Livelihood Initiatives Research Articles

Custodial Shadows: Lived Experiences of Postpartum Mothers Deprived of Liberty

Postpartum care is critical for women, particularly for those who are incarcerated, as they navigate both physical recovery and the unique challenges of their circumstances. Access to adequate healthcare within correctional systems remains severely limited, impacting the well-being of these women. While existing research has examined various prison-based programs—such as parenting classes, prison nurseries, and health initiatives—the voices and experiences of Postpartum Mothers Deprived of Liberty (PMDL) raising infants while imprisoned are often overlooked. This study aims to illuminate these experiences and how the prison environment influences their roles as mothers. Employing a descriptive phenomenological approach, this research involved a comprehensive literature review and purposive sampling to gather a targeted research sample. Specific criteria were established to identify eligible primary data sources. Data collection primarily utilized semi-structured interviews, allowing for open dialogue that facilitated a deep exploration of the informants' thoughts, beliefs, and experiences. Data analysis followed Colaizzi’s descriptive phenomenological method, ensuring credibility and trustworthiness through triangulation techniques, including audio recordings, field notes, pilot testing, and consultations with a research expert and psychometrician. Member checking was also conducted to verify the accuracy of the findings based on the informants' experiences. The analysis revealed five key themes: "Accepting the Inevitable: The Problems Arise After Birth," "Amusement Amidst Dilemma," "Supporting the Unsung: Building Bridges for Mothers Behind Bars," "Resilient Solitude: Embracing Inner Peace Amidst Maternal Separation," and "Maternal Bonds in Confinement: Underdeveloped Maternal Identity." The study concludes that while PMDLs engage in livelihood initiatives, skill development, and support networks, their separation from their infants significantly hampers their ability to fulfill maternal obligations and undermines their identity as mothers.

Dynamic livelihoods, gender and poverty in marine protected areas: Case study from Zanzibar, Tanzania

Livelihood initiatives are common within marine protected areas (MPAs) aiming for poverty alleviation or higher income opportunities. However, results can be mixed in reality, as well as change over time. Furthermore, who benefits is a key consideration, as results can vary based on inequalities, including gender. Here, the monetary outcomes of different livelihood strategies were investigated across three MPA regions in Zanzibar, Tanzania. Using a quantitative approach, the results show that livelihoods have shifted in a six-year period, with livelihood strategies differing in poverty incidence and income. Livelihood initiatives, namely seaweed farming and tourism, did not provide significantly higher monetary returns compared to long-standing livelihoods, such as fisheries. Seaweed farming showed income stability but a high poverty incidence predominantly within women-headed households. During the study period, men primarily remained in fisheries, whilst women shifted to small-scale businesses and fisheries, largely exiting seaweed farming. This underscores a need for adaptive, gender sensitive management within fast changing coastal contexts.

Empowering Women Agripreneurs through Government Livelihood Initiatives: A Case Study of Jharkhand, India

The study evaluates the impacts of targeted interventions implemented by the Central and state government in Jharkhand, India. Being a part of Ph.D. thesis, 260 beneficiaries from 13 blocks in three districts of Jharkhand were selected, and data was conducted during the year 2023-24. Conclusions were derived using descriptive and inferential statistics. The research revealed that all respondents were beneficiaries of the National Rural Livelihood Mission (NRLM), followed by Jharkhand Opportunities for Harnessing Rural Growth (JOHAR) (92.7%) and Jharkhand Horticulture Intensification by Micro Drip Irrigation (JHIMDI) (14.2%). The investigation also identified a substantial increase in the ownership of assets such as poly houses, poultry sheds, and micro drip systems. Income, expenditure, and savings in these areas demonstrated statistical significance after association with the programs. Income in agriculture, livestock, fisheries, and agribusiness improved significantly after receiving benefits. Principal component analysis identified three principal components with Eigen values > 1.0, with a cumulative variance of 71.03. Four entrepreneurial behavior traits-Innovativeness, Risk-bearing ability, Self-confidence, and Planning Orientation-were highly influenced by Principal Component 1, explaining 29.6 per cent of the total variance.

