Background
The Sustainable Livelihoods framework, as adapted by Eko Nomos, explores four contextual dimensions of poverty in order to support more active, strategic interventions:
A: Vulnerability Context
B: Assets
C: Dynamics of Change
D: Policy and Institutional Context
A: “Vulnerability Context”
This explores the context that creates and perpetuates people’s vulnerability to poverty at two levels: the individual and their circumstances, and broader institutions and systems that control the options that are open to people. The “Vulnerability Context” acknowledges that while people can and do make choices that deplete assets and make their lives less stable, there are powerful external systems and forces that combine to maintain a long-term cycle of poverty.
B: Assets
Assets are the building blocks of a sustainable livelihood at the individual level and a sustainable community at the neighbourhood level. People pursue various asset-building strategies that support them both in surviving and in coping with the context that makes them vulnerable to poverty, so that they can move towards stability and sustainability. A limited range of assets makes people vulnerable to poverty and social exclusion.
The Sustainable Livelihoods framework identifies five broad asset areas that offer a holistic picture of all the capabilities, resources and entitlements that people have invested in and developed over time. In focussing on assets rather than deficits, the framework avoids the negative, deficit-based approach that is so common to the social service and economic development fields.
The five broad asset areas are:
Social Assets
- The social connections that people can draw upon to achieve their goals
- Building a foundation of networks and contacts, enhance support systems, making it easier to develop other assets
Physical Assets
- Basic needs for housing and food
- Access to the information and services required to build a livelihood
Human Assets
- Employability, including skills, knowledge, education and leadership
- Central to all livelihood strategies, yet not sufficient on their own to ensure progress towards a sustainable livelihood
- Includes health as a pre-determinant of person’s ability to participate in the economy
Personal Assets
- Includes sense of personal and cultural identity, and private values and beliefs
- Self-confidence and self-esteem, as well as motivation and strength
- Less tangible assets that people bring to the process of personal transformation
Financial Assets
- Earnings, money and financial security (including access to financial entitlements from government)
- Important entry-point for transformation and development: the ability to earn money and decide how it should be spent provides people with a powerful means of building up a wider range of assets
C: Dynamics of Change
Our research revealed that assets and outcomes can best be understood in terms of the progress that individual people make towards a livelihood. We identified a “theory of change” about how people develop assets over time and the stages through which they progress on their way towards sustainable livelihoods.
When people are in survival mode and have few assets, asset development strategies often focus on accessing basic needs. As people get on their feet, strategies to reduce social isolation and support participation become important. Once a reserve of assets is in place, people move from coping strategies towards strategies to build their employability.
D: The Policy and Institutional Context
“Transforming Structures and Processes within the livelihoods framework are the institutions, organisations, policies and legislation that shape livelihoods. Their importance cannot be over-emphasised. They operate at all levels, from the household to the international arena, and in all spheres, from the most private to the most public.
They effectively determine:
- Access (to various types of capital, to livelihood strategies and to decision-making bodies and sources of influence);
- The terms of exchange between different types of capital; and
- Returns (economic and otherwise) to any given livelihood strategy.
By looking at the context provided by our institutions and their current policies, we can understand some of the constraints and opportunities, and develop strategies to build a more enabling policy environment.
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