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QUALITATIVE STUDY OF HOUSEHOLD LIVELIHOOD STRATEGIES AND CONSTRAINTS IN ZAMBIA
Michelle Poulin
Allan Bomuhangi
May 2018
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GIRLS’ EDUCATION AND WOMEN’S EMPOWERMENT AND LIVELIHOODS (GEWEL) PROJECT, ZAMBIA: QUALITATIVE STUDYC2
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Michelle Poulin & Allan Bomuhangi
QUALITATIVE STUDY OF HOUSEHOLD LIVELIHOOD STRATEGIES AND CONSTRAINTS IN ZAMBIA
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CONTENTS III
Contents
Acknowledgements .........................................................................................................................................IV
Executive Summary ..........................................................................................................................................V
A. Introduction ...................................................................................................................................1
B. Methods..........................................................................................................................................3
B.1. OVERVIEW ...............................................................................................................................................................................3
B.2. FIELD APPROACH .................................................................................................................................................................4
B.3. DATA ANALYSIS .....................................................................................................................................................................7
C. Findings ..........................................................................................................................................8
C.1. AGRICULTURE, THE MAIN ECONOMIC ACTIVITY .........................................................................................................9
C.2. STRATEGIES ADOPTED, AND EFFECTS ON INCOME GENERATION AND PRODUCTIVITY ......................... 14
C.3. CONSTRAINTS TO LIVELIHOOD PRODUCTIVITY AND GROWTH ........................................................................ 19
C.4. HUMAN RIGHTS ................................................................................................................................................................... 24
C.5. PREFERRED INTERVENTIONS ........................................................................................................................................27
C.6. COMPARING ACROSS COMMUNITIES .......................................................................................................................... 31
D. Discussion and Recommendations ....................................................................................... 34
D.1. KEY FINDINGS ...................................................................................................................................................................... 34
D.2. GENDERED LIVELIHOODS, GENDERED CONSTRAINTS .........................................................................................37
D.3. CONSTRAINTS AS REPORTED BY FARMERS AND BUSINESS OWNERS .......................................................... 39
D.4. RECOMMENDATIONS OF INTERVENTIONS ...............................................................................................................40
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QUALITATIVE STUDY OF HOUSEHOLD LIVELIHOOD STRATEGIES AND CONSTRAINTS IN ZAMBIAIV
Acknowledgements
Qualitative Study of Household Livelihood Strategies and Constraints in Zambia was
prepared by Michelle Poulin and Allan Bomuhangi. We are grateful for the invaluable
contributions from: Ioana Botea, Shubha Chakravarty, Rachna Nag Chowdhuri, Arthur
Lagrange, Towela Ndhlema, Muleya Sonde, and Emily Weedon. Shubha Chakravarty,
Rachael Pierotti, and Gwendolyn Heaner also provided insightful comments and
advice to improve the report.
We express our sincere thanks to the Ministry of Gender and Ministry of Community
Development and Social Services for their leadership in the areas of gender and
empowerment programming and guidance on the development and execution of
this research.
The research was financed through the generous support of the Nordic Trust Fund.
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ExECUTIVE SUMMARY V
This Qualitative Study sought to understand (a) the key livelihood strategies used by women and men in Zambia,
(b) the key constraints that women and men face, (c) how these constraints shape the strategies that are
available, and (d) what women and men understand about human rights. The research had a specific focus on
identifying responses that could help to increase women’s economic empowerment. These themes were explored
through talking with both women and men, as well as to probe gendered inequalities in work.
The research was motivated to inform the Girls’ Education and Women’s Empowerment and Livelihoods (GEWEL)
Project and the broader policy dialogue within the Government of Zambia to improve coverage of empowerment
and livelihood programming. Historically, public spending on social safety nets for the poor and vulnerable was very
low by international standards; however, recent policy shifts suggest the Government’s commitment to reform. The
Government is scaling-up its largest social assistance program to cover roughly two-thirds of the extreme poor by
2018. Articulated in its Seventh National Development Plan, the Government’s longer-term vision aims to encourage
the graduation of beneficiaries through empowerment and livelihood support. This research seeks to inform how
Government programs could be reformed and expanded to achieve this target.
The qualitative nature of the research allowed community members to describe their experiences in their own
words and in detail. The research was conducted in five provinces in the country, Central, Copperbelt, Southern,
Eastern, and Western. The research consisted of one-on-one, conversational, semi-structured interviews with key
informants (KIIs) and focus group discussions (FGDs) with women, men, and community leaders. While many
Zambian women and men both farm and are small business owners (or aspire to be small business owners), the
research differentiated the two groups based on the more predominant source of a person’s income. This distinction
was made to learn how microentrepreneurs and farmers similarly and differentially interact with policy, market
associations, other vendors, as well as in their livelihood strategies.