Sustainable Parental Resources of Organic Urban Teaching (SPROUT): An Innovation to Upgrade 4Ps Parents’ Livelihood Sustainability

Parental involvement in education has long been recognized as a crucial factor in determining a child’s academic success and overall well-being (Hill et al., 2004). In many developing countries, such as the Philippines, government programs like the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps) have been implemented to provide conditional cash transfers to low-income families, with the aim of improving their livelihood sustainability (Adhikari et al., 2017). However, sustainability also entails long-term empowerment and the development of skills for parents to become self-reliant. This action research study introduces the Sustainable Parental Resources of Organic Urban Teaching (SPROUT) innovation as a means to upgrade the livelihood sustainability of 4Ps parents. SPROUT, founded on the principles of sustainable development and organic urban teaching, aims to provide 4Ps parents with the necessary resources and knowledge to enhance their self-reliance and livelihood opportunities. By incorporating sustainable agriculture practices and urban gardening techniques, SPROUT offers parents the chance to grow their own organic produce, both for personal consumption and potential income generation (FAO, 2013). This approach not only enhances the nutritional status of families but also promotes environmental stewardship and encourages a shift towards healthier and sustainable lifestyle choices. The empowerment of parents through sustainable practices has yielded positive outcomes in various contexts. A study conducted by Hirai and Fujii (2019) found that engagement in sustainable livelihood activities led to increased self-confidence and a sense of agency among participants. Additionally, Oyelaran-Oyeyinka and Sanni (2020) demonstrated that sustainable livelihood initiatives can contribute to poverty reduction and improved standard of living in rural communities. By adapting and applying these concepts to the urban setting and specifically targeting 4Ps parents, the SPROUT innovation has the potential to significantly uplift the livelihood sustainability of this vulnerable population. Furthermore, the incorporation of organic urban teaching methodologies aligns with the growing demand for sustainable and eco-friendly practices within the global educational landscape (ITO, 2014). This approach not only equips parents with important agricultural skills but also fosters a sense of pride and cultural heritage. By tapping into traditional and indigenous knowledge systems, SPROUT emphasizes the importance of intergenerational knowledge transfer and community engagement, offering a holistic approach to sustainable parental resources. The SPROUT innovation holds immense promise as a means to upgrade the livelihood sustainability of 4Ps parents. By combining sustainable agriculture practices and organic urban teaching methodologies, SPROUT seeks to empower parents, enhance their self-reliance, and contribute to poverty reduction. This action research study will explore the implementation, impact, and potential challenges of the SPROUT intervention, aiming to provide valuable insights for policymakers, educators, and communities seeking innovative approaches to uplift the lives of vulnerable populations.

Unveiling poaching patterns and threat sources for informed conservation in southeast Angola

Poaching poses a significant threat to wildlife and ecosystems in southeast Angola, yet comprehensive studies to inform effective conservation strategies have been lacking. This novel study systematically assesses the spatial distribution and influencing factors of poaching activities in the region. Utilizing data from extensive patrolling efforts and predictive modeling, the hotspots and risk zones for wire-snares, gin traps, elephant poaching, and poaching camps are delineated. Our findings reveal distinctive socio-political and geo-ecological patterns governing each type of illegal activity. Wire-snares and gin traps display clear socio-political correlates, with proximity to towns and villages influencing their prevalence. These findings advocate for strategic placement of patrol stations and underscore the need for expanded law enforcement efforts to mitigate these threats. Conversely, elephant poaching for ivory exhibits transboundary influences, with heightened risk zones along international borders. This highlights the urgency of collaborative, transboundary management strategies to counteract external drivers of elephant poaching. Geo-ecologically, closed habitats dominated by woody vegetation, such as shrublands and closed woodlands, are favored for wire-snares and gin traps, likely due to reduced detection risk. Riparian habitats emerge as high-risk areas for elephant poaching and fishing camps, highlighting their importance for targeted conservation interventions. The fine-scale spatial analysis guides resource allocation and law enforcement strategies, while the identification of distinct threat sources informs proactive measures. To curb local demand-driven poaching, community-based conservation and alternative livelihood initiatives are recommended.

