Impacts of policies on upland communities and their livelihoods

Abstract

Recent policy and strategic vision documents embrace holistic views on transforming the livelihoods of poor upland villagers. Thus, while policies seek more allocation of household resources to commercial enterprise, there are also concerns about basic food security and the need to build incrementally on what already exists. Livelihoods are currently centred on the basic resource of household labour, which includes human knowledge, skills and health. Household livelihood strategies affect how resources are allocated among available opportunities, which can be land-based or non-land-based, based within the ‘subsistence core’, based in activities centred on commercial production (if available), or based in enterprises managed at household, group, or community levels