1. Sustainable Livelihood approach for assessing community’s resilience to climate variability and change /A case study from Sudan
Second International Conference on
Climate
Impacts Assessment (SICCIA)
June 28-July 2, 2004 Grainau, Germany By
Dr.Balgis Osman Elasha
PI AIACC-AF 14 Project
The Higher Council for Environment & Natural Resources
(HCENR) Sudan & Stockholm Environment Institute –
Boston Center (SEI_B)

2. Overview Why SL? Sustainable livelihood (SL)
conceptual framework
Basic definitions
SL assessment
Connection to adaptation
SL and Environmental management measures
An example from Sudan case studies conducted by AIACC –AF14 project.

3. Why talk about Sustainable Livelihoods?
Urgent adaptation needs of most vulnerable groups
Existence of local coping strategies
Hard-won lessons from other (non-climate) disciplines (e.g. disaster mitigation, natural resource management)
No-regrets options
Lack of connection between community needs and the policy process

4. Basic Definitions 2. Sustainable Livelihood
1.Livelihoods are the ways people make a living, including how they distribute their productive resources and the types of activities in which they are engaged
2. Sustainable Livelihood
The Brundtland Commission in 1987:Intrdoduced SL in terms of resources ownership, access to basic needs and livelihood security
The IISD: “SL concerned with people's capacities to generate & maintain their means of living, enhance their well- being, and that of future generations.
The definition used by the UK's (DFID): A livelihood comprises the capabilities, assets & activities required for a means of living .

5. Basic definitions (Cont.):
Resilience – The capacity of a population to adapt to environmental change such as extreme climatic events and climate variability.
Adaptation: is the ability to respond and adjust to actual or potential impacts of changing climate conditions in ways that moderates harm or takes advantage of positive opportunities
Coping Strategies – The short-term responses to periodic stress, such as the use of famine foods in drought.
Adaptive Strategies –Strategies that require people to reorganize their livelihood systems in response to long-term changes and challenges.
Security: The state of a community that can provide safeguards for itself against social, economic and environmental change

6. Livelihood assessment:
Livelihood assessment is a way of looking at how an individual, a household or a community behaves under specific frame conditions.
How to understand livelihood systems?
Through analysis of the impacts of coping and adaptive strategies pursued by individuals and communities as a response to external shocks and stresses such as drought, civil strife and policy failures

7. Connection to Adaptation-How?
The SL approach helps researchers to:
Focus on most vulnerable people
Assess their vulnerabilities and strengths
Tap existing knowledge & ongoing efforts to determine what works
Enable community-driven strategies and actions; ensure buy-in and longevity
Ultimately… fortify against future climate-related shocks

8. What types of measures are we considering?
SL/Environmental Management Measures (SL/EM): like rangelands management, micro-catchments restoration, soil management, etc., each of which involves an array of specific measures (e.g., water harvesting, intercropping, livestock diversification, windbreak construction, reforestation

9. Sudan’s Project:
Sudan AIACC Project “Environmental Strategies for Increasing Human Resilience in Sudan: Lessons for Climate Change Adaptation in North and East African”
Goal:
to prove that certain SL/EM measures increase the resilience of communities to climate related shocks
establish that these measures are effective and should be considered as climate change adaptation options that could be included in the planning of national adaptation strategies.
to explore what enables them to be effective – i.e., what factors (participatory implementation, local governance, macro-economic policies, etc.) made it possible for the measures to be successful

10. How??
Case Studies were employed to explore example where local knowledge (e.g. traditional, indigenous autonomous and informal) and/ or external knowledge (formal, technical, directed) has been applied within a target community in the form of SL/NRM strategy to enable the community to cope with or adapt to climate–related stress. Each Case study will also provide an assessment of the local and national policies and conditions that support or inhibit the measures

11. Sources of information:
community groups,
local, regional and international NGOs;
government agencies;
university departments and;
bilateral and multilateral development agencies,

12. Pilot Case study:
Pilot case study
To demonstrate the use of sustainable livelihood framework for measuring the adaptive capacity of local communities to climate change impacts the following pilot case study was being conducted under the umbrella of Sudan - AIACC –AF14 project
Community-Based Rangeland Rehabilitation for Carbon Sequestration and Biodiversity.

