Livelihood Interventions Research Articles

A Qualitative Investigation of the Impact of a Livelihood Intervention on Gendered Power and Sexual Risk Behaviors Among HIV-Positive Adults in Rural Kenya.

Despite the recognized links between food insecurity, poverty, and the risk of HIV/AIDS, few randomized trials have evaluated the impact of livelihood interventions on HIV risk behaviors. The current study draws upon data collected from a qualitative process evaluation that was embedded into a pilot randomized controlled trial that tested whether a multisectoral agricultural intervention (Shamba Maisha) affected the HIV-related health of HIV-positive adults in rural Kenya. In the current study, we drew upon longitudinal, in-depth interviews with 45 intervention participants and nine control participants (N=54) in order to examine the impacts of the intervention on gendered power and sexual risk reduction among both women and men. Female and male participants in the intervention described positive changes in sexual practices and gendered power dynamics as a result of intervention participation. Changes included reduced sexual risk behaviors, improved gender-related power dynamics, and enhanced quality of intimate relationships. These findings illuminate how a multisectoral agricultural intervention may affect inequitable gender relations and secondary transmission risk. Further research is needed to explore how to best leverage agricultural interventions to address the important intersections between poverty and inequitable gender relations that shape HIV risks.

Strategic Issues in Developing Effective Resource-based Livelihood Interventions in Tribal Areas

The case is about the livelihood intervention through cashew fruits in Tahajong, a small village in Odisha. There was an attempt in early 2000 to use Jatropha plant seeds as a source of biofuel in India, the government tried tprogramme since this type of options can provide economic benefits at local level and can be a source too expand the farmers and villagers for income generation. However, due to various reasons this could not succeed. The case talks about cashew fruit being alternative to Jatropha and how it can be used as a strategic livelihood intervention. The case analyses the potential of cashew fruits to serve as a source of biofuel and income generating occupation for farmers. The case also tries to analyse the scalability, feasibility and economic potential of the intervention.

Improving alternative livelihood interventions in marine protected areas: A case study in Tanzania

Alternative livelihood programmes are often used in multipleuse marine protected areas as incentives, compensation for lost opportunities, or as intervention strategies for poverty alleviation. Yet little is known about their impacts on biodiversity conservation and the well-being of the targeted communities. This study focuses primarily on alternative livelihood projects undertaken among selected groups of individuals, in six villages, located in the Mnazi Bay-Ruvuma Estuary Marine Park (MBREMP), Mtwara district, southern Tanzania. The aim was to investigate how the processes involved in the implementation of these new livelihood activities contributed to the expected outcomes of providing good returns to reduce community's dependency on the sea and improve conservation. Data were collected through focus group discussions with selected members of local community, who actively took part in the projects; key informant interviews with conservation personnel and district fisheries officials; questionnaire surveys of a random sample of project beneficiary households; and a review of pertinent documents. The overwhelming majority of survey respondents (90%) reported that the projects were allocated inappropriately. Interviews and focus groups further revealed that the purpose of alternative projects was not sufficiently clear and that many beneficiaries perceived that these projects were initiated simply to comply with the MBREMP regulations. Overall, 70% of survey respondents stated that the project activities could not compete with the income gained from fisheries. An analysis of documents further revealed that almost all projects began to flounder when funding from the MBREMP came to an end. This was because they were not supported beyond the pilot phase and, thereafter, insufficient revenue was generated to maintain running costs. Improved targeting and design of livelihood interventions will ensure that the projects achieve the goals of providing alternatives for fishers, increasing well-being and improving biodiversity conservation.

A Livelihood Intervention to Reduce the Stigma of HIV in Rural Kenya: Longitudinal Qualitative Study.