The Politics of Misalignment: NGO Livelihood Interventions and Exclusionary Land Claims in an Indonesian Oil Palm Enclave

ABSTRACT Across Southeast Asia’s extractive frontier, Indigenous people increasingly negotiate an influx of nonstate actors pushing partnerships and projects to steer livelihoods away from extractivism and toward forest conservation. Yet, NGOs and their donors often struggle to grasp Indigenous peoples’ changing needs and expectations that may prioritize sustaining an income, often via the promises extractive industries propose, over preserving fragmented forests for posterity. This paper examines three interventions by conservation NGOs in East Kalimantan, Indonesia, which leveraged custom (adat) and “alternative” livelihoods through territorial practices to dissuade a Dayak Modang community from releasing ancestral lands for palm oil plantations and coal mines. Drawing on the state’s definition of adat to demarcate Modang territory, NGOs and some Modang engaged in counter-mapping and livelihood initiatives as hopeful expressions of indigeneity and making a living through acts of territorialization. We explore how NGO territorial practices unfolded as simplified spatial expressions that leveraged adat identity, enclosures, and livelihoods, neglecting the contemporary realities of living in a fragmented forest frontier. Although NGO-Modang strategies temporarily slowed dispossession and deforestation, their misaligned livelihood and conservation programs may have reinforced social differentiation between and across Dayak and migrant groups to ultimately facilitate extraction’s expansion.

Attitudes to pangolins and factors affecting their conservation in a human dominated landscape in Nepal

AbstractPangolins in Nepal are found mostly in human‐dominated landscapes where their numbers are declining due to illegal hunting and trade. Positive attitudes of local people are believed to be powerful drivers for the conservation of threatened species. We explored local attitudes using a semi‐structured questionnaire survey of 1017 people from 105 villages in rural areas across Nepal to investigate the key factors influencing local attitudes towards pangolins and their conservation. Topography and education level were identified as strong predictors of attitude scores as was geographic variation associated with differences between provinces. Positive attitudes were observed in the majority of respondents from Madhesh Province and Koshi Province in eastern Nepal, in those with higher levels of education and those from the lowland Terai region. Respondents from Karnali Province, western Nepal and those living in the Mid‐hill region, had significantly lower attitude scores. However, a significant number of respondents with negative attitudes towards pangolins in Karnali Province also reported higher levels of illegal hunting. Local stewardship can be promoted through awareness campaigns and alternative livelihood initiatives. Collaboration with local communities and stakeholders as well as their capacity enhancement should be a priority for the sustainable conservation of the species.

Lakhpati Kisan programme: boosting the income of marginal farmers through women empowerment

Learning outcomes This case will help students to analyse and develop insights into the concepts of servant leadership; to analyse and develop insights into women’s empowerment and a process to achieve such empowerment; and to explore the social business models for scaling up. Case overview/synopsis The Lakhpati Kisan programme under the aegis of Tata Trusts focussed on empowering women marginal farmers in the tribal belts in India to significantly increase their income from 2015. Ganesh Neelam, Executive Director, Collectives for Integrated Livelihood Initiatives (CInI), a nodal agency of Tata Trusts, advocated various livelihood options in agriculture, livestock, non-timber forest resources and water conversation. Initially, CInI faced the challenge of getting the farmers to sign up for the programme due to lack of trust. CInI facilitators educated the farmers about the purpose of the initiative and the benefits they would accrue and built trust. CInI created awareness through knowledge-sharing sessions on best practices in agriculture. They formed self-help groups of farmers for decision-making and for easy access to capital. CInI established farmer producer organisations (FPOs) to bring in a business perspective among farmers. The farmers as Board members and executives ran the FPOs like commercial organisations. CInI built capabilities to create a sustainable and autonomous ecosystem that looked impressive. But still the programme was falling short of the desired target. The farmers were so far reluctant to move forward independently. Ganesh felt that the social business model that CInI had evolved needed a re-look to achieve a significant and lasting impact on the majority of the marginal farmers in India. Complexity academic level The case can be used in the organisation behaviour, human resource management courses and courses on social enterprises as part of the MBA or post-graduate management programme or in executive education programmes. Supplementary materials Teaching notes are available for educators only. Subject code CSS 6: Human Resource Management.