Across the interviews and focus groups, the study found that women and men expressed a set of specific ideas
for how best to achieve success but face repeated setbacks toward these ends. They emphasized the importance
of educating their children, feeding themselves and their families, saving and earning money, farming productively,
and growing their businesses. Holding these aspirations in mind, Zambians enact a range of livelihood strategies,
most common of which is diversifying into various streams of work to increase and stabilize their incomes. Women
and men are visibly frustrated with the constraints they face, having little access to capital, dealing with high
competition, and repeatedly experiencing exogenous shocks. This combination of strategic diversification, along
with real, persistent constraints, suggests that Zambians in this study hold in their minds specific ideas about the
best way to achieve success within the context of the challenges faced. People perceive their lives as slowly working
toward a goal, but often suffer setbacks given shocks and a lack of savings or support services to mitigate them.
Executive Summary
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QUALITATIVE STUDY OF HOUSEHOLD LIVELIHOOD STRATEGIES AND CONSTRAINTS IN ZAMBIAVI
The key findings are highlighted below:
AGRICULTURE
• The main sector activity among participants in this study is agriculture. Everyone is engaged in farming,
including those who primarily identify as small business owners.
• In this study most farmers are small-scale, and most farmers own livestock.
• Crop farming is affected by seasonality.
• Mechanization is very low; farms are dependent upon rain-fed growing cycles.
• Women more than men are more likely to sell produce and livestock within their communities than in
neighboring communities.
• About half of farmers thought that farming (as separate from “jobs”) is better “now” than in times past, meaning
more profitable, because in part of better record keeping.
• Not everyone believed that farming productivity had improved, and close to half said that it had worsened.
JOB OUTLOOK AND SELF-EMPLOYMENT
• Formal employment is scarce, and women and men are well-aware of this fact.
• Perhaps because of the scarcity of jobs, women and men expressed a preference for self-employment.
• Farmers stated that farming is the best livelihood activity; business owners said that business is the best activity.
• As among farmers, women and men are divided as to whether they view business as better now compared to in
the past. Some thought business was better today, and some thought business today is worse.
LIVELIHOOD STRATEGIES
• Diversification of income streams, hard work, and good business planning emerged as perceived contributions
to a person’s success.
• Participants in this study saw business ownership as necessary for survival. Although nearly all households
engage in farming for livelihoods, given its inherent risks and uncontrollable exogenous shocks, working in side
businesses helps to diversify income from farming and weather such setbacks more easily. Many people also
enjoy the entrepreneurial endeavor of running their own business.
• Often, improved profit is synonymous with diversification into different businesses. Many women and men
talked about the necessity of “multi-tasking,” or diversifying their range of income-generating activities, in order
to sustain livelihoods.
• More successful women and men told stories about how they had built their businesses slowly, increasing their
profits through incremental steps, such as savings and adding to their business when they could, over time.
• People often stated that high competition and limited markets negatively affected their earnings, requiring them
to strategize around the problem. Women and men often responded by selling their goods in other communities.
Reducing the price of their goods is another, if reluctant, strategy.
• Social networks also influenced people’s livelihoods strategies, such as borrowing money from a known,
reliable person in order to pay for transport costs, but also to gather information about the prices of goods in
another community.
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ExECUTIVE SUMMARY VII
CONSTRAINTS TO LIVELIHOOD PRODUCTIVITY
• Despite recent advances in Zambia, much scope remains for deepening rural financial markets. Women and men
want access to financial services and capital, stating specifically a desire for low-interest loans and banking services.
• Poor road conditions were noted repeatedly as a constraint impeding geographic mobility, particularly during the
rainy season when flooding in low-lying areas is common. Business owners were specifically concerned about a
lack of access to a market, or low demand for what they sell or serve.
• Transport costs were also commonly reported as a constraint.
• Many small business owners bemoaned a lack of demand for their goods or services and perceived high
competition; identical businesses co-exist in the same communities (e.g., lots of women selling tomatoes).
• Among farmers, the main concerns include exogenous shocks, such as drought or flooding, and crop and animal
disease. Farmers also lamented a lack of water, and raised the need for irrigation systems.
• People want interventions to improve infrastructure, to access financial services, to improve business know-
how and practices, and to access important farming inputs, as these interventions would directly contribute to
improving their productivity and livelihoods.
HUMAN RIGHTS
• Women and men are aware of the basic notions of human rights, and noted that people’s ability to realize their
rights is dependent upon gender. Women and men reported that in public gatherings women are often not free
to speak up, as their voices are silenced. Many men reported that this “silencing” is because women get “sidelined.”
• Yet men (but not women) expressed concern that if women became business owners and made more money
than their spouses, women would stray and disrupt the marriage.
• Women and men acknowledge the different opportunities and constraints that women and men have and face.
