The Sustainable Livelihoods Approach in practice

In development practice, the International Poverty Line is a widely used measure to identify project needs. Of the 12 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) identified by the United Nations, eradicating extreme poverty is the very first. To this end, the Poverty Line provides a high-level overview; in Madagascar, 81% of the population is considered to live in extreme poverty (World Bank, 2022). When defined as a financial problem, a logical solution is to increase income. However, many development experts agree that when it comes to alleviation strategies, income only reflects one dimension of poverty. In order to consider the diverse set of other factors we look to the Sustainable Livelihoods approach, which defines a livelihood as the capacities, resources and activities that are needed to make a living (Chambers & Conway, 1992).

Consider a Malagasy beekeeper living in a rural area. If you would ask the beekeeper what they need to make a living, they would probably not only mention money, but also materials, skills, knowledge, market access, a healthy environment for the bees, and so on. On the other hand, if you would ask a teacher, a fisher, or a weaver, they might give you a completely different answer. Hence, what a person needs to sustain their livelihood, i.e. the resources needed to support their living, depends on a multitude of contextual factors.??

In Madagascar, the natural environment is central to people’s livelihoods. This is especially true for the Anosy region, where 98% of rural households rely on natural resources to earn a living (INSTAT, 2020). At the same time, Madagascar is among the most vulnerable countries in the world to global climate change (Amnesty International, 2022). Increasing occurrence of large-scale climate events such as droughts, floods, and cyclones, are putting both the people and the country’s unique biodiversity at risk (USAID, 2016). To consider how the environment affects people’s livelihoods, and vice versa, the Sustainable Livelihoods approach can provide useful insights.?

But what does this approach entail and how do we put it to practice? In this blog we will take you from theory, to context, to practise, using the example of Project Renitantely: a Rural Livelihoods project that supports beekeepers in southeast Madagascar.?

The theory: Sustainable Livelihoods approach

The Sustainable Livelihoods approach outlines four categories of resources – also known as capital assets – that are key to sustain one’s livelihood (Krantz, 2001): social capital, environmental capital, human capital, and economic or financial capital.

In theory, these resources might be easy to identify, but in practice the level of access to these resources is highly context specific and affected by factors such as economic trends, cultural norms, and the influence of politics, business, and civil society (Krantz, 2001). To address such a dynamic context, a participatory method is considered crucial. Often called a bottom-up approach, this leans into the belief that? the people who personally experience these constraints often have the best knowledge on what’s needed to improve their circumstances (Krantz, 2001).?

Sustainability

If we consider the four capital assets as the key inputs of the approach, the outcome should be a sustainable livelihood. Sustainability is considered on two levels (Chambers & Conway, 1992):

Environmental sustainability puts emphasis on a sustainable use of natural resources, considering issues such as deforestation, which is especially important to rural livelihoods;

Social sustainability addresses one’s ability to sustain a livelihood activity long term, being able to bounce back from external shocks such as economic or environmental crises, war, and illness.?

Combining both, a livelihood is sustainable “when it can cope with and recover from stresses and shocks, maintain or enhance its capabilities and assets, while not undermining the natural resource base” (Krantz, 2001, p.7). This definition is especially important to consider in the current context of Madagascar, where the pressure of the climate crisis is putting both the natural environment and the rural livelihoods that rely on them at increasing risk. In the next section we will apply the theory to analyse the real-life example of SEED’s beekeeping project.

The context: beekeepers in Madagascar

What resources do beekeepers need to sustain their livelihoods and how is their access to these resources affected by politics, economic environment, cultural norms, and stresses and shocks? Let’s have another look at the four essential capital assets and see how this applies to beekeepers in southeast Madagascar.?

The figure shows the capital assets that were identified as essential for beekeepers in Project Renitantely to achieve a sustainable livelihood, all of which come with their own set of constraints. For example, market access is limited in rural communities so honey sales mostly happen informally and at a spoonful at a time, returning little value. Additionally, cultural norms often exclude women from such income generating activities due to the expectation that they instead spend time completing household responsibilities.?

There are many other factors that come into play here, namely high levels of economic and political instability, and challenging environmental conditions. These two stressors have been particularly exacerbated in recent years. In 2020, the economic repercussions of the COVID-19 crisis hit Madagascar around three times harder than the rest of Sub-Saharan Africa (World Bank, 2022). With inflation ever rising, it has become increasingly difficult for beekeepers to sell honey locally. As mentioned earlier, climate change is also worsening conditions, particularly in Madagascar where weather patterns are becoming less predictable (USAID, 2016). Changes to the environment such as increasingly longer droughts are not only leading to severe food insecurity, but also reduce the available nectar (forage) for bees. Similarly, the high rate of deforestation in Madagascar continues to threaten the social and environmental sustainability of beekeeping: when forage is scarce, whole colonies may abscond from the apiary in search of food, leaving beekeepers empty-handed.