The scale-up of effective treatment has partially reduced the stigma attached to HIV, but HIV still remains highly stigmatized throughout sub-Saharan Africa. Most studies of anti-HIV stigma interventions have employed psycho-educational strategies such as information provision, counseling, and testimonials, but these have had varying degrees of success. Theory suggests that livelihood interventions could potentially reduce stigma by weakening the instrumental and symbolic associations between HIV and premature morbidity, economic incapacity, and death, but this hypothesis has not been directly examined. We conducted a longitudinal qualitative study among 54 persons with HIV participating in a 12-month randomized controlled trial of a livelihood intervention in rural Kenya. Our study design permitted assessment of changes over time in the perspectives of treatment-arm participants (N=45), as well as an understanding of the experiences of control arm participants (N=9, interviewed only at follow-up). Initially, participants felt ashamed of their seropositivity and were socially isolated (internalized stigma). They also described how others in the community discriminated against them, labeled them as being "already dead," and deemed them useless and unworthy of social investment (perceived and enacted stigma). At follow-up, participants in the treatment arm described less stigma and voiced positive changes in confidence and self-esteem. Concurrently, they observed that other community members perceived them as active, economically productive, and contributing citizens. None of these changes were noted by participants in the control arm, who described ongoing and continued stigma. In summary, our findings suggest a theory of stigma reduction: livelihood interventions may reduce internalized stigma among persons with HIV and also, by targeting core drivers of negative attitudes toward persons with HIV, positively change attitudes toward persons with HIV held by others. Further research is needed to formally test these hypotheses, assess the extent to which these changes endure over the long term, and determine whether this class of interventions can be implemented at scale.

A livelihood intervention to improve economic and psychosocial well-being in rural Uganda: Longitudinal pilot study

HIV and poverty are inextricably intertwined in sub-Saharan Africa. Economic and livelihood intervention strategies have been suggested to help mitigate the adverse economic effects of HIV, but few intervention studies have focused specifically on HIV-positive persons. We conducted three pilot studies to assess a livelihood intervention consisting of an initial orientation and loan package of chickens and associated implements to create poultry microenterprises. We enrolled 15 HIV-positive and 22 HIV-negative participants and followed them for up to 18 months. Over the course of follow-up, participants achieved high chicken survival and loan repayment rates. Median monthly income increased, and severe food insecurity declined, although these changes were not statistically significant (P-values ranged from 0.11 to 0.68). In-depth interviews with a purposive sample of three HIV-positive participants identified a constellation of economic and psychosocial benefits, including improved social integration and reduced stigma.

Are alternative livelihood projects effective at reducing local threats to specified elements of biodiversity and/or improving or maintaining the conservation status of those elements?

Abstract Background Alternative livelihood projects are used by a variety of organisations as a tool for achieving biodiversity conservation. However, despite characterising many conservation approaches, very little is known about what impacts (if any) alternative livelihood projects have had on biodiversity conservation, as well as what determines the relative success or failure of these interventions. Reflecting this concern, Motion 145 was passed at the Vth IUCN World Conservation Congress in 2012 calling for a critical review of alternative livelihood projects and their contribution to biodiversity conservation. This systematic map and review intends to contribute to this critical review and provide an overview for researchers, policy makers and practitioners of the current state of the evidence base. Methods Following an a priori protocol, systematic searches for relevant studies were conducted using the bibliographic databases AGRICOLA, AGRIS, CAB Abstracts, Scopus, and Web of Knowledge, as well as internet searches of Google, Google Scholar, and subject specific and institutional websites. In addition, a call for literature was issued among relevant research networks. The titles, abstracts and full texts of the captured studies were assessed using inclusion criteria for the systematic map and the systematic review, respectively. An Excel spreadsheet was used to record data from each study and to provide a systematic map of the evidence for the effectiveness of alternative livelihood studies. The studies that met additional criteria to be included in the systematic review were described in more detail through a narrative synthesis. Results Following full text screening, 97 studies were included in the systematic map covering 106 projects using alternative livelihood interventions. Just 22 of these projects met our additional criteria for inclusion in the systematic review, but one project was removed from the detailed narrative synthesis following critical appraisal. The 21 included projects included reports of positive, neutral and negative conservation outcomes. Conclusions Our results show that there has been an extensive investment in alternative livelihood projects, yet the structure and results of most of these projects have not been documented in a way that they can be captured using standardised search processes. Either this is because there has been little reporting on the outcomes of these projects, or that post-project monitoring is largely absent. The implications of this review for policy, management and future research are provided in relation to this evidence gap.