Women reported themselves to be capable of performing “men’s work,” but men reported the opposite—that
some jobs are beyond the capabilities of women, and that certain jobs are “women’s work,” such as making
clay pots.
• Many people spontaneously identified certain crops as women’s or men’s, although a few said that these gender
divisions around work and crops are changing.
• Women are not constrained by a requirement to stay at home, and many travel alone (or with other women) to
markets. Both women and men acknowledge without debate the ability for women to move outside of the home.
• Women and men reported wanting more “empowerment” training.
• Men reported that economic inequality is a problem in their communities.
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QUALITATIVE STUDY OF HOUSEHOLD LIVELIHOOD STRATEGIES AND CONSTRAINTS IN ZAMBIAVIII
COMPARISONS ACROSS COMMUNITIES
Similarities
The growers of high-value cash crops, such as maize and soya, generally fall within the domain of men, who are
the primary buyers and sellers of these crops. Women tend to farm crops that generally yield lower profits, such
as groundnuts, beans, sweet potatoes, and pumpkins, as well as small livestock such as local chickens, goats, and
sheep. Men held the view that women are incapable of work that requires a good deal of physical strength, whereas
the women said they could in fact do the same work as men, and often better. In terms of farming, some women
stated they do the actual work, whereas the men delegate work. Others, however, stated that men and women work
equally.
A vast majority of respondents described myriad constraints to selling their produce, citing, for instance, high
competition as well as poor road networks, which reduced the accessibility to markets. Although some men and
women travel to other markets to expand opportunities, women and men also bemoaned high transport fees, with
some choosing not to travel outside of their communities as a result.
Women and men in this study strategize in ways they believe will minimize the risks from the constraints they face.
Among business owners, this includes developing multiple businesses, hard work, and planning. Education and skill
development were also seen as important means through to navigate constraints. Farmers yearn for access to water
to help mitigate uncertainty in weather.
Respondents in all sites acknowledged the presence of gender-based violence and other intrahousehold
dynamics related to the earnings of men and women. Women and men stated that cases go unreported, with some
stating that women remain silence to preserve their marriages. Others stated that men are victims, too, but would
not report the cases out of embarrassment. Intrahousehold dynamics between husbands and wives also came up in
discussions across communities as related to women’s success in business. Many men expressed disapproval around
the possibility of women earning more money than the men, proclaiming that a woman who is financially successful
would become too independent and would likely cheat on her husband.
Differences
Trading and market activity are more pronounced in the urban communities compared to those rural, with the
semi-urban dwellers more likely to trade with people in neighboring communities, compared to those living in
rural areas. The latter are more likely to sell and buy within their own environments, with the level of activity visibly
smaller in scale; for instance, a woman might sell a few chickens to raise money for school supplies, yet, in the semi-
urban communities, women are better equipped to sell more profitable livestock, such as goats, and on a larger scale
in a more business-oriented manner. While goats are occasionally sold in rural areas, and certainly chickens are sold
in semi-urban and urban communities, this study found that rural markets tend to be able to support cheaper goods,
such as chickens.
The research identified differences in communities that are historically matrilineal in their tracing of land and kin,
as compared to patrilineal societies. In matrilineal communities, men were less resistant to women doing business
or engaging in a meaningful economic activity.
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ExECUTIVE SUMMARY Ix
RECOMMENDATIONS OF INTERVENTIONS
• The findings from this study suggest that cash benefits from Government should continue, with many
respondents noting benefit by growing their businesses and achieving secure livelihoods. Cash support
programming could be tailored to further these outcomes.
• Interventions should focus on business skills and agricultural planning: e.g., how much to set aside for household
consumption, how to maximize excess for sale, ways to anticipate production and access inputs, how to overcome
constraints, and to maximize opportunities.
• Communities would benefit from improved communication networks and external linkages. Business owners and
farmers, women in particular, need support to link up with markets outside of their communities.
• Women stated an explicit desire to learn what is perceived (by men) as men’s work.
• Interventions should help farmers to improve productivity, navigate natural disasters, such as drought, as well as
to combat crop and animal disease.
• Interventions could also encourage people to form cooperatives, as many respondents (and particularly women)
saw them as an opportunity to maximize profit.
• Training could encourage men to uphold equal rights for
all in their communities, including women, such as in
income equality, decisions made in the household,
and in encouraging women to speak their
minds in public spaces.
“Government should send some people to teach women on the types of work that men do, so that they also have the knowledge on how to go about it.”
