Abstracts
Panel I: South Asian Livelihoods at Risk
Session I: General Issues
 Livelihood Risks in Pakistan
Muhammad Bashir and Irfan Ullah*
Abstract
There are several threats to potential sources of livelihood in South Asia. In this paper these threats will be examined with special reference to Pakistan. Some of the challenging threats are natural hazards, decreasing water resources, depleting soil fertility, shrinking farm size, emerging trade issues, macro imbalances and gender issues. If these issues are not properly addressed the incidence of poverty, hunger and malnutrition is likely to increase at a threatening rate. This paper will explore potential livelihood risks in Pakistan specifically for policy implication.
The main objectives of the paper are: to review lively threat due to natural hazards; to investigate threats due to decreasing water resources; to examine threat due to decreasing soil fertility; and, to examine threat due to shrinking farm size, globalization and gender issues. The data will be collected mainly from research reports, government reports, newspapers, and websites.
* Muhammad Bashir is Professor and Irfan Ullah is M.Sc (H) student in the Department of Agricultural Economics NWFP Agricultural University Peshawar, Pakistan.
Urban Livelihoods in Afghanistan: How Poor Households Cope with Risk and Insecurity
*Stefan Schütte and Aftab Opel**
Abstract
This paper builds on an ongoing research-project carried out by the Afghanistan Research and Evaluation Unit (AREU) among urban households in three cities of Afghanistan – Kabul, Herat, and Jalalabad. Altogether 120 households in these cities are recurrently interviewed and their life-paths observed over the period of one year. The central objective of this research is thereby to build a better understanding of the diverse urban livelihood strategies of the urban poor in Afghanistan and the risks they have to face, in order to fill the substantial knowledge gap concerning urban poverty in Afghanistan and subsequently to identify lessons and recommendations for programming and policy formulation.
Prior research carried out by AREU indicates that poor urban households adapt or respond to changing circumstances and risky conditions differently, and that their efforts to change or remove barriers to their well-being take on different forms. It appears that there exists a continuum of efforts to struggle for making a living (endurance), to achieve longer-term well-being (security), or to move out of poverty altogether (growth). Consequently, a central aim of the overall research is to identify indicators of up or downward movements in this continuum and to isolate characteristics and determinants that shape and differentiate varying situations of the urban poor in Afghanistan.
The paper deals with the possible shape such indicators may take, and explores the varying strategies that are employed by poor urban households to cope with risk and insecurity. It draws on the initial seven months of empirical field-research and as such offers preliminary insights and findings.
These refer to the shape of risky economic, human, social, political and environmental contexts in which most poor Afghan urban households make their living and that pose multiple threats to their well-being. Preliminary evidence suggests that livelihood-strategies employed by the households studied to deal with these threats resemble varying capacities to move along the above-mentioned continuum. These strategies can be classified as enhancement strategies, aimed at increasing well-being through asset-accumulation (growth), mitigating strategies, aimed at proactively protecting against risks and maintaining an achieved level of livelihood security (security), and coping strategies, implemented as a reaction to contingencies and severe shocks, usually leading to a withdrawal from the available asset-portfolio (endurance). These strategies appear however not to be mutually exclusive, and the ongoing research attempts to identify the specific characteristics of households employing different strategies, and the times during which different strategies need to be employed, either sequentially or simultaneously.
*Stefan Schütte is a PhD in Social and Cultural Geography from the University of Heidelberg, Germany, currently working as urban livelihoods researcher for the Afghanistan Research and Evaluation Unit (AREU), an independent research organisation based in Kabul.
**Aftab Opel has a Masters in Anthropology from Jahangirnagar University Dhaka, Bangladesh, currently working as research manager for urban livelihoods and migration for the Afghanistan Research and Evaluation Unit (AREU), Kabul
Vulnerability and Resilience in Rural North-West Pakistan
*Karin Astrid Siegmann and Bernd Steimann**
Abstract
The objective of this paper is to explore factors of vulnerability and resilience of rural communities in Pakistan’s North-West Frontier Province (NWFP). The research questions asked during this study included examining the factors that make households and individuals vulnerable or resilient to different types of crises; the gender differences that characterise the communities’ experience of crises as well as their resilience; and the livelihood strategies that are more robust to crises than others.
The data set analysed for this paper was compiled from the Sustainable Livelihoods Survey 2004 carried out in three villages in the Mansehra and Mardan Districts, NWFP.
The investigation showed that households are particularly prone to human and financial capital-related crises. Such vulnerability is most pronounced in the highland village. At the individual level, women’s health status as a proxy for vulnerability is considerably poorer than men’s. Here, the more conservative lowland village showed the largest gender gap in health status. Regarding factors of vulnerability, the results highlighted the close association between households’ poverty and vulnerability. Diversification appeared to be a buffer against human capital-related crises. The investment in social capital seemed to be an important coping strategy for various types of crises. As determinants of individual health, demographic factors appeared to be more relevant than asset status. Overall, both on the household and on the individual level, no systematic links between the households’ asset status and their vulnerability and resilience could be established. It is stressed that poverty alleviation means reduction of vulnerability of communities in rural NWFP. At the same time, the establishment of and access to organisations that address people’s needs and interests appears crucial to strengthen resilience. Taking loans emerged as an important coping strategy after a crisis had occurred. Thus, improving rural communities’ access to loans in an environment where formal financial institutions are almost non-existent is another policy lesson to be learned. Finally, distinct gender dimensions are hidden in these findings. Women’s experience of poverty is more severe; their access to community-based organisations (CBOs) and finance is restricted. Improving their access to such social and financial resources is thus a priority for strengthening resilience in rural NWFP.
*Karin Astrid Siegmann is a Junior Research Fellow at the Sustainable Development Policy Institute in Islamabad. She holds a Ph.D. in Agricultural Economics from the University of Bonn/Germany. Her specialisation is in gender and globalisation.
**Bernd Steimann, Master’s in Geography, worked as a researcher with the Development Study Group, Department of Geography, University of Zurich. He is specializing on rural development research in Pakistan and Kyrgyzstan.
|
