Rural Livelihoods

For the last 10 years, IPM training programmes in Asia have been pursuing multiple objectives with considerable success. Farmer empowerment, the conservation of biodiversity, food security, community education, the protection of human health and policy reform have all been explicit part of these programmes. These multiple objectives have arisen from a growing recognition - among governments, NGOs, donors and farmers themselves - of the interdependence of different aspects of development, and the need to put people at the center of the development process.

In recent years this approach to rural development has been given the name 'sustainable rural livelihoods'. New analytical tools have been developed and cases have been documented. The Field Alliance is making use of these ideas, which complement the experience and expertise which has been gained during many years of planning and implementing programmes that make use of ecological concepts and participatory methods to bring about a wide range of measurable benefits.

Documents On-line

• IPM as an entry point for sustainable livelihoods. A short concept paper by Andrew Bartlett. [PDF file, 3 pages, 155 KB].
• The Empowerment... of Farmer Life Schools. The report of a project in Cambodia in which IPM farmer trainers facilitated Human Ecosystem Analysis (HESA). Written by Nguon Sokuthea, Srer Khmer, 2002 [DOC file, 1.5 Mb]
• Picturing Impact: Participatory Evaluation of Community IPM in Three West Java Villages. A study carried out by farmers who took photographs to examine the impact of IPM on poverty in their villages. [DOC files, 69 pages, 2.0 Mb]

Useful Websites

• Livelihoods Connect. This site, which has been developed by DFID and IDS, has a large collection of documents and a guide to organisations involved in sustainable livelihoods.
• The site of the UNDP Sustainable Livelihoods Unit provides access to numerous strategy papers, field guides and workshop reports.
• The Overseas Development Institute has published briefing papers on sustainable livelihoods, although they are not collected in one place on the website. Use the search tool to get a list of 'livelihoods' documents.