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QUALITATIVE STUDY OF HOUSEHOLD LIVELIHOOD STRATEGIES AND CONSTRAINTS IN ZAMBIAx
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INTRODUCTION 1
A. Introduction
Despite consistent economic growth in Zambia, rural poverty is on the rise, and most poor rural
households struggle and work in low-productivity, informal jobs. Zambia has grown at an average
of 7 percent over the last decade and a half, yet rural poverty increased slightly from 72 percent to
75 percent between 2010 and 2015. Over 90 percent and 70 percent of Zambians in rural and urban
areas, respectively, work in the informal economy. Employment in the informal sector is directly
correlated with the country’s lowest incomes; the average monthly earnings in the informal sector
is only about a third of that in the formal sector. The low productivity of this work is a significant
constraint to the country’s economic development of the country.
Inclusive growth and poverty reduction requires
an understanding of the constraints to increasing
productivity of the informal sector, which employs the
majority of Zambians. Zambians working in this sector
are poor, have little education, die young from avoidable
diseases, and live predominantly in rural areas. Even if
more opportunities for formal employment currently
existed, this population would not be qualified for these
jobs. Their productive inclusion in society, and making
sure they can invest in their children’s futures to break
the intergenerational transmission of poverty, requires
rural investment that can help unlock constraints to
informal sector productivity.
Likely in response to a lack for formal employment
sector, self-employment is common. In addition,
compared to every other region in the world,
women’s participation in entrepreneurial activities
is higher in Sub-Saharan Africa. Yet women-owned
businesses significantly underperform those owned
by men.1 A recent review of the constraints that
women face, relative to men, reveal that women’s
business performance is affected by a combination
of “contextual factors (such as legal discrimination,
social norms, and gender-based violence) and gender
differences in… preferences…” (Campos and Gassier
2017, page 2).2 Campos and Gassier (2017) argue
that additional research, including that which uses
qualitative methods, is needed to further uncover the
constraints that women face, as well as how women
attempt to navigate through them. This Qualitative
Study is one such project. Conducted in five provinces
in Zambia, it aims to shed light on what those
constraints and their consequences are, using women’s
own words. This research also includes men, as well as
farmers. Agriculture is critical to some of Africa’s largest
goals in development, and farming alone accounts
for 60% of total employment in sub-Saharan Africa.
A broad goal of this study has been to identify what
gender and social relations look like, and their causes
and consequences. Using in-depth, unique, narrative
analyses across an array of social and economic groups,
this gender-specific research aims to transform policy
in Zambia.
In this Qualitative Study we report on the key findings
from data we collected with agriculturalists and small
firm owners, both women and men.
1. Average sales of women-owned firms in sub-Saharan Africa are 13 percent lower than those of firms owned by men, as found by Bardasi, Elena, Shwetlena
Sabarwal, and Katherine Terrell. (2011). “How Do Female Entrepreneurs Perform? Evidence from Three Developing Regions.” Small Business Economics 37(4)17.
2. Campos, Francisco and Marine Gassier. (2017). “Gender and Enterprise in Development in sub-Saharan Africa: A Review of Constraints and Effective
Interventions.” World Bank Policy Research Working Paper. WPS-8329.
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QUALITATIVE STUDY OF HOUSEHOLD LIVELIHOOD STRATEGIES AND CONSTRAINTS IN ZAMBIA2
The specific, key research questions for this study are
the following:
(a) What are the key livelihood and income strategies
that women and men use?
(b) What are the key constraints that women and
men face, and how do these constraints shape the
strategies that people use?
(c) What do women and men know and understand
about human rights?
We employed Focus Group Discussions (FGDs) and
Key Informant Interviews (KIIs) in the study, as there is
value in asking questions to groups of people as well as
one-on-one. Key themes in both the FGD and KII guides
include livelihood activities, perceptions of formal and
informal employment, aspirations, constraints, visions of
success, farming activities, among others.
“We have been educating our husbands on gender awareness, on our rights ... to grow and be independent. When we develop, our families will be better.”
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METHODS 3
3. Recent data show that 41% of Zambia’s population resides in urban areas. Much of sub-Saharan Africa is becoming increasingly urban. In 1986, approximately
25% of sub-Saharan Africans resided in urban areas (as defined by national statistics offices), compared to 38% in 2016. Data represent a weighted average, and
are collected and made available by the United Nations Population Division. They are available at: https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SP.URB.TOTL.IN.ZS.
4. The community sites selected were those in which the study team spoke the local language. The sites were also those that had previously established
connections with key leaders, easing the research process.