Shamba Maisha: randomized controlled trial of an agricultural and finance intervention to improve HIV health outcomes.

Food insecurity and HIV/AIDS outcomes are inextricably linked in sub-Saharan Africa. We report on health and nutritional outcomes of a multisectoral agricultural intervention trial among HIV-infected adults in rural Kenya. This is a pilot cluster randomized controlled trial. The intervention included a human-powered water pump, a microfinance loan to purchase farm commodities, and education in sustainable farming practices and financial management. Two health facilities in Nyanza Region, Kenya were randomly assigned as intervention or control. HIV-infected adults 18 to 49 years' old who were on antiretroviral therapy and had access to surface water and land were enrolled beginning in April 2012 and followed quarterly for 1 year. Data were collected on nutritional parameters, CD4 T-lymphocyte counts, and HIV RNA. Differences in fixed-effects regression models were used to test whether patterns in health outcomes differed over time from baseline between the intervention and control arms. We enrolled 72 and 68 participants in the intervention and control groups, respectively. At 12 months follow-up, we found a statistically significant increase in CD4 cell counts (165 cells/μl, P < 0.001) and proportion virologically suppressed in the intervention arm compared with the control arm (comparative improvement in proportion of 0.33 suppressed, odds ratio 7.6, 95% confidence interval: 2.2-26.8). Intervention participants experienced significant improvements in food security (3.6 scale points higher, P < 0.001) and frequency of food consumption (9.4 times per week greater frequency, P = 0.013) compared to controls. Livelihood interventions may be a promising approach to tackle the intersecting problems of food insecurity, poverty and HIV/AIDS morbidity.

Livelihoods, conflict and aid programming: is the evidence base good enough?

In conflict-affected situations, aid-funded livelihood interventions are often tasked with a dual imperative: to generate material welfare benefits and to contribute to peacebuilding outcomes. There may be some logic to such a transformative agenda, but does the reality square with the rhetoric? Through a review of the effectiveness of a range of livelihood promotion interventions--from job creation to microfinance--this paper finds that high quality empirical evidence is hard to come by in conflict-affected situations. Many evaluations appear to conflate outputs with impacts and numerous studies fail to include adequate information on their methodologies and datasets, making it difficult to appraise the reliability of their conclusions. Given the primary purpose of this literature--to provide policy guidance on effective ways to promote livelihoods--this silence is particularly concerning. As such, there is a strong case to be made for a restrained and nuanced handling of such interventions in conflict-affected settings.

A Retrospective Impact Evaluation of the Tamil Nadu Empowerment and Poverty Alleviation (Pudhu Vaazhvu) Project

Community based livelihood interventions, which focus directly on increasing income and employment, have become an increasingly important component of large-scale poverty reduction programmes. We evaluate the impact of a participatory livelihoods intervention – the Tamil Nadu Empowerment and Poverty Reduction (Pudhu Vaazhvu) Project (PVP) using propensity score matching methods. The paper explores the impact of PVP on its core goals of empowering women and the rural poor, improving their economic welfare, and facilitating public action. We find significant effects of PVP on reducing the incidence of high cost debt and diversifying livelihoods. We also find evidence of women’s empowerment, and increased political participation.

Livelihood recovery after disaster

A lack of monitoring and evaluation on the outcomes of livelihood recovery programming has typified many post-disaster recovery initiatives. This article uses a case study of the 2006 Yogyakarta, Indonesia earthquake to analyse longer-term impacts of livelihood programming after disaster. The article includes an overview of the programming implemented in five case study villages and the perspectives of impacted populations on the livelihood interventions. Results indicate the importance of longer-term programming, early interventions, local leadership, and an integrative strategy focusing on replacing assets, providing capital and credit to jumpstart entrepreneurial activities, capacity and skills building, and developing markets and networks.

