Transcript UNRAVEL Understanding vulnerable and resilient livelihoods Gina Ziervogel

UNRAVEL
Understanding vulnerable and
resilient livelihoods
Gina Ziervogel
Multiple stressors
and their impact on rural livelihoods

Households at risk to multiple threats




Climate variability
Health
Market fluctuations
Food insecurity

Cumulative effect of shocks and stresses through time

Response to shocks and stresses


Focus on HIV/AIDS by assessing households with chronically ill
Impact on food security

Understand existing household response to stress

Nature of response


through time, different members, external/internal
Adaptive/maladaptive strategies
At household level
 At community level


Further support/intervention
Case study evidence

Vhembe District, Limpopo, northern South Africa
Northern south Africa
 Former homeland area
 Good commercial crops but little support for marginal groups
particularly with regards to food security


Chikwawa District, southern Malawi
Southern region
 Poor district
 Relatively high level of external support, with a number of
food security-related projects


Diocese of Monze, southern Zambia
Southern region
 Livestock, crop mix

Objectives
1.
Identify and document the ‘everyday’ threats as well
as other sudden onset and ‘creeping’ threats faced


Full agricultural cycle (12 months)
3 comparative settings
2.
Identify and document the livelihood responses of
individuals and households to such risks and the
consequences of this action
3.
Identify those livelihood strategies associated with
greater household resilience to AIDS impacts, and
those which increase vulnerability to AIDS losses.
Objectives.. cont
4.
Identify community and institutional mechanisms that either
undermine or augment at-risk livelihood assets, capabilities and
activities
5.
Feed-back the knowledge generated by the research to better
sensitise ongoing home-based care and food security or other
livelihood enhancement programmes in the participating
communities
6.
Support the dissemination of knowledge gained from the
research into policy and practice through



Partner networks
Country and regional networks
Incorporate into academic programmes on disaster risk reduction
and HIV/AIDS
Methodology


Pilot methodology
One village in each country




Baseline study
On-going monitoring
– every 2 months x 5
Final baseline comparison
20 households


10 with members who are chronically ill or have
recently died from a chronic illness
10 that appear not to be directly impacted by
HIV/AIDS in the sense that there are no chronically
sick members and no-one has recently died
Community participation

Identification of households




Village structures – civil society groups and traditional
authorities
Home-based care groups
Agricultural extension officers
On-going monitoring




Researcher
Village-based support – PLWA (SA), Extension, HBC (Malawi)
Initial suspicion from community members
Truthful answers as trust increases through on-going
interaction
Challenges with local partnerships

South Africa – University of Venda




Malawi – Cadecom + MHEN



Research experience lacking (data collection, analysis)
Project management
Zambia



Ethical clearance
Support from all levels – community, NGOs
(little interaction with international partners)
First researcher died from chronic illness
No interaction between research and advocacy partners
Academic analysis experience lacking
Preliminary findings

SA




Role of grants. Eg. Disability grant has helped sick people recover and
maintain or adapt their livelihoods
Stress of burial society
Less agriculture than 5 years ago – food not locally produced
Malawi

Cultural and traditional practices




Not acknowledging sick members; cultural practices that increase infection
Survival strategies threaten hh sustainability – migrant labour
Volunteering for HBC can make households more vulnerable
Zambia

Reliance of petty commerce compared to piecework in other 2 sites
Conclusion

Findings intend to


Illustrate the ability of community and district institutions to support
responses
Identify where and what type of intervention might help
‘This project has helped me to look at a household as an entity. This is important to
address first before scaling up to a national initiative. This bottom-up approach
is very important and UNRAVEL provides a focus for that.’

Local participation helps to



capture sensitive and important results in the slow-onset/food insecurity/
HIV/AIDS context
Support local partnerships
Build capacity