Table 1. Community characteristics
District Community Pop. (est) ProvincePeri-Urban, Rural
Proximity to Major City
Tribes / Ethnicities
General Accessibility
Kabwe Mpunde 26,832Central Province
Peri-Urban1 hour drive from Kabwe
Lenje, Bemba Very Poor
Mpongwe Kanyenda 8, 635Copperbelt Province
Rural1 hour drive from Luanshya
Lamba/Bemba Poor
Kalomo Mukwela 5, 720Southern Province
Peri-Urban1 hour drive from Choma
Tonga Medium
Katete Kamphambe 9, 645Eastern Province
Rural2 hour drive from Chipata
Chewa/Nsenga Poor
Mumbwa Nangoma 15,502Western Province
Rural2 hour drive from Lusaka
Kaonde/Lenje Poor
B.1. OVERVIEW
The design of the Qualitative Study was loosely
structured around previous “Qualitative Toolkits”
conducted in Liberia, Cote d’Ivoire, the Sahel countries,
Nigeria, and Tanzania. Similar to these this study’s main
goals have been to investigate women’s and men’s
strategies to secure livelihoods, and the constraints that
they face. In Zambia the study investigated these areas
among farmers and business owners. Whenever possible
the questions in the interview guides remained identical
to those used in the previous research and toolkits. To
reflect the Zambian context, however, new questions and
sampling procedures were also used. Notably, in Zambia
a series of questions on human rights was introduced—
what is known and understood about basic rights, about
democracy, and about safety of person. Questions also
explored whether the participants viewed human rights
as available to some groups, and not others—such as for
men but not women. The researchers have investigated
these domains of inquiry permitting participants to
respond to questions in their own words, as opposed
to the sole option to respond to a set of preconceived
responses, as is standard in surveys.
Two main approaches, Focus Group Discussions
(FGDs) and Key Informant Interviews (KIIs), were
used as the main forms of data collection in five study
communities. FGDs were conducted with women and
men who (a) identified mainly as farmers and (b) those
who identified mainly as small firm owners. The KIIs
were one-one-one interviews and were conducted
with community leaders. The FGDs and KIIS were
conducted in one community in each of the Zambia’s
five provinces.3 The research was conducted in the
local languages of Tonga, Bemba, Lamba, Nyanja, and
Chewa.4 The community characteristics are shown in
Table 1.
B. Methods
https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SP.URB.TOTL.IN.ZS
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QUALITATIVE STUDY OF HOUSEHOLD LIVELIHOOD STRATEGIES AND CONSTRAINTS IN ZAMBIA4
A total of 170 women and men were included in the
study. Specific steps in the sampling procedure are
as follows:
(1) Five communities were included: Katete, a rural site
in the Eastern Province; Mpongwe, a peri-urban site
in the Copperbelt; Kabwe, a rural site in the Central
Province; Kalomo, a peri-urban site in the Southern
Province; and Mumbwa, a rural site in the Central
Province.
(2) Within each community four FGDs were conducted,
distinguished by the following groups: women
small business owners; men small business owners;
women primarily farmers; and men primarily farmers.
(3) KIIs were conducted within each community with a
successful business owner (either man or woman)
and with a successful farmer, in order to better
understand their strategies for success and about
the opportunities they may have had that others
have not.
(4) KIIs were conducted within each community with a
community leader (such as a village headman), an
agricultural extension officer, and a cooperatives
extension officer.5 In some communities the senior
agricultural extension officer also participated in
a KII.
(5) A seasonal calendar of risks and risk-coping
strategies was collected for each community.
B.2. FIELD APPROACH
To select the study participants within each community,
the field team approached a key community leader
and introduced the general goals of the study.6 The
community leader then assisted the field team by
introducing them to one or two farmers and business
owners. Thereafter a snowball methodology was used
to identify other farmers and small business owners,
so that between six to eight people were able to
participate in an FGD.7 It was not possible to completely
distinguish between farmers and business persons, as
the vast majority of Zambians are farmers, and there is
generally much overlap between farming and business.
The field team therefore inquired about from where the
woman or man earned the majority of their income; if
the majority of earnings came from a business owned,
then that person was identified as mainly a business
owner. If earnings came mainly from farming, that
person was considered mainly a farmer. Participants
were also asked whether they considered themselves to
be mainly a farmer or a business owner.8
In total, 73 men and 72 women participated in the FGDs,
and 16 men and 9 women in the KIIs. The average age
of women in this study is 39.1, and 39.2 for men. Women
reported an average of 4.3 children, men 4.4.9 Of the
women in this study, 65.3% were currently married at
the time of the interview, as were 90.4% of men. For the
purposes of this study, the women and men selected
were able-bodied and prime-working age members
(those between 19 to 64 years of age), and who were not
physically disabled, chronically ill, or currently in school.
While the experiences of these populations are certainly
important, in making decisions in social research, and
with qualitative samples that are necessarily small,
decisions around selection criteria must take into
account the larger goals of the study. Thus, in this case
we sought to understand experiences of jobs, income
generation, and livelihood strategies with this particular
demographic, who are likely able to work full-time. See
Table 2 for background characteristics of the participants.
Business owners were selected to represent a wide
variety of businesses and included tailors, grocery shop
owners, barber shop owners, cross-border traders,
marketers, agro-business dealers, brick-makers, maize
5. In Zambia the Cooperatives Department in the government falls under the Ministry of Commerce, Trade and Industry, and we considered it worthwhile to
interview the Cooperatives Officer or Coordinator.