Connecting without Protecting

The global spread of online work opportunities has inspired a new generation of market-based aid that connects forcibly displaced people to a transnational internet economy. Because refugees face barriers to making a livelihood online, aid organisations and private enterprises support them by building bridges across digital divides, connectivity problems or skill gaps. They thereby become intermediaries and brokers that facilitate connections between refugees and online income opportunities, which often lack decent working conditions and adequate protections. Because digital livelihood initiatives lack the power to reshape these conditions and the value of work in the internet economy, they fail to become mediators with a transformative impact. The result is that the internet economy reshapes livelihoods provision far more than aid can reshape its disempowering effects, despite successes in driving forward refugees’ digital inclusion. Based on more than three years of research including interviews, field visits and surveys, this article foregrounds the current risks that result from the inclusion of refugees into precarious forms of online gig work. To ensure a decent future of work for refugees in the internet economy, the current push for digital livelihoods will require an equally strong push for stronger protections, inclusive regulations and rights.

Evaluation of Esperanza Seaweeds Culture-Enterprise Federation: A Livelihood Project in Masbate, Philippines

The Seaweeds Culture is one of the livelihood initiatives extended by the FishCORAL Project funded by the United Nations-International Fund for Agricultural Development (UN-IFAD) with the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR) to the fishing households in Barangay Rizal and Libertad, Esperanza, Masbate, Philippines. The study aimed to analyze the socioeconomic characteristics of household beneficiaries, identify the different types of livelihood assets, and evaluate the livelihood key performance of Esperanza Seaweeds Culture-Enterprise Federation. The study included the twenty-one beneficiaries, and data were treated based on cross-sectional quantitative data were gathered through focus group discussion and key informant interviews. It was found out that the household beneficiaries are mostly potential members of the labor force. The household income is insufficient, which translates to high poverty incidence. The income and expenditure approach as PSA's measure of poverty confirmed this. The primary livelihood assets are consumer durables, enterprise federation, credits as significant financial capital, and government transfers associated with buffering mechanisms to sustain the family needs. There is relevance and initial impact, which results in improved livelihood and some improvement in women empowerment. The claimed improvement in income could not be associated with project impact as the culture has just started. There are key challenges to the efficiency and sustainability of the project, especially from the end view of natural and anthropogenic disturbances. These significant risks are appropriately counteracted when the association does have a sustainability plan. The adaptive capacity of the association must be enhanced. Along these ends, the technical backstopping of BFAR, academe, and other agencies are very vital.

Alternative green livelihood initiatives: an effective way to achieve the sustainable development goals at disaster vulnerable, Indian Sundarbans

Indian Sundarban is the part of world’s largest contiguous mangrove forest, delta and home to around 4.6 million people. Climate change induced natural disasters are rampant along its coasts destabilizing lives and livelihood in the region. Green alternative livelihood schemes addresses the Sustainability Development Goals (SDG), namely SDG-1 (No poverty), SDG-2 (Zero hunger), SDG- 8 (Descent work and economic growth), SDG-10 (Reduced inequalities) and it indirectly impart conservation of mangrove ecosystems (world’s largest blue carbon sink) by reducing nature exploitive livelihood options (SDG- 13, Climate action). A project implemented at Indian Sundarbans, since 2017 introduced alternative livelihood options (Cycle Van transport, Van Repairing Shop, Grocery Shop, Tea Stall) to total 471 marginalized families who has been making 1,629.00 INR per month by 2021. External evaluation report indicated an average of 40472.50 INR annual income. As per this study, Tea stall is most profitable small business followed by Cycle Van transport, Grocery Shop and Grocery Shop.

Social, Economic, Environmental, and Physical Vulnerability Assessment: An Index-Based Gender Analysis of Flood Prone Areas of Koshi River Basin in Nepal

Gender analysis in vulnerability assessments is needed in disaster risk reduction (DRR). This study examined headship-based household vulnerabilities in the Koshi River Basin of Nepal. This comparative study between male-headed households (MHHs) and female-headed households (FHHs) analyzed the social, infrastructural, economic, and environmental components of vulnerability assessments. A mixed method was used to collect data, including a survey of 216 households, 15 key informant interviews, 40 in-depth interviews, and 8 focus group discussions. The results from the weightage average index (WAI) revealed that the FHHs are more vulnerable in all components. Social and physical components show greater vulnerability for FHHs compared to economic and environmental components. The t-test showed that the difference in multidimensional vulnerability is highly significant (F = 3.423, p-value = 0.000). The WAI calculation showed 42%, 51%, and 7% FHHs and 6%, 35%, 49%, and 10% of MHHs are in very high, high, moderate, and low levels of vulnerability, respectively. Sociocultural norms were the main factors driving the gap which affected households’ ability to respond to and recover from flood disasters and impacted the DRR process. The study suggests that more attention is given to FHHs through increased access to services, capacity building, awareness training, livelihood initiatives, participation in preparedness activities, and inclusion in the DRR process to minimize the impact of floods in the future, particularly for FHHs.

