Abstract
Gender mainstreaming is a key for achieving inclusive economic growth, poverty reduction and equitable development. A gender disaggregated analysis of changing livelihood activities is, therefore, crucial for devising gender-sensitive policies and programs. This paper presents a gender disaggregated analysis to assess trend and influencing factors of switching livelihood to higher returning activities at the intra-household level in three villages in rural areas of central Nepal. The result showed that both men and women have changed their livelihood activities from subsistence to cash-earning activities in the last decade. However, the livelihood activities of men have changed considerably compared to women. Men are primarily attracted to out-migration and non-farm wage-based jobs whereas women to market-oriented commercial farming and rural enterprises. Individual as well as location-specific characteristics influence behavior switching to higher returning activities irrespective of gender, while the ethnicity of a household influences only women. Building human and financial capital through education and training along with strengthening access to credit and increasing connectivity through rural road and market centers would be pivotal for encouraging rural men and women to change traditional subsistence activities to higher returning undertakings, leading to equitable livelihood improvement in rural Nepal.
Highlights
People’s livelihoods are dynamic, involving switches among various strategies depending on time and place [1]
This paper examined the status and trend of change in livelihood activities for rural men and women in Nepal and identified the determinants through gender-disaggregated analysis at the intra-household level
This study identified various push and pull factors for the change in livelihood activities of men and women
Summary
People’s livelihoods are dynamic, involving switches among various strategies depending on time and place [1]. Rural livelihoods in developing countries have been undergoing rapid change in recent decades [2,3]. Newer economic opportunities created by global drivers of change such as globalization, market integration, increasing access to physical facilities, migration, mobility and exposure to modern culture have provided an impetus for spearheading the change in previously adopted livelihood strategies [4,5,6,7,8]. Overexploitation of natural resources and the adverse impact of recent climate change have increased the vulnerability of rural livelihoods by limiting natural resource-based livelihood capital and options [9,10]. Livelihood transition due to changing endowments of and access to livelihood capital and capabilities triggered by socio-economic, cultural and environmental transformation is obvious in the rural areas of developing countries [5,14,15,16,17,18]
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