6. Selection for participation in FGDs and the KIIs was done with the assistance of the community leaders. Upon arrival at each site the field team made a courtesy
call to the community leader. In the peri-urban areas the community leader would likely be a councilor or an area chairperson, whereas in rural areas the
community leader was a village headman.
7. The research team insisted that farmers reside in different locations of the area, and not live in the same row of neighbors, or all be close friends.
8. In the peri-urban communities, the process ended up being similar, largely because of the topography of Zambia and the economic structures outside of Lusaka,
where even in peri-urban locations agriculture is pervasive. Many “peri-urban” areas in Zambia are, for instance, “rural-like” and are labelled peri-urban because
they are close to an urban center.
9. According to the most recent publication of Zambia Demographic and Health Surveys (ZDHS), 2013-2014, based on a sample of 16,411 women in all selected
households, the average woman in Zambia has 5.3 children by the time she is age 45. See: https://dhsprogram.com/what-we-do/survey/survey-display-406.cfm.
https://dhsprogram.com/what-we-do/survey/survey-display-406.cfm
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METHODS 5
traders, bar owners, restaurant owners, and livestock
dealers. The categorization of business owner was
left intentionally broad, and included petty traders
(i.e., a woman who sells secondhand goods, dried fish,
tomatoes, etc.). Also considered were those who had
a small shop, or a stand, and possibly an employee.
All farmers in this study are small-scale, with a few
reportedly growing the cash crop of maize.
FGDs were conducted with two RAs; one research
assistant facilitated while the second took notes.
Notes were the primary means of data recording and
production. Each FGD consisted of between six to eight
participants, and lasted between 1:30 minutes to 2 hours
in length. The key themes captured in the FGD include
livelihood activities, strategies, and constraints; farming
activities, practices, and access to resources; business
histories and current practices (for business owners);
gender dynamics; notions of success; and human rights.
The seasonal calendar of risks and risk-coping
strategies was designed to identify periods of
particular vulnerability and understand the various
strategies adopted by households. A single calendar
was developed for each community, and completed
following the end of each FGD. The collected data were
verified with each subsequent FGD in a community,
so that all participants in all four FGDs contributed
to the completion of the calendar. The seasonal
calendar is based on a time scale that is familiar to
the participants. In the case of Zambia, the 12-month
calendar is appropriate. The seasonal variables include
unemployment/inactivity, loans, the occurrence of
diseases, and migration. For each of the variables, the
FGD participants were asked to indicate:
(1) If the variable (event or activity) is significant to the
community members;
(2) The months when the variable occurs; and
(3) The variable intensity on a scale of 1 to 3 (1 being a low
intensity, 2 a medium intensity, and 3 a high intensity).10
The calendar data are included in Appendix 1.
In the KIIs the questions asked to community leaders
were tailored to their positions of authority. Community
leaders were asked about services available in
their communities (e.g., banks), and organizations.
Agricultural extension officers and cooperatives officers
were asked extensive questions pertaining to agriculture
in their communities. The KII guide for business owners
included a module similar to the business owner FGD
guide, and a set of general questions about employment
and livelihood strategies.
As one-one-one interviews, the KIIs mirrored, as closely
as possible, a typical conversation held in everyday
life.11 A respondent was encouraged to talk about the
topics posed by her interviewer for as long as she
Table 2. Key background characteristics for the study sample
Mean Age [SE] % MarriedMean [Med.] # Children
% With Some Primary
% With Some Secondary
% > Secondary
Leaders (n=25) 44.4 [2.0] 93.0 5.5 [1.4] 28.6 42.9 21.4
Business women (n=36) 34.1 [2.26] 80.6 3.7 [.35] 47.2 52.8 0
Business men (n=36) 36.8 [1.63] 88.9 3.7 [.32] 30.6 69.4 0
Farmers women (n=36) 44.05 [2.29] 50.0 5.0 [.36] 52.8 41.7 0
Farmers men (n=37) 41.45 [2.11] 91.9 5.1 [.47] 27.0 73.0 0
10. For instance, if the community members are affected by malaria during several months in the year, the variable intensity (high, medium, low) illustrates the
months during which the disease prevails.
11. The KIIs were conducted with two types of respondents. Participants for the farmer and business KIIs were selected from identifying those who participated in
the FGDs who were determined by the RAs as able to provide more in-depth information about their experiences. To select participants for the other KIIs, the
RAs used an already-established contact person, who had a level of influence in their communities and interacted with the target respondents regularly. The KIIs
were conducted by one member of the field team, one-on-one with the participant, so as to ensure that the participant felt as comfortable as possible during
the interview. All sessions were recorded. Short notes were taken, but the research assistant would heavily rely upon the recording to transcribe the interview.