13. Objectives:
Twofold:
a) to sequester carbon through the implementation of a sustainable, local-level natural resources management system that prevents degradation, rehabilitates or improves rangelands; and
b) to reduce the risks of production failure in a drought-prone area by providing alternatives for sustainable production, so that out-migration will decrease and population will stabilize”

14. Pilot CS Cont.
Context: Villages in the drought-prone area of Western Sudan
Approach: Community-Based Rangeland Rehabilitation
Key Actors: Villages within Gireigikh rural council, pilot project
Funding: UNDP/GEF

15. What happened? Community Organization
A group of villages undertook a package of SL measures, designed to regenerate and conserve the degraded rangelands upon which their community depends.
Community Organization
Alternative Livestock and Livestock Management
Rural Energy Management
Replanting
Stabilization of sand dunes
Creation of windbreaks
Micro-lending for supplemental
income generation

16. Community institutional structure created
What are the outcome of the pilot project (results from evaluation report)
Community institutional structure created
land-use master plans;
oversight and mobilization structures
Rangeland rehabilitation measures implemented
5 km of sand dunes re-vegetated
195 km of windbreaks sheltering 130 farms
Approximately 700 ha improved
Livestock restocking
Community development underway
2 revolving funds
5 pastoral women’s groups focused on livestock value-adding activities
5 new irrigated gardens and wells
Grain storage and seed credit program

17. : Primary Assessment tool
The primary tool employed in this assessment is the sustainable livelihood impact assessment methods for assessing project impacts on target communities.
Objective: To measure the impact of the project intervention on the community coping/adaptive capacity through the employment of a range of data collection methods, a combination of quantitative and qualitative indicators.
Community’s coping and adaptive capacities in the face of climatic variability and extremes is used as proxy for its level of coping and adaptive capacity for future climate change

18. Methods used
Use of DFID SL model and notion of the five capitals (natural, physical, human, social and financial:
Within the SL framework the project employed the Livelihood Assets Tracking (LAST) system to measure changes in coping and adaptive capacity.
Use of word pictures by household to assess their own vulnerability ,coping and adaptive capacity to a climate-related impact.
Consultation with communities to develop indicators of community resilience and construct word pictures.
Use of stratified sampling methods to ensure representation of a range of individuals and household circumstances

19. Sustainable livelihoods capital assets
Natural capital
Financial capital
Physical capital
Human capital
Social capital

20. Word pictures:
are descriptions of HH circumstances developed in a participatory manner with the community in question.
-Best case”
“worse case” snapshot.

21. Development of indicators
Two types of indicators were identified:
1- Short-term indicators include:
- economic - e.g., crop productivity, livestock productivity, local grain reserves;
- ecological - e.g., biomass, soil water balance; and
Social - e.g., household wealth and dislocation.
2- Longer-term resilience indicators which are more qualitative, aimed at capturing intangibles such as the level of economic, ecological and social stability within a system or community

22. Preliminary list of generic indicators includes:
Land degradation (slowed or reversed);
Condition of the vegetation cover (stabilized or improved);
Soil and/or crop productivity (stabilized or increased);
Water supply (stabilized or increased);
Average income levels (stabilized or increased);
Food stores (stabilized or increased);
Out-migration (slowed, stabilized, or reversed);

23. Outline of qualitative & quantitative indicators for the SL
Natural Assets
Rangeland productivity
Rangeland carrying capacity
Plant species composition
Water sources,
quality and use
Access to Natural resources by marginal community groups ( women, minority tribes, poor)

24. Productivity of Natural Assets
Average production per unit area of rangeland
No. of animals per unit area of rangeland Yield from main crops
Production of vegetables and fruits from women gardens

25. Physical assets Management of water wells Maintenance of water pumps
Grain stores (capacity and accessibility)
Grain mills (capacity and accessibility)
Energy conservation techniques (improved stoves)
Effectiveness of management systems applied to pasture, water, livestock etc…Availability of spare parts

26. Financial Assets Income generating activities
Income levels and stability
Revolving funds /amount of credit granted to individuals
Savings
Accessibility of vulnerable groups to credit (women, poor and Kawahla

27. Human (household) Assets
Ownership of assets
Skilled labors
Housing type
Access of marginal groups to education, training and extension services

28. Social Assets indicators
Organizational set-up (local village committees)
Role of village committees in the decision making process.
Membership to organizations Sharing of responsibility

