1. HighARCS Workshop Participation, Gender, Age and Livelihoods
Day 3
Livelihoods
Participation, gender and age within and across research teams
Communication, Monitoring and Planning: Workshop with Maan Bimbao

2. Livelihoods Definitions Sustainable Livelihood Framework
Household livelihood strategies
Summing up the importance of gender, age and livelihoods for a participatory research project

3. Livelihoods
Key features of poverty are a high degree of exposure and susceptibility to the risk of crises, stress and shocks, and little capacity to recover quickly from them. (Rakodi 2002: 14)
The capabilities, assets (including both material and social resources) and activities required for a means of living (Carney 1998: 4)

4. Sustainable Livelihood Framework
…a livelihood is sustainable which can cope with and recover from stress and shocks, maintain or enhance its capabilities and assets, and provide sustainable livelihood opportunities for the next generation; and which contributes net benefits to other livelihoods at the local and global levels in the long and short term
(Chambers and Conway 1992: 7-8)

5. 5 key assets 1) Human capital 2) Social capital 3) Natural capital
4) Physical capital
5) Financial capital
(Rakodi 2002)

6. Sustainable Livelihoods Framework
(DFID; Guidance Sheet – Section 1, 1999)

7. Household Livelihood Strategies
= range and combination of activities and choices people undertake to achieve their livelihood goals
… helpless victims trapped by tradition and incompetence in an endless cycle of poverty and despair (Parpart 1995: 261)
Livelihoods approaches propose that thinking in terms of strengths or assets is vital as an antidote to the view of poor people as 'passive' or 'deprived'. (Rakodi 2002)

8. Assets include: human, social, physical, financial and natural capital
Diversifying household strategies
Coping strategies:
stinting, hoarding, protecting, depleting or diversifying

9. Survival strategies
The concept of 'strategy' has the advantage of restoring agency to poor people, rather than regarding them merely as passive victims. (Rakodi 2002: 8)
The poorest and most vulnerable households are forced to adopt strategies which enable them to survive but not to improve their welfare. (Rakodi 2002: 6)

10. Household Livelihoods
Diverse income generation
Farming, non-farm activities, migration (education)
Balancing collective and individual needs
All household members: (seek all views)
Inter-generational relationships (parents and children)
Intra-generational relationships (siblings, birth order)
Extended family members (grandparents, uncles/aunts)
Informal networks
role of neighbours, friends, relatives
Interdependent relationships within + across hhs

11. Chapter 4 on Livelihoods
Springate-Baginski, O., Allen, D. and Darwall, W. (2009) An Integrated Wetland Assessment Toolkit: A Guide to Good Practice, Cambridge: IUCN.

12. At the research field site in your country, what do you think some of the key livelihood strategies consist of?
What are the main contributions of men, women, girls and boys to household livelihoods and the use of aquatic resouces?

13. Participation, gender and age within and across research teams
Funder
(EU)
majority world
researchers
research
managers
Stuart Bunting
project co-ordinator
minority world
researchers
age
gender
class
ethnicity
nine partners

14. Questions for you: How, and why, did you participate in this workshop?
What enabled you to participate and contribute to these sessions?
Could you have participated more, if so, why didn’t you?
What could have been improved to enable you to participate more effectively?

15. Key issues for reflection
Being aware of the nature of the research teams
power relations and hierarchical relationships should be used in ways to enable colleagues to participate effectively
Any conflicting emotions or difficult thoughts around your own participation in the project?
consider how your research participants might feel when you ask them to participate in this research study?
What opportunities and barriers might your research participants face? How can you minimise the constraints and maximise the benefits?

16. Evaluation sheets Thank you! Final Discussion:
Any questions, comments or suggestions?
Evaluation sheets
Thank you!