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T31 Livelihood Vulnerability Analysis
T31: Livelihood Vulnerability Analysis
Livelihood’s vulnerability analysis is a method of assessing the impact of hazards on community livelihood resources. The tools help with planning for improving community resources.
| Tool purpose: | Time needed: |
| • Identifying the hazards that have the most serious impact on important livelihood resources. • Determining which livelihood resources are most vulnerable. • Identifying current coping strategies and beginning to identify opportunities for adaptation. • Informing an understanding of local values of ecosystem services in relation to livelihoods and well-being and how these may change because of the threat of hazards. | 1.5 hours |
| Materials needed: | |
| Chart paper, note cards, markers, or other locally available resources, like sticks, stones, straw, beans, seeds, coloured powders or saw dust, etc. |
Keyword Search Tags
Project Phase:
Initiation Phase, Planning Phase, Exit & Evaluation Phase
Approaches for Working With Communities: Community Development Approach, Community Engagement Approach
Behavioural Drivers (COM-B):
Behaviour Change Diagnosis and Planning, Opportunity
Stages of Behaviour Change:
Pre-contemplation Stage, Contemplation Stage, Preparation Stage
Project Support: Participatory Learning and Action Tools, Needs Assessment, Gender Analysis
Specific Topics: Livelihoods; Vulnerability / Resilience; Group Formation / Strengthening
The figure below shows an example of a community vulnerability map showing the different livelihood resources/assets and what makes them vulnerable. The process enables the community to understand how their resources can be vulnerable and put in place a plan to address the vulnerabilities to reduce the negative impact they would have on the resources they depend on.
| Livelihood’s vulnerability analysis | |
|---|---|
| Step 1 | Ask participants to brainstorm and identify the most important livelihoods resources for them. It may help to organise the livelihood resources or to have a checklist based on the 5 livelihood assets (or resource) classes commonly used in Sustainable Livelihoods frameworks (human, social, physical, natural, and financial) The definitions provided below are from the Brookes Livelihood Position Statement and Guidance notes. i. NATURAL CAPITAL refers to natural resources, which includes land, soils, air, water, and all living organisms. EXAMPLE: equids, water, soil conservation for feed/fodder production, agriculture production/feed/fodder ii. FINANCIAL CAPITAL income, savings, loans and/or other economic resources needed to meet their needs. EXAMPLE: access and availability of savings, credit/loans, livestock insurance schemes iii. PHYSICAL CAPITAL tangible, man-made goods that support the creation of a product or service EXAMPLE: cart, harness, roads, ploughs, market shelters/resource centres, water points, boreholes iv. SOCIAL CAPITAL is defined as what we share with others, such us our family, friends, and community as values, norms, and trust, that enable us to move developed as individuals and collectively such being in as savings groups. EXAMPLE: self-help groups facilitate working together towards collective action to produce/buy feed and at reduced cost, advocate for needs and accountability of service providers, as well as amongst community members themselves regarding their treatment of animals. v. HUMAN CAPITAL refers to the skills, knowledge, and experience possessed by an individual or population. EXAMPLE: knowledge and skills to address the equid welfare issues identified as impacting communities’ livelihoods i.e., knowledge and skills to keep animals healthy and prevent/treat disease and death, building competencies of animal health practitioners As this is likely to create a long list of resources, ask participants to then identify up to six resources that they consider to be MOST important in meeting their animal’s welfare needs. Create a matrix by first listing these priority resources down the left side column of the matrix, using words, symbols, or graphics to represent the resources for all to understand. |
| Step 2 | Next ask participants to identify the greatest hazards to their livelihoods. Hazards may be natural or man-made. It is important to be specific in the hazards, and to ensure that the issues identified are hazards. Participants may identify conditions such as “food insecurity” as hazards. Ask the group to break down these conditions to determine if they are caused by hazards (e.g., food insecurity may be the result of a drought, which is a hazard). Similarly, some groups may identify scarcity of resources, such as “lack of money”, as a hazard. In this case, it should be determined whether the lack of a resource is the result of a hazard, or in some cases, whether the resource should be added to the list of priority resources identified in the previous step. |
| Step 3 | Once completed, ask participants to identify up to six hazards they consider to be the MOST The five most important hazards should be listed horizontally across the top of the matrix, again using symbols if necessary. |
| Step 4 | Participants should then decide on a scoring system for assessing how vulnerable their animal dependent livelihoods are because of their livelihood resources being impacted by each hazard, identifying significant, medium/moderate, low and no impact from hazards. It is vital that all participants understand the scoring system. An example is provided below for reference: 3 = hazard significantly impacts the resource 2 = hazard moderately impacts the resource1 = hazard has a low impact on the resource 0 = hazard has no impact on the resource Stones, symbols, or different colours of markers (e.g., red = significant risk to resource, orange = medium risk, green = low risk, blue = no risk) could also be used. |
| Step 5 | Consider each resource in turn, support participants in discussing and agreeing the degree of impact that each of the hazards has on each of the resources. Any inconsistencies or differences of opinion should be discussed and resolved, if possible (either through discussion or by exploring the reasons for these differences and preparing more than one table if necessary). |
| Step 6 | Discuss and analyse the results, noting different perspectives from different participants. An example is provided in the table T31. The following questions can be used to guide the discussion but should be adopted and adapted according to the focus of the exercise. • Are there any trends in the impact of hazards on livelihood resources? • Which resources are most affected and why? • Are there any resources that are more resistant to hazard? • What coping strategies are currently used to deal with the hazards identified? Are they working? • Are there different strategies that you would like to adopt which would reduce the impact of hazards on your livelihoods? • What resources do you have that would help you to adopt these new strategies? • What are the constraints to adopting these new strategies? |
| Step 7 | Once complete, take a photo or record the outputs on a piece of paper. Ensure that the community has a copy for their records and facilitator has a copy for future reference or planning. Record the actions, activities, and proposed linkages into your project action tracker, and support the community by linking them to any necessary stakeholders. |
Facilitator's Notes
- It can take time for people to understand the concepts and thus good facilitation will be needed to engage them.
- There is need for the facilitator to be well versed with the five domain of animal welfare sufficiently prior to conducting this exercise as this is necessary to enable them to help the community identify resources important to meeting their animals' welfare needs.
- Be aware that sensitive issues may not be discussed or clear to an outsider.
- Local participants should be encouraged to build as much of the diagram as possible without interruption and to suggest anything else that should be recorded.
- Consider having different groups based on gender, social status (re marginalized groups) when conducting the discussions.
Tool adapted from [89]