Appreciating the Role of Communication in Promoting Sustainable Livelihood: A Closer Look at Some Selected Literature

Livelihood interventions are essential to the attainment of the Sustainable Development Goals(SDGs). Issues such as poverty (SDG 1), hunger and food security (SDG 2), education (SDG 4), and consumption and production (SDG 12) are central to improved livelihoods. To this end, development actors are encouraged to implement carefully designed livelihood interventions to improve the lives of people. A vital argument which dominates livelihood discourses is the issue of sustainability. The debates on sustainable livelihood appear unending, especially in developing nations where poverty continues to threaten the lives of many citizens. Particularly, there are varying positions on the concept of sustainable livelihood and its core elements. Indeed, the seeming lack of clarity on the concept of sustainable livelihood presents a challenge to development actors in their attempts to ensure improved livelihoods. Against this backdrop, this paper attempts to contribute to bringing clarity to the concept of sustainable livelihood and the role communication plays in its promotion through a review of some selected literature. The authors submit that sustainable livelihood cannot be achieved especially in developing countries without access to adequate information and improved communication strategies. They maintain that no livelihood policy can sustainably be implemented without consciously designed efforts on the part of stakeholders to integrate policy communication strategies into the policy. Finally, the authors contend that participatory communication approaches are central to any sustainable livelihood initiatives and must, therefore, be given the necessary preeminence in sustainable livelihood thinking and theorizing. Keywords: Livelihood, sustainable livelihood framework, information, participatory communication, policy communication.

Institutionalising co-management activities for conservation of forest resources: Evidence from the Sundarban mangrove forest management of Bangladesh

Understanding local stakeholders' perceptions of co-management institutional activities serves a significant role in the proper functioning of the co-management institutions for the Sundarban mangrove forest conservation effort, but this currently remains unexplored. This study aimed to identify the current co-management institutions, co-management activities, and local people's understanding of these activities in the implementation of the co-management approach. The study was conducted in four villages in the Chandpai range of the Sundarban mangrove forest. Thematic content analysis was conducted on the qualitative data, which had been collected through key informant interviews at the local, regional and national levels, followed by focus group discussions in the study villages. The key forest co-management activities and practices identified were: forest protection and monitoring; meetings; local livelihood initiatives; and organisational supports. These co-management activities were implemented through institutions largely situated at the local level, through Village Conservation Forum, People's Forum and Community Patrol Group; higher-level institutions included the Co-management Committee, where local, district and national stakeholders were represented. Local people with forest dependency were participating in forest co-management activities and their awareness of forest conservation and social network had increased. In addition, people who had received training from government and non-government organisations reported benefits such as improved resource harvesting techniques, organisational skills and practical knowledge, which would be useful in times of natural disasters. However, local people also reported a range of issues affecting their full participation, which included top down decision-making, insignificant financial support, absence of alternate income sources, lack of meeting places for VCF members, gender inequality in participation, corruption and lack of skill-based training. A key governance issue for the local-level forest co-management institutions was limited access to the government organisations who oversaw policy and institutional control. In contrast, non-government organisations provided important institutional capacity-building support to local communities, and acted as a conduit to higher level committees. Broader impact could be achieved by fostering local participation, especially that of women, through genuine collaboration with other stakeholders, and extending the lessons learned from the study villages through exchange visits and sharing of ideas with other VCF villages in the area.

