| 
Background and use of SL
This project focused on
the affect on livelihoods when new urban
infrastructure and services (I&S) are
developed. Although I&S can bring critical health,
environmental and social benefits, they can have a detrimental
affect on the livelihood interests of some of the poor.
The project focussed on the following livelihoods groups :
- In Delhi and Hyderabad, India – the
waste pickers who lose access to valuable waste when solid
waste management is improved
- In Addis Ababba in Ethiopia - the traditional
fuel suppliers who lose customers as a result of fuel-switching
policies encouraging the use of kerosene
- In Dhaka, Bangladesh and Karachi, Pakistan
- the rickshaw cyclists who lose work because they are barred
access to new fast roads and flyovers.
At the heart of the project was 'Livelihood substitution'
- where new livelihood opportunities are adopted by those
who lose out by I&S. The project explored ways in which
new livelihoods could be created for those who are detrimentally
affected within the delivery of improved I&S, for example
waste pickers enjoying better pay, rights, status and working
conditions formally working with municipalities in sanitary
waste management.
The fieldwork undertaken in Bangladesh, India, Pakistan and
Ethiopian was all structured around the Sustainable Livelihoods
Approach (SLA). This enabled the researchers to disaggregate
the activities and context of informal item sector entrepreneurs
into assets (including financial, physical, natural, social
and human), livelihood strategies and interaction with rules,
laws, culture and official bodies (such as police and government).
While
the SLA constituted the skeleton, participative approaches
provided the flesh. Investigating issues through a ‘livelihoods’
lens must usually, by definition, be intrinsically participatory.
The overseas research undertaken for this project was predominantly
based around qualitative fieldwork, including semi-structured
interviews, focus groups and observation.
All
the outputs of this project have focused on the livelihoods
of the poor. Livelihoods of the point of departure, from which
they examine and analyse policy, infrastructure development,
service delivery and mitigation measures.
Sustainable
livelihoods approach was used in: Preparation Studies; Design/Re-design;
Learning by Doing; Participative Monitoring; Change Assessment
(evaluation); Agreeing Best Practices; Livelihood Assets Analysis;
Vulnerability Context Analysis; Trends Analysis; Policy, Institutions
and Processes Analysis; Livelihood Strategies Analysis; Livelihood
Outcomes Analysis.
|
