Livelihood Awareness Session

Sustainable Livelihoods
Sustainable livelihood refers to people’s capacity to generate and
maintain their means of living, and enhance their own well-being as
well as that of future generations.

A livelihood is sustainable when it can cope with, and recover from,

stresses and shocks, and maintain or enhance its capabilities and
assets, both now and in the future, while not undermining the natural
resource base.
 Livelihood Awareness Session

Sustainable Livelihoods

A household member, who used to work and contribute a regular

HUMAN salary, drowned in the flooding.

Communities may be forced to flee from conflict, with the resulting

SOCIAL alteration of their social networks.

A hurricane may cause loss of seeds or disruption of the power supply,

PHYSICAL interfering with agricultural or trading activities.

Drought may cause the death of a herd of cattle which represented

FINANCIAL a person’s life savings.

NATURAL Agricultural land may be unusable after landslides or tsunamis.

 Livelihood Awareness Session

Sustainable Livelihoods Framework

 Livelihood Awareness Session

Sustainable Livelihoods Framework

The
objectives
people
have
Causes of What people Governance
vulnerability have / have access environment
to

What
people
do
 Livelihood Awareness Session

Vulnerability and Resilience

Vulnerability refers to a household’s or community’s level of

risk to threats to their lives and livelihoods. A community’s
vulnerability is determined by its ability to cope with risks and
shocks.

Resilience refers to the capacity of individuals and their

communities to resist, cope with, and recover from, a disaster or
conflict.

More resilience means less vulnerability.

Source: IFRC (2008). What is VCA?