Psychological therapy to improve HIV care and reduce stigma

The Global Burden of Disease study introduced mental disorders to the global health agenda more than two decades ago. Mental disorders are among the principal causes of disability burden in low-income and middle-income countries.1 Emphasising the value of treating mental disorders not only to relieve human suffering, but also to improve other health outcomes of interest (eg, HIV) or to enhance economic development has been partly effective in mobilising concern. Despite these efforts, resources to address this issue at a population level have yet to be organised on a large scale.2,3 The successful scale-up of HIV treatment through the US President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) has provided a prominent example of the population health possibilities that can be achieved in low-income and middle-income countries through coordinated efforts to deliver effective treatment at scale.4 Life expectancy gains for people with HIV have been great.5 The same cannot be said for people with mental disorders: even in Scandinavian countries with among the most equitably distributed health-care resources in the world, life expectancy of people with mental health problems lags by two decades.6 Unfortunately, a PEPFAR for mental disorders is nearly impossible to imagine at this time. The specialty is too fractured, political will non-existent, and stigma too great.3,7 In the meantime, the field continues to benefit from research on the development and testing of scalable, evidence-based treatments for common mental disorders that also improve other health outcomes of interest. In the setting of HIV, common mental disorders are of great public health importance: depression is highly prevalent in people with HIV,8 effective depression treatment improves HIV-related outcomes,9 and the stigma of HIV heavily compromises treatment adherence.10 In The Lancet HIV, Etheldreda Nakimuli-Mpungu and colleagues11 report the findings of a randomised trial showing that a group psychotherapy intervention improved depression symptom severity, role and social functioning, and self-esteem in people with HIV in northern Uganda. They used an active comparison group, the short-term treatment effects were large and similar to those estimated in previous studies, and the researchers handled loss to follow-up appropriately. Their study offers an excellent example of a carefully planned approach to intervention development informed by qualitative research, instrument validation, and pilot testing. The study also provides a starting point to explore several important questions. First, how can we provide scalable models of psychological treatments for common mental disorders in low-income and middle-income countries? Previous concerns have typically focused on limitations in human resources and the generalisability of treatments developed in high-income settings. However, human resource limitations can be overcome through task shifting (ie, to non-specialist health providers12) and task sharing (eg, through stepped or collaborative care13). Likewise, studies have shown that cultural adaptations of psychological treatments modify their implementation while preserving fidelity to the core content.14 The group psychotherapy intervention in the study by Nakimuli-Mpungu and colleagues11 was delivered by mental health professionals with diploma and degree-level education. We believe that research showing how to adapt the intervention for delivery at scale by trained laypeople would be of great public health significance.12 Second, how can we expand on these findings to assess its implications for other aspects of health and wellbeing? Effective depression treatment has been linked to improved HIV-related outcomes in studies done in high-income countries.9 We do not know whether a similar effect was noted in this sample,11 since these data are not reported. Future studies can extend the work of Nakimuli-Mpungu and colleagues by additionally studying HIV-related outcomes of interest, such as stigma, treatment adherence, virological suppression, and retention in care. By doing so they might help to build the evidence base for the integration of psychological interventions in the more established HIV treatment infrastructure. Lastly, Nakimuli-Mpungu and colleagues postulated that “when [group support psychotherapy] reduces depression symptoms, livelihood strategies will be enhanced thereby leading to acquisition of livelihood assets”.11 But which variable is the mediator, and which is the outcome? Could the income-generating skills taught through the intervention have improved livelihoods, thereby ameliorating depression symptom severity?15 The authors did not present data describing the extent to which the participants' income-generating activities were successful. We believe this represents an important area for future research. For people who are stigmatised and excluded, livelihood interventions can contribute powerfully to social reintegration and reversal of status loss.16 That this study raises more questions than it answers is appropriate for the somewhat nascent specialty of global mental health. More research like the study by Nakimuli-Mpungu and colleagues11 will help to spur an effective response to the nearly decade-old call for action issued in the 2007 Lancet Series on global mental health. Programmatic work to optimise scale-up of treatments for mental disorders in low-income and middle-income countries is, now more than ever, urgently needed to address one of the most neglected aspects of human health and wellbeing.