By now you will have a high-level understanding of how the Sustainable Livelihoods approach can be applied to the situation of beekeepers in southeast Madagascar. In the next section we detail how the approach can also be used as a response, or method, to improve the sustainability of beekeeping.?

The response: The Sustainable livelihoods approach in practice?

Since 2016, Project Renitantely (Malagasy for honeybee) has supported the livelihoods of rural beekeepers in the southeast Anosy region. As is fundamental to the Sustainable Livelihoods approach, Project Renitantely supports beekeepers using a bottom-up method. In early 2022, two highly-skilled project beekeepers were recruited as beekeeping technicians to provide personalised support to other beekeepers in the communities they live and work in. Holding invaluable knowledge of the context, the technicians conduct monthly monitoring visits to each project beekeeper, whilst staying informed on current and emerging challenges. This way, the beekeeping technicians are helping to support the four necessary resources to improve the sustainability of beekeeping in their region.??

Often living in remote rural areas, most beekeepers have limited access to information and training. Strengthening human capital, the technicians travel to each community to deliver training, provide hands-on technical support, and give expert advice. The training sessions aim to increase technical knowledge and beekeeping skills, such as hive building, pest management, or improving product quality.?

To strengthen social capital, beekeeper associations were established in each community, creating a network that brings the beekeepers together to discuss challenges, share necessary equipment, and learn from each other. The beekeepers also collectively manage communal ‘bee banks’, apiaries used to populate beekeepers’ empty hives with new colonies.?

With limited economic opportunities, it is difficult for beekeepers to invest in their business. To enhance beekeepers’ economic capital, the project is exploring new market opportunities and supporting beekeepers to scale-up their business. Through repairing, building, and populating their hives, beekeepers are able to grow the size of their apiary and increase their economic output.?

To support environmental capital, the beekeepers are provided with fruit trees and vegetable seeds to plant near their apiaries. Whilst this supplements forage for the bees, the crops also provide the beekeepers with additional food security benefits. Last year, some of the project beekeepers were even able to sell part of their harvest.?

In conclusion…

The Sustainable Livelihoods approach considers livelihoods beyond income. What seems simple in theory becomes complex when applied to reality. Constraints to resources tend to be beyond one’s control and stresses and shocks can have a multitude of negative consequences. By considering the situation as dynamic and complex, SEED can flexibly respond to the challenges beekeepers are facing across all resources and work with beekeepers to improve the sustainability of beekeeping across Anosy.?

Would you like to know more about sustainable livelihoods? Head over to our Rural Livelihoods page, or scroll to the bottom of this page for further reading suggestions.

References

Amnesty International (2022). Amnesty International Report 2021/22: The state of the world's human rights [EN/AR]. https://reliefweb.int/report/world/amnesty-international-report-202122-state-worlds-human-rights-enar?

Chambers, R. and Conway, G.R. (1992) ‘Sustainable Rural Livelihoods: Practical Concepts for the 21st Century’, Discussion Paper 296. Brighton, UK: Institute of Development Studies

Institut National de la Statistique (INSTAT) (2020). TROISIEME RECENSEMENT GENERAL DE LA POPULATION ET DE L’HABITATION (RGPH-3).

Krantz, L. (2001). The sustainable livelihood approach to poverty reduction. SIDA. Division for Policy and Socio-Economic Analysis, 44, 1-38.

USAID (2016).?Climate Change Risk in Madagascar: Country Fact Sheet.?https://www.climatelinks.org/sites/default/files/asset/document/2016%20CRM%20Factsheet%20Madagascar_use%20this.pdf

World Bank (2020).? Madagascar Overview [webpage]. ?https://www.worldbank.org/en/country/madagascar/overview

Further reading about sustainable livelihoods and beekeeping:

Valdes-Rodriguez, O. A., & Pérez-Vázquez, A. (2011). Sustainable livelihoods: an analysis of the methodology. Tropical and Subtropical Agroecosystems, 14(1), 91-99.

Carroll, T., & Kinsella, J. (2013). Livelihood improvement and smallholder beekeeping in Kenya: the unrealised potential. Development in Practice, 23(3), 332-345.

Jeil, E. B., Abass, K., & Segbefia, A. Y. (2020). Challenges to sustaining beekeeping livelihoods in Ghana. GeoJournal, 1-18.