Save lives and save (or restore) livelihoods…..

1. Save lives and save (or restore) livelihoods….. Livelihoods Interventions Module 16 1

2. Learning objectives • Be familiar with the different options of livelihood interventions • Understand their main objectives • Be aware of advantages, disadvantages and criteria for implementation of livelihood interventions • Understand the various contexts for livelihood interventions

3. Why Livelihoods?

4. Why Livelihoods? Understanding livelihoods is critical to understanding nutrition in emergencies as it is through livelihoods that people obtain food and income security.

6. Livelihoods and emergency programming In emergencies, livelihood support programmes include any intervention that protects people’s capabilities and assets, and supports livelihood activities These programmes can be undertaken to prevent or mitigate* the impact of a crisis or in response to a crisis

7. Would these fishermen benefit more from food aid or support to repair their boat? Impact of a tsunami

8. Would these farmers benefit more from food assistance or logistic support to get their produce to markets? 8

9. Undernutrition Inadequate food intake Disease Immediate causes Household food insecurity Poor social and care practices Poor PublicHealth Underlying causes Formal and informal infrastructure/political ideology/resources Basic causes Source: UNICEF conceptual framework

10. Planning and Designing Interventions that Support Livelihoods in emergencies Examples? Interventions to support livelihoods can have 3 objectives: • Livelihood Provision, the supply of basic immediate needs • Livelihood Protection, preventing the sale of assets or the recovery of lost assets • Livelihood Promotion, strengthening institutions, skills and advocating for policy change that supports livelihoods

11. Interventions can be divided into 4 main groups: • (Food assistance (GFD)) • Income and employment (Food for work, Cash for work, Cash grants, micro-finance, income generating activities) • Production support (crop production support, livestock support, fishing support) • Market support (commodity vouchers, cash vouchers, monetization and subsidized sales, market infrastructure and access, de-stocking)

12. Hand-out Overview of different livelihood support interventions in emergencies and criteria/condition for decision-making on interventions to address food crises

13. Interventions can be divided into 4 main groups: • (Food assistance (GFD)) • Income and employment (Food for work, Cash for work, Cash grants, micro-finance, income generating activities) • Production support (crop production support, livestock support, fishing support) • Market support (commodity vouchers, cash vouchers, monetization and subsidized sales, market infrastructure and access, de-stocking)

14. Implementing interventions to support Livelihoods:Food assistance interventions • Food assistance is organized to: • Maintain or improve nutritional status, hence enabling a healthy active life • Reduce the need for people to sell off assets to obtain food • Release income that would otherwise have been spent on food • Enable the payment of credit or debt i.e. supports important coping strategies • Some risks are to be considered, such as the impact on market, people dependency, competition with other aid interventions, etc.

15. Implementing Interventions to support Livelihoods:Income & Employment • Cash approaches are increasingly being used • when sufficient food (or other goods) is available and accessible on markets • when no risk of increasing inflation exists; and • when conditions are respected for safe and effective cash transfer. • Types of interventions are cash grants, cash vouchers, cash for work.

16. Implementing Interventions to support Livelihoods:Market support • The aim of market support programmes in emergencies is generally to ensure that people’s access to basic goods is maintained. • Market support interventions can take many forms: • cash and voucher programmes • programmes that support market infrastructure, the maintenance of food prices in markets (e.g. through the provision of subsidized foods) and the producers’ access to markets locally, nationally and internationally. • Such programmes require adequate market analysis.

17. Implementing Interventions to support Livelihoods: Production support • It can take many forms such as support of livestock, crop production and fishing interventions • The main types of interventions are: • Seeds and Tools • Seeds fair • Livestock programmes • Livestock marketing support • De-stocking • Fodder distribution • Veterinary and animal health support • Re-stocking

18. How would you monitor and evaluate Livelihoods Interventions? And….. Is it different from other interventions?

19. How to decide which intervention is appropriate? Selection based on the need, the context, the advantages and disadvantages of each intervention. Example:

20. Monitoring and evaluation of livelihoods interventions

21. Are all livelihood interventions appropriate for each context? • For example: • - in relief? • - in pro-tracted crisis? • as part of disaster preparedness? • in rehabilitation/early recovery • phase?

22. Issues and challenges for livelihoods programming in emergencies (1) Examples of different interventions dependent on the context (disaster management cycle)

23. Issues and challenges for livelihoods programming in emergencies (2) * Working in conflict makes it very necessary for livelihood interventions to be linked with protection ones. Mainstreaming HIV and AIDS in livelihood interventions because of the deep prolonged impact of the disease on livelihoods. Can livelihood interventions improve nutrition?

24. Can livelihood interventions improve nutrition? • Improvement of nutritional status cannot necessarily be attributed to the livelihood intervention. • Because there is a complex pathway between that intervention and nutritional status (with many factors that can change the nutritional status) • But……at best there might be a plausible causal association, e.g. it might be possible that a livelihood intervention leads to increased income leading to improved consumption patterns. • As long indicators on each level are not measured, it will be difficult to defend this ‘causal’ relationship. • BUT…..livelihood interventions do not need to have nutritional objectives to be still useful and supportive to families/communities in emergencies.

25. Many opportunities, often not used Questions? Your experiences?

26. Key messages • Understanding livelihoods is critical to understanding how an emergency will affect nutrition. • Organisations are increasingly programming to support livelihoods during emergencies. • A wide variety of interventions can be implemented in support of livelihoods during emergencies including: • Food aid (general food distribution, food for work) • Income and employment (cash distribution, cash for work, micro-finance) • Market support (vouchers, monetization and de-stocking) • Production support (agricultural, livestock and fishing) • The choice of the most appropriate livelihood intervention depends on the pros and cons, the context (relief, rehabilitation, development. mitigation/preparedness), preferences of the communities, etc.