods and access to the livelihood assets are essentially affected by trends as well as by shocks and seasonality – over which they have limited or no control. The factors that make up the vulnerability context are important because they have a direct impact upon people’s asset status and the options that are open to them in pursuit of desired livelihood outcomes. Vulnerability or livelihood insecurity is a constant reality for people living in fragile mountain areas of the North West Frontier Province (NWFP) of Pakistan. People living in these mountain areas are severely affected by the processes of global change. Forests are an important natural capital in these highlands, but non-sustainable forest management strategies have increased the vulnerability and insecurity of livelihoods.
This paper attempts to identify and analyze various livelihoods strategies and the constraining factors (vulnerability context) of sustainable livelihoods of marginalized people living in mountain areas of the NWFP. The impact of the forest reforms (participatory forestry) on the selected factors of vulnerability are discussed by selecting two case study areas, one each in the districts of Mansehra and Swat, NWFP. Within each district, two villages with joint forest management/community participation system and two villages without this system were selected. From each village, 50 households were selected randomly. Thus in total 400 households were interviewed using structured questionnaire. Key informants as well as focus group interviews and participant observation were also conducted to acquire qualitative data. Sustainable Livelihoods Framework (SLF) is used as a tool to investigate the livelihoods of forest dependent mountain people in the context of vulnerability.
* Babar Shahbaz is a doctoral student at the Department of Agricultural Extension University of Agriculture Faisalabad and visiting research associate at the SDPI. He is conducting his Ph.D. research studies in collaboration with the Swiss National Center for Competence in Research (NCCR North-South) and SDPI, Islamabad.
** Dr. Tanvir Ali is an Associate Professor at the Department of Agricultural Extension, and Director Advanced Studies, University of Agricultural, Faisalabad. He is also a senior researcher in NCCR North-South Pakistan research group.
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