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QUALITATIVE STUDY OF HOUSEHOLD LIVELIHOOD STRATEGIES AND CONSTRAINTS IN ZAMBIA6
wished, and the interviewers developed techniques
for exhausting a topic as long as the respondent was
willing. Semi-structured, conversational interviews
grant respondents some control over the direction
of the interview, thus creating an opportunity for the
respondent to reveal new information about herself
or about social arrangements in their community,
information that was previously unknown to either the
interviewer or to the researcher directing the study.
An interviewer might say to a respondent, for instance,
“Tell me all about the agricultural constraints in your
community. What problems do people face, and why?”
The interviewer would take cues from the response
given to ask further questions, such as “Is that how most
people face problems related to farming?” To create
a relaxed environment, the field team could decide on
the order of the topics listed in the interview guide.
Through this format, the women and men in this study
were able to convey the constraints to livelihoods that
people in their community face, as well as their own
leadership challenges—and what they think of and
believe about human rights—without the research team
unintentionally projecting specific responses.
With the supervision of the entire GEWEL team, the
interview guides were extensively piloted and finalized
in the field. The questions in the interview guide in the
FGDs were left open-ended, and therefore were up for
open discussion among the participants, uninterrupted
by the RAs request for a definitive response. . Data
collection began in January 2017 and was completed in
April 2017. The open-ended questions were transformed
into data so that each FGD and KII has its own “Notes
Form,” structured by each question or theme that
was included in the interview. All notes have been
anonymized and securely stored with password access
currently available to only the key researchers involved
with GEWEL. Table 3 displays the total numbers of
participants in the FGDs and KIIs.
Table 3. Number of participants in FGDs and KIIs, by community
Leaders Business W Business M Farmer W Farmer M Total
Fo
cu
s G
rou
p
Dis
cu
ssio
ns
Kabwe, Mpunde 8 8 8 8 8 40
Mpongwe, Kanyenda 8 9 8 8 8 41
Kalomo, Mukwela 8 9 8 8 8 41
Katete, Kamphambe 8 8 8 8 8 40
Mumbwa, Nangoma 8 8 8 9 6 39
Total FGD 48 49 48 49 46 240
Ke
y I
nfo
rman
t In
terv
iew
s
Kabwe, Mpunde 1 0 1 0 1 5
Mpongwe, Kanyenda 4 1 0 0 1 8
Kalomo, Mukwela 2 0 1 1 0 6
Katete, Kamphambe 0 1 0 0 1 4
Mumbwa, Nangoma 2 0 1 1 0 6
Total KII 11 3 3 2 4 35
All interviews 59 52 51 51 50 275
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METHODS 7
B.3. DATA ANALYSIS
The lead researchers analyzed the qualitative text
in a two-fold process. First, the detailed notes were
read as they were completed, and the analysts noted
emerging patterns and common responses given. The
notes were then read a second time to confirm the
commonalities discovered during the first read-through,
with particular attention paid to livelihood strategies
undertaken, an assessment of jobs and business
opportunities, constraints, aspirations for future
employment, farming, or business, preferences for types
of interventions, notions of success, and perceptions
about human rights in their communities. The data
from KIIs with community leaders were assessed in
light of their positionalities—typically community
leaders have different perspectives than local farmers
and business people as they often liaise and interact
with international and national organizations. For all,
attention was paid to variation found in livelihoods
and constraints across farming season and district. An
advantage of this GEWEL study is the selection of five
communities across the country, including both rural
and semi-urban. Finally, detailed notes were taken and
emerging themes confirmed regarding several aspects
of the earnings and household dynamics between
women and men.
Two Research Assistants (RAs) spent 38 days of
data collection and transcription in each of the
five communities, and additional 10 days each on
completing notes and transcription. Each RA was
responsible for conducting her assigned KIIs and FGDs.
The RAs were responsible for taking notes during the
FGDs and KIIs, and for submitting interview notes to the
research team on a regular basis, internet permitting.
For greater fieldwork efficiency the RAs travelled and
worked together, enabling the group to share internet
and transportation, and more generally strategize for
efficient fieldwork during data collection activities.
“Education is very important, reason being if you do not understand the nature of the business, how will you be able to help your customers?”
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QUALITATIVE STUDY OF HOUSEHOLD LIVELIHOOD STRATEGIES AND CONSTRAINTS IN ZAMBIA8
C. Findings
The main economic activity that people in this study
are engaged in is agriculture. Everyone farms, including
those who primarily identify as small business owners.
Participants tend to engage in small-scale selling of
crops, with only a few connected to commercial value
chains. Crop farming is affected by seasonality, and
mechanization in this study population is low.
Formal employment is scarce, and women and men are
well-aware of this fact. Perhaps because of the scarcity
of jobs, women and men expressed a preference for
self-employment. Outside of agriculture, the main
strategies to secure livelihoods are business ownership,
diversification of income streams, hard work, reaching
markets in other communities, expanding social
networks, and good business planning.
