Rural Development Policies and Sustainable Land Use in the ...

22 CHAPTER 3
Figure 3.1 Sustainable livelihoods framework
Policy and Institutional Environment
Vulnerability Context
• Shocks
• Trends
• Seasonality
H = human assets
N = natural assets
F = financial assets
P = physical assets
S = social assets
Livelihood Assets
S
P
H
F
N
Influence
and access
Policies, Institutions,
Processes
• Levels of
government
• Private
sector
• Laws
• Policies
• Culture
• Institutions
Livelihood
strategies
Livelihood
Outcomes
• More income
• Increased wellbeing
• Reduced
vulnerability
• Improved food
security
• Sustainable use
of NR base
Source: Adapted from DFID (1999) and Adato and Meinzen-Dick (2002).
continuous measures of asset types, but this
does not allow an improvement in the effectiveness
of policies through better targeting.
Conceptual Framework
for Livelihood Strategies
Implementing the livelihood strategy framework
requires an interdisciplinary approach
to poverty research that combines both quantitative
and qualitative methods. The sustainable
livelihoods conceptual framework,
represented in Figure 3.1, is a dynamic tool
that aims to combine and capture interactions
between households, assets, and their
surrounding institutional environment.
The asset portfolio, represented by the
pentagon in Figure 3.1, is a key component
to understanding a household’s livelihood
strategy. Our initial focus is on the conceptualization
and quantification of the household’s
asset portfolio as an input into the
explanation of a household’s livelihood
strategy. The focus on assets is appropriate
given the historically stark inequalities in
asset distribution in Honduras (see also the
first section in Chapter 4). However, rather
than following the sustainable livelihoods
framework religiously, we interpret and extend
the framework in a number of ways in
order to serve the purposes of our analysis.
We extend the traditional five asset categories
by adding a sixth category that we
label “geographic determinants of comparative
advantage.” This new asset category
reflects the household’s economic environment,
largely in terms of access to markets
and public services but also in terms of its
vulnerability context. 22 Geographic determinants
of comparative advantage play a major
role in defining transaction costs faced by
the household and influence economic opportunities
for both agricultural commodities
and off-farm work. They therefore are
hypothesized to play an important role in
the household’s livelihood choice. Together
these six asset categories form the household’s
asset portfolio and define some of its
vulnerability context as well.
The sustainable livelihoods framework
uses rather broad definitions of each of its
five different types of assets (or capital).
22
Geographic determinants of comparative advantage assume particular relevance in rural Honduras, as besides
the capital of Tegucigalpa and the industrial center of San Pedro Sula, Honduras has only four other population
centers with more than 100,000 inhabitants. As a result, access to urban markets and services is limited for most
of the interior hillside areas.