Strengthened Resilience: Impact of Pandemic in a Gawad Kalinga Community

An educational institution that offers mostly paramedical courses has a significant role in strengthening community resilience as a recovery response to the Covid-19 pandemic. This study utilized a mixed-methods research design to describe the impact of the pandemic on the lives of 126 Gawad Kalinga community residents in Bacolod City, Philippines. The greatest impact of Covid-19 was the decrease in family income, but the resiliency of the residents was strengthened through each other’s support and that of partner institutions. There was difficulty in procuring food, medicine, and health care, but respondents declared their willingness to participate in livelihood initiatives. The following themes emerged from the interview with eight participants to validate the survey responses: Perseverance, Protection for Oneself and Others, Isolation, Better Safe than Sorry, Fear and Uncertainty, Weathering the Storm, Vaccines are Priority and Resiliency. Determining the impact of the pandemic was successful in incorporating the inputs of the residents into the community engagement programs of the partner educational institution. It is recommended that constant communication with the community and a regular assessment of their evolving needs must be monitored even beyond the pandemic. This can yield better recovery responses and health outcomes that may be adopted by other Gawad Kalinga communities all over the country.

Ecosystem changes and community wellbeing: social-ecological innovations in enhancing resilience of wetlands communities in Bangladesh

ABSTRACT The feedback relationships between resource-dependent human communities and their local ecosystem services may result in an undesirable SES dynamic where community wellbeing continually deteriorates. Yet, very little is known about the mechanisms that can facilitate reordering people’s relationship with ecosystem for sustained wellbeing. We argue that innovative approaches built upon local strengths are more likely to succeed in such an endeavour, and multi-level implementation can help sustainability and community wellbeing. The objective of this paper is to give an account of local people’s wellbeing in relation to ecosystem services and their changes, the drivers that change the ecosystem services and impact wellbeing, and the role of innovation in enhancing adaptability and SES resilience to changes and disturbances. We conducted our field research during 2014–2015 in a wetland region of northeastern Bangladesh, utilising Case study and participatory research methods. Our empirical investigation in selected wetland communities has revealed that: (i) community wellbeing and wetland SES resilience are subject to erosion due to multiple drivers of change operating at different temporal and spatial scales; (ii) the feedback relationships among these multiple drivers often adversely affect community wellbeing; and (iii) innovative strategies built on local strengths can help reorder people’s relationships with local ecosystems, restore community wellbeing, and enhance local sustainability. The key determinants of such reordering include entrepreneurial skills, knowledge, learning, and networking abilities of the locals. Intervention strategies should therefore pay more attention to the locals’ ability to innovate and adapt to ecological changes, especially through new or shifted livelihood initiatives.

LINKING HARMONIOUS CSR AND FINANCIAL INCLUSION: THE MODERATING EFFECTS OF FINANCIAL LITERACY AND INCOME

This study focuses on the effect of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) on financial inclusion behavior in rural communities. CSR in the domain of community engagement, education and livelihood initiatives, which are all referred to as ‘harmonious CSR’ in the paper. This study further explores the moderating influence of financial literacy and income on harmonious CSR-financial inclusion linkages. A field survey of 344 rural households (CSR beneficiaries) was conducted in two districts of Uttar Pradesh, India. This study follows a two-stage approach. First, a theoretical model is constructed on the basis of a strategic review of literature in the field of social science (social work, rural development and development studies). Second, confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) is performed, followed by a hierarchical regression model to determine underlying associations. Findings reveal that harmonious CSR has a significantly positive impact on financial inclusion in the Indian rural sector. The moderating effect of financial literacy is also reflected in CSR-financial inclusion linkages. However, income is not found to have any moderating influence on the relationship between harmonious CSR and financial inclusion. Finally, this study is in favor of deepening the influence of the financial institutions so that policymakers can make informed decisions about maintaining a sustainable economic environment, especially, in the context of the rural sector where such steps are desperately needed.

Small holder farmers’ perception and response mechanisms to climate change: Lesson from Tekeze lowland goat and sorghum livelihood zone, Ethiopia

Though climate change is a global agenda since the last few decades, local and regional changes are not well documented in third-world nations. Therefore, understanding the local circumstances of climate change is vital to exert context specific responses to allay its adverse effects. This study hence assessed small holder farmers’ perception and response mechanisms to climate change and their determinants in Tekeze lowland goat and sorghum livelihood zone, Northeast Ethiopia. Data collected from 260 sample respondents were analyzed in descriptive statistics and econometric model. Results revealed that 86.5% of the respondents observed changes in main climatic patterns, whereas 92.3% of them recognized variability in daily weather. Indeed, 76.8% and 83.5% of respondents perceived a rising temperature and decreasing rainfall, respectively. This finding is in line with the regression results of meteorological data recorded for 20 study years in the area. Among respondents who perceived the climate change, nearly two-third were responded through crop, livestock and nonagriculture-based livelihood initiatives. The probit model also discovered that educational status, farm/nonfarm income, extension contact, access to climate information and training were significant factors behind farmers’ response decision. As a result, future development interventions should provide prominent training and extension, local meteorological service and agricultural inputs on top of creating nonagricultural income generating opportunities, would play significant role in climate change adaptation.