Shamba Maisha: Pilot agricultural intervention for food security and HIV health outcomes in Kenya: design, methods, baseline results and process evaluation of a cluster-randomized controlled trial.

BackgroundDespite advances in treatment of people living with HIV, morbidity and mortality remains unacceptably high in sub-Saharan Africa, largely due to parallel epidemics of poverty and food insecurity.Methods/DesignWe conducted a pilot cluster randomized controlled trial (RCT) of a multisectoral agricultural and microfinance intervention (entitled Shamba Maisha) designed to improve food security, household wealth, HIV clinical outcomes and women’s empowerment. The intervention was carried out at two HIV clinics in Kenya, one randomized to the intervention arm and one to the control arm. HIV-infected patients >18 years, on antiretroviral therapy, with moderate/severe food insecurity and/or body mass index (BMI) <18.5, and access to land and surface water were eligible for enrollment. The intervention included: 1) a microfinance loan (~$150) to purchase the farming commodities, 2) a micro-irrigation pump, seeds, and fertilizer, and 3) trainings in sustainable agricultural practices and financial literacy. Enrollment of 140 participants took four months, and the screening-to-enrollment ratio was similar between arms. We followed participants for 12 months and conducted structured questionnaires. We also conducted a process evaluation with participants and stakeholders 3–5 months after study start and at study end.DiscussionBaseline results revealed that participants at the two sites were similar in age, gender and marital status. A greater proportion of participants at the intervention site had a low BMI in comparison to participants at the control site (18% vs. 7%, p = 0.054). While median CD4 count was similar between arms, a greater proportion of participants enrolled at the intervention arm had a detectable HIV viral load compared with control participants (49% vs. 28%, respectively, p < 0.010). Process evaluation findings suggested that Shamba Maisha had high acceptability in recruitment, delivered strong agricultural and financial training, and led to labor saving due to use of the water pump. Implementation challenges included participant concerns about repaying loans, agricultural challenges due to weather patterns, and a challenging partnership with the microfinance institution. We expect the results from this pilot study to provide useful data on the impacts of livelihood interventions and will help in the design of a definitive cluster RCT.Trial registrationThis trial is registered at ClinicalTrials.gov, NCT01548599.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s40064-015-0886-x) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Human Security to Promote Capacity-building and Sustainable Livelihoods Interventions

Human Security to Promote Capacity-building and Sustainable Livelihoods Interventions

Livelihoods for women in Mindanao: A post-conflict reconstruction approach

The conflict in Mindanao has displaced over two million people in the period 2000 to 2009. As it subsides, the displaced return to their communities and begin the process of reconstruction. This paper studies how women contributed to the post-conflict reconstruction of Mindanao by engaging in livelihood activities. It explores five different livelihood intervention projects implemented in Mindanao between 2000 and 2010. The extent of women's contribution to post-conflict reconstruction is measured by identifying the benefits gained at household and community levels, generated by women's livelihood work. I argue that women's participation in such activities have led to economic, social and political reconstruction of the communities affected by in Mindanao. This paper also compares the women's livelihoods approach with other reconstruction strategies. It also illustrates that interventions for reconstruction therefore must include livelihood programs that encourage women's participation, as exemplified by the experience of Mindanao.

