A study on livelihood resilience in the small-scale fisheries of Ghana using a structural equation modelling approach

Abstract

Livelihood resilience is one of the social-ecological concepts with importance for development, policy and research as crises from human-environment interactions are becoming intense and widespread. Nevertheless, measuring livelihood resilience is a difficult task requiring handy and practical methods, which are missing in the literature. This study proposed and validated a measure to the three-dimensional livelihood resilience framework of buffer capacity, capacity for self-organization and learning in the context of Ghana's declining small-scale fisheries. It proposed measurement indicators to the three dimensions of the framework and tested its structural and predictive validity using simultaneous equations. The data used for the analysis were collected from a random sample of 1180 artisanal fisherfolk in three fishing communities using a semi-structured questionnaire. The framework is useful for livelihoods and resilience thinking and its three dimensions are uniquely interrelated and significantly explain the livelihood resilience of fisherfolks. Aside from the slight differences in the paths to livelihood resilience-building across communities observed, there were significant gender and community differences in the application of the framework. These findings suggest the usefulness of the framework for monitoring and evaluation of interventions aimed at building livelihood resilience of fisherfolks. However, the highlighted differences in its application across gender and community contexts need to be considered. The study contributes to sustainable fisheries and coastal management by providing insights on the pathways for enhancing livelihood resilience—reducing social vulnerability and promoting the adaptive capacities of fisherfolk to shocks. For instance, interventions towards building livelihood resilience could increase fisherfolk's access and ownership to capitals through trusted savings and lending schemes/associations and impact capitals (buffer capacity); institutionalization and strengthening traditional authority (self-organization); and framing advocacy messages against illegal fishing practices highlighting previous experiences of good fish catch under less pervasiveness of such illicit practices (learning).