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Joseph Assan, PhDSchool of Natural

SciencesTrinity College

DublinDublin, Ireland

In 1987 Brundtland report “Our Common Future” defined sustainable development as “development that ‘meets the needs of the present generation without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their needs’ (WCED 1987).

Political economy originally was the term for studying the economics of: production, buying, and selling…

…and their relations with law, custom and government … …as well as with the distribution of national income and wealth through the budget process of the state or international institutions.

(Gregg et al. 2007)

…examines how political forces affect the choice of policies, distributional conflicts and political institutions…

The political-economy literature argues that economics alone cannot fully explain the enormous variance across countries in growth and more generally, in economic outcomes and policy choices…

Political-economy concepts assert that economic policy is the result of political struggle within an institutional structure with state and none state actors..

Source: Alisina, A. and Perotti, R. (1994)

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Pol

itica

l Eco

nom

y

Economics, Mgt, Business etc

Anthropology & Sociology

Agricultural and rural studies etc.

Multi-disciplinary&

Trans-disciplinary

Technology, info studied

Sus

tain

able

Int

erna

tiona

l D

evel

opm

ent

Politics and LawEnviro

nment, Theology etc

Geography, policy StudiesDev

elop

men

t Stu

dies

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There is mounting evidence that Livelihood Diversification (embracing both farm and non-farm employment) activities have become an important resource for households (Reardon 1995; Reardon et al. 1998).

A livelihood is sustainable when it can cope with and recover from stress and shocks and maintain or enhance its capabilities and assets both now and in the future, while not undermining the natural resource base (Carney 1998).

Financial Capital

NaturalCapital

Social Capital

Physical Capital

Human Capital

The Poor

PoliciesInstitutio

nsProcesses

NS

FP

H

The Poor

VulnerabilityContextShocks

SeasonalityTrends

Changes

influenceLivelihoo

dStrategie

s

Livelihood

Outcomes

Understand the behaviour of state and non-state actors (decentralised government institutions, civil society groups and households)

Identifying the constraints and barriers to sustainable livelihoods diversification, growth within micro economies

Develop policies that will help inform policy makers as to how to reduce inequality

Diversification is a strategy for survival.

A source of insurance against indebtedness and borrowing

The amounts saved are observed to be small

Capital for non-farm activities/consumption

Still do not enjoy income security

Diversification meets basic consumption needs

Majority borrow regularly or occasionally

Policy Implications: Vulnerability to shocks is a dominant

feature of household livelihoods

Negative effect on welfare (income, wealth, health, etc.)

Vulnerability to poverty

Key challenge is maintaining satisfactory confidence on young people in the development dream

Diversification is not able to provide risk-free and assured incomes

The production of new products and/or more output of already existing studied

Most households and end up in financial crisis

Raise some of their credit from friends and family and network groups such as susu groups

Patterns of risk aversion

introduction of new risks

failure to remove existing risks

products encounter the challenge of marketing

prevalence of income

borrow in order to finance their diversified enterprises

Policy implications:

Mechanisms to reduce the uncertainty associated with income generating activities will have welfare enhancing effects

Could be achieved through extending existing formal insurance contracts and avenues

cover weather related risks

…are we on Course??

19Study Synthesis framework

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Thank you.