ASSESSING ECOTOURISM ECONOMICS FOR LIVELIHOOD INTERVENTION- A CASE IN NAMERI NATIONAL PARK OF ASSAM (INDIA)

This paper entitled tries to emphasize on the ecotourism initiatives and its impact of on livelihood intervention in the fringe of Nameri National Park in Assam, India. Ecotourism initiatives that have been introduce by Assam (Bhorelli) Angling and Conservation Association (ABACA), an organization started ecotourism ventures in the year 1956 benefiting local populace in terms of income, improved infrastructure, employment opportunities and exposure. The community’s capacity to facilitate resource related conflicts has improved following support from development institutions and facilities provided by the organization. An expanding livelihood base is reducing local vulnerability to disaster and man-animal conflicts. The numbers of inhabitant wildlife species in the park have increased due to adequate protection and reduce frequency of livestock in nearby villagers. There is need to build the community’s capacity for the promotion of activities that compliment ecotourism. Through the paper the researcher emphasizes such possibilities on the basis of assessment of potential ecotourism resources of the Nameri National Park during field experience gained different parts of the study area.

Application of Social Network Analysis for Livelihood System Study

Social Network Analysis (SNA) has received growing attention among diverse academic fields for studying ‘social relations’ among individuals and institutions. Unfortunately, its application has remained limited in the study of livelihood systems of rural poor. Complexity in rural livelihoods has increased sharply in the face of increased pressure on natural resources and rapid shift in farm-based to non-farm based employments. This poses great challenge to successful livelihood intervention in rural areas. On one hand, rural development/extension needs to cater to diverse information and service need of the rural people; on other hand, rural institutions need to deliver livelihood-sustaining services more efficiently, which often need institutional restructuring at multiple levels. To achieve these challenges, a strong innovative analytical tool is required for understanding the complexity of rural livelihoods and the associated role of rural institutions. SNA provides excellent scope to analyse such complex systems and interactions among their components. This article proposes an outline of using SNA in livelihood system analysis. The analysis can provide answer to many questions of practical importance – Who are the influential actors in a livelihood system? Which are the key institutions contributing towards sustainable livelihoods? How do these actors interact among themselves? This will help rural development administrators to deliver livelihood-supporting services more efficiently through informed targeting and capacity building.

The SHAZ! project: results from a pilot randomized trial of a structural intervention to prevent HIV among adolescent women in Zimbabwe.

Adolescent females in Zimbabwe are at high risk for HIV acquisition. Shaping the Health of Adolescents in Zimbabwe (SHAZ!) was a randomized controlled trial of a combined intervention package including life-skills and health education, vocational training, micro-grants and social supports compared to life-skills and health education alone. SHAZ! was originally envisioned as a larger effectiveness trial, however, the intervention was scaled back due to contextual and economic conditions in the country at the time. SHAZ! enrolled 315 participants randomly assigned to study arm within blocks of 50 participants (158 intervention and 157 control). The intervention arm participants showed statistically significant differences from the control arm participants for several outcomes during the two years of follow up including; reduced food insecurity [IOR = 0.83 vs. COR = 0.68, p-0.02], and having their own income [IOR = 2.05 vs. COR = 1.67, p = 0.02]. Additionally, within the Intervention arm there was a lower risk of transactional sex [IOR = 0.64, 95% CI (0.50, 0.83)], and a higher likelihood of using a condom with their current partner [IOR = 1.79, 95% CI (1.23, 2.62)] over time compared to baseline. There was also evidence of fewer unintended pregnancies among intervention participants [HR = 0.61, 95% CI (0.37, 1.01)], although this relationship achieved only marginal statistical significance. Several important challenges in this study included the coordination with vocational training programs, the political and economic instability of the area at the time of the study, and the difficulty in creating a true standard of care control arm. Overall the results of the SHAZ! study suggest important potential for HIV prevention intervention packages that include vocational training and micro-grants, and lessons for further economic livelihoods interventions with adolescent females. Further work is needed to refine the intervention model, and test the impact of the intervention at scale on biological outcomes.Trial RegistrationClinicalTrials.gov NCT02034214

Reconstructing masculinity? A qualitative evaluation of the Stepping Stones and Creating Futures interventions in urban informal settlements in South Africa