Gender norms and relations: implications for agency in coastal livelihoods

Improving livelihoods and livelihood opportunities is a popular thrust of development investments. Gender and other forms of social differentiation influence individual agency to access, participate in, and benefit from existing, new, or improved livelihood opportunities. Recent research illustrates that many initiatives intended to improve livelihoods still proceed as “gender blind,” failing to account for the norms and relations that will influence how women and men experience opportunities and outcomes. To examine gender in livelihoods, we employed empirical case studies in three coastal communities in Solomon Islands; a small island developing state where livelihoods are predominantly based on fisheries and agriculture. Using the GENNOVATE methodology (a series of focus groups) we investigated how gender norms and relations influence agency (i.e., the availability of choice and capacity to exercise choice). We find that men are able to pursue a broader range of livelihood activities than women who tend to be constrained by individual perceptions of risk and socially prescribed physical mobility restraints. We find the livelihood portfolios of women and men are more diverse than in the past. However, livelihood diversity may limit women’s more immediate freedoms to exercise agency because they are simultaneously experiencing intensified time and labor demands. Our findings challenge the broad proposition that livelihood diversification will lead to improvements for agency and overall wellbeing. In community-level decision-making, men’s capacity to exercise choice was perceived to be greater in relation to livelihoods, as well as strategic life decisions more broadly. By contrast, capacity to exercise choice within households involved spousal negotiation, and consensus was considered more important than male or female dominance in decision-making. The prevailing global insight is that livelihood initiatives are more likely to bring about sustained and equitable outcomes if they are designed based on understandings of the distinct ways women and men participate in and experience livelihoods. Our study provides insights to make these improvements in a Solomon Islands setting. We suggest that better accounting for these gendered differences not only improves livelihood outcomes but also presents opportunity to catalyze the re-negotiation of gender norms and relations; thereby promoting greater individual agency.

The Anti-Politics Machine of Green Energy Development: The Moroccan Solar Project in Ouarzazate and Its Impact on Gendered Local Communities

The Moroccan Agency for Sustainable Energy (MASEN) established one of the largest solar energy projects in the world through a public–private partnership. It is on communal land previously owned by a Moroccan Amazigh (Berber) clan in the Ghessate rural council area, 10 km away from Ouarzazate. The land for the energy project comprises a surface area of more than 3000 hectares. This large-scale land acquisition has led to the loss of access to common-pool resources (land, water, and plants), which were formerly managed by local common property institutions, due to its enclosure, and the areas themselves. This paper outlines how the framing of the low value of land by national elites, the state administration, MASEN, and the subsequent discourses of development, act as an anti-politics machine to hide the loss of land and land-related common-pool resources, and thus an attack on resilience—we call it in our scientific discipline a process of ‘resilience grabbing’ (Resilience is the ability of a person and/or a household to restore basic livelihood capacities after shocks and hazards. Such capacities need to be available over time and remain high for the unit (household, community) to be resilient), especially for women. As a form of compensation for the land losses, economic livelihood initiatives have been introduced for local people based on the funds from the sale of the land and revenue from the solar energy project Noor Ouarzazate. The loss of land representing the ‘old’ commons is—in the official discourse—legitimated by what the government and the parastatal company call the development-related ‘fruits of growth’, and should serve as ‘new forms of commons’ to the local communities. The investment therefore acts as a catalyst through which natural resources (land, water, and plants) are institutionally transformed into new monetary resources that local actors are said to be able to access, under specific conditions, to sustain their livelihood. There are, however, pertinent questions of access (i.e., inclusion and exclusion), regulation, and equality of opportunities for meeting the different livelihood conditions previously supported by the ‘old’ commons.