29. Access to services Extension Health Education Training
Veterinary services

30. Policies and Institutions
Government institutions and polices in relation to:
Taxes
Market prices
Incentives
Land tenure
Local level institutions
NGOs

31. Risks Changing government policies Out-migration by skilled people
Encroachment by other tribes into the project area
Pressures on rangelands by intruding nomads

32. Development of criteria and indicators around the capital assets

33. Collecting data with WPs
Approach to survey/interviews:
Use household circumstances during signal event as basis of comparison; compare with circumstances during recent or hypothetical event
Use assessment sheets (one for each capital) as basis of interview questions. For example:
“During the signal event (e.g., 1984 drought), what level of food stores did you have (in months)? Were they sufficient? If not, how great was the deficit (in months)?
During the recent drought (post-SL activity) , what level of food stores did you have (in months)? Were they sufficient? If not, how great was the deficit (in months)?
On assessment sheet, record number associated with interviewee responses to questions
From these responses, assemble word pictures for each interview

34. Resulting Word Pictures
A word picture of household’s access to natural resources (natural capital)
Pre-SL Activity
Post-SL Activity
Little or no land; one or two month's food available from own land; quality of land is poor, having red soil with low fertility; land is located on a slope in such a position that rain water washes away the seed sown and the top soil and hence reduces its fertility; use of traditional seeds; some have given away land as collateral; no source of irrigation; no land for growing fodder for livestock; owns one or two livestock; no milk produced; low access to forest produce;
More of black fertile soil; more land; grows one's own fodder on one's own land; fertile land with more moisture retention power; more produce from land; grows and sells cash crops; grows vegetables; grows high yielding variety seeds; lends seeds to others; irrigation facilities available round the year; land is near the forest; access to forest produce; some have government permit to grow opium; has many fruit trees; availability of home grown food throughout the year; many livestock, high returns from livestock;
Case study fieldwork will be conducted through at least two, and preferably three site visits. The duration of these visits will most likely be between 2 days (in the case of the initial site visit) and 5 or 6 days (in the case of the second site visit). In all, fieldwork is expected to be conducted and concluded within a 2-month period.
Major goals of the fieldwork are the following:
·          Gain community trust, commitment and participation in the case study
·          Confirm success of SL project
·          Finalize and carry out data collection strategy
·          Fill data gaps and validate findings
·          Initiate policy process analysis
Adapted from Bond and Mukherjee (2002)

35. ) Area of improved/ rehabilitated rangelands
Preparation of a livelihood assets status framework matrix: CASE STUDY ASSESSMENT SHEET: Natural Capital
Best case
Moderate
Worst case
Indicators
Criteria
Excellent >90% rehabilitated
90% Degraded
) Area of improved/ rehabilitated rangelands
Productivity: Rangelands productivity
>20 AU/ha/year
15 to 20 AU/ha/year
10 to 15 AU/ha/year
5-10 AU/ha/year
AU/ha/year
Carrying capacity

36. Productivity: Natural capital:
Sample of the results in graph form :
Productivity: Natural capital:

37. Financial Capital

38. Human Capital

39. Physical Capital

40. Social Capital

41. Sustainability: Natural Capital

42. Financial Capital

43. Human Capital

44. Physical Capital

45. Social Capital

46. Equity access to grazing land access to credit
Chances of marginalized groups (women, poor, kawahla tribe) increased significantly particularly with regard to:
access to grazing land
access to credit
access to social services
access to training
participation in decision-making

47. Overall change in the resilience of the five capitals

48. Policies and institutions
The micro-policies in the project area were influenced by the following bodies:
(a) Committees- Sustainability of activities
(b) NGOs (SECS &CARE International)-Awareness
(C) Traditional leaders: The Traditional administration played major role in natural resources management for very long period in different parts of Sudan particularly in traditional areas (Social security , Nafir etc..)

49. Conclusions Tapping the SL Approach: What can it do for adaptation?
Using this as a tool in adaptation assessment can help to:
Enable national planning processes to effectively consider the most vulnerable groups; articulate unique local vulnerabilities
Identify locally-relevant resilience-building options
Build understanding of micro- and macro-level enabling conditions for adaptation
Build local adaptation awareness and engage local NGOs (potential adaptation project implementers

50. Thanks for your patience