Evidence shows the importance of working with men to reduce intimate partner violence and HIV-risk. Two claims dominate this work. The first is that interventions ‘reconstruct’ masculinities – these new formations of masculinity exist in opposition to existing ones and are healthier for men and less harmful for women. The second is that to be successful, such interventions need to address men's exclusion from the economy. Using a qualitative longitudinal cohort study of young men who participated in a gender transformative and livelihood strengthening intervention, as well as dyadic interviews with men's main female partners, we explore these claims. Data suggests men saw some improvements in livelihoods and relationships. However, challenging social contexts, including high rates of unemployment, peer networks and a dominant youth masculinity, limited change. Rather than reconstructing masculinity, a more subtle shift was seen with men moving away from ‘harmful’ aspects of a dominant youth masculinity towards a form of masculinity whereby male power is buttressed by economic provision and attempting to form and support ‘households’. Working with men on their livelihoods at an instrumental level encouraged participation in the intervention. Beyond encouragement, men's improving livelihoods afforded men the opportunity to materially demonstrate the social changes – in the form of shifts in masculinity – they were seeking to enact.

Manpower Potential, Employment Status and Forest Based Livelihood Opportunities among Tribal Communities of Jharkhand, India

The study sought to investigate the manpower potential, employment status and forest based livelihood opportunities among tribal communities (Munda, Oraon and Lohara) of Bundu block in Ranchi district of Jharkhand state. The study is based on both secondary sources and primary field survey viz. personal interviews of the respondents through a well-structured pre-tested interview schedule, personal observations of the interviewer and participatory rural appraisal tools, that is, semi-structure interview and focus group discussion carried out in the sample villages using multi-stage random sampling technique. The study revealed that out of the 3738 labour force, 54.95 percent belonged to work force and rest (45.05%) is unemployed. A considerable percentage (41.46%) of households was having three workers engaged as family labour (62.19%) for 201-300 mandays per annum (71.95%). Nearly half (48.17%) of the households were having one migrant or day-outer member who travels a distance upto 50 km (72.56%) for a period upto 4 months (50.61%) for earning their livelihoods. The alleviation of unemployment and under-employment problems of the tribal people needs diversification of non-traditional and economically viable employment opportunities. The forest based livelihood interventions namely, agroforestry, energy plantation, pasture development, timber plantation, tasar (Antherea mylitta) silk rearing, lac cultivation, bamboo planting, fruit farming and value addition in sal (Shorea robusta) leaf plate and cup making are the best options having potential to generate employment opportunities of 108792.50 mandays per annum and an income of Rupees (Rs.) 327.77 lakhs per annum for the tribal people. Hence, the interventions envisaged needs to be implemented efficiently for all-round development of the tribal people and ecological stability in the study area.

Opportunities and needs in development of smallholder goat production systems in Africa

A detailed diagnosis of the dynamics of smallholder goat farming systems will guide in any of livelihood intervention programs which takes into account the important socioeconomic issues towards improving the standard of living of the rural poor in Africa. Goats provide smallholder resource poor farmers with a vast range of products and services such as immediate cash income, meat, milk, skin, manure, risk spreading/ management and social functions. This is on the background that goats require smaller investments, have shorter production cycles and greater environmental adaptability, and hence have a unique niche in smallholder agriculture which make them a sustainable enterprise in the context of climate change and variability. This is a review paper that explores the feasibility of goat production as an viable option to improve the quality of life of rural populations in Africa. The discussion highlights the opportunities and challenges in maximizing goat production on the continent focusing on the reducing the current animal product demand supply gap in rural areas. Empirical evidence show that goat population do play a greater role in smallholder farming sector and the species is increasing in numbers than othe livestock. The major concern for using goats is their ecological and physiological adaptive traits which will be more important in the context of climate change variability and other common environmental shocks. The factors which contribute to efficiency in goat production as influenced by water stress, feed inadequacy and disease resistance should be studied further inorder for goats to continualy survive the extremities of climate change. Study conclude that goats constitute an important reservoir of genetic material and sustainable form of animal production that has significant potential for alleviating malnutrition and food insecurity in Africa.