The three main constraints reported by women and
men, and business owners and farmers alike, are lack
of access to financial services and capital, poor road
conditions, and the high cost of transport. Farmers
regularly expressed concern over the precariousness
of exogenous shocks, such as poor rainfall that could
lead to drought, and crop and animal disease. Small
business owners perceive a lack of demand due to high
competition for their goods and services as constraining
their ability to generate profit and growth.
This study found that although women and men
are aware of “human rights,” reporting high levels
of knowledge, they enact them differently. Men
acknowledged, for instance, that women’s voices are
often silenced in public, and that in general women
may get “sidelined.” Men were quick to say that certain
domains of work are not for women, and that there are
crops that are gendered. On the other hand, women
reported that they can do any kind of work that men
can do. Both women and men agreed that women are
not restricted to moving outside of the home (going
to the market, for example) only when accompanied
by men. They are free to, and regularly do, travel either
alone or with other women. Men reported concerns that
women should not be able to earn more money than
their spouses, as doing so would cause problems in
the marriage. Men stated that economic inequality is a
problem in their communities.
The recommendations for interventions include cash
handouts and access to financial services such as loans,
training to grow business, aid women into cross-over
work that is typically done by men, help farmers link
with markets outside of their communities, help farmers
utilize a planning cycle and navigate disasters and food
insecurity, assist with access to livestock, assist with the
formation of cooperatives, and address economic and
gender inequalities in access
to opportunities.
This section concludes with an overview of similarities
and differences found across communities. Similarities
include that all women and men are largely dependent
upon small-scale farming as their main economic
activity, constraints reported include poor roads, high
transport costs, and lack of access to financial services.
Women and men in communities also employ similar
strategies in response to those constraints. Yet clear
differences across communities emerged in the findings,
including that trading and market activity are more
pronounced in the urban communities compared to
those rural, with the semi-urban dwellers more likely
to trade with people in neighboring communities,
compared to those living in rural areas.
The main findings are structured as follows: (a)
agriculture as the main sector activity; (b) job outlook
and self-employment; (b) livelihood strategies; (c)
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FINDINGS 9
12. In Zambia about 19% of the GDP comes from agriculture, and the sector, including crop production, livestock, and fisheries, employ three-quarters of the
population. Throughout the country, domestic production includes maize, sorghum, millet, and cassava. Exports are mainly comprised of groundnuts, rice,
cotton, soy beans, coffee, sugar, and horticultural produce.
13. Livestock in Zambia contributes close to 30% of the country’s agricultural GDP.
constraints to livelihood productivity and growth; (d)
human rights; (e) recommendations of interventions; and
(f) community comparisons.
C.1. AGRICULTURE, THE MAIN ECONOMIC ACTIVITY
Agriculture is the main livelihood activity reported
by participants in the FGDs and the KIIs. Most of the
farmers are small-scale and produce staple foods for
consumption, but who aspire to grow enough to sell
their produce as well. Others in the study – particularly
those who identify as business owners – produce some
surplus that enables them to sell.12 The main crop and
vegetables grown are in the study communities are
ground nuts, soya, and a variety of vegetables. Roughly
10% of the farmers appear to fall into the category of
medium-scale, growing maize as a cash crop. Nearly
all of the farmers in this study own livestock, including
(mostly) chicken, goats, and a handful with cattle;
everyone has a preference to own, rear, and sell livestock
for income.13 A few in one study community reportedly
fish farm as well.
Crop farming is affected by seasonality. In the words of
one woman farmer in Katete, ‘‘During the dry season,
we do vegetable gardening where we plant tomatoes,
cabbage, and carrots to get income. We also farm
during the rainy season in our fields, we plant maize,
soya beans, groundnuts, sunflower and other crops.’’
Because many people in this study lack easy access
to water, and vegetables are planted during the dry
season, some reported struggling to grow vegetable
gardens. As is consistent with what is known about the
agricultural cultivation in Zambia, mechanization in the
study communities is very low, with hoes remaining
the traditional tool used. None of the farmers in this
study use irrigation systems, as most farmers in Zambia
depend upon rain-fed growing cycles.
The findings reveal gender differences in agriculture.
Men tend to sell the more profitable crops, such as
maize, and women are more likely to sell crops such
as tomatoes, beans, or groundnuts, which are typically
less profitable. As one man described about gender
differences in crop production, “But groundnuts and
beans are mostly grown by women… It’s just that most of
the time women do it.” As one community leadertalked
about gender differences,
There are women who own land, and I haven’t heard
of segregation. Where there is a couple, they decide
together on what to plant. They will say, “we will
plant groundnuts, but the maize field will be in the
main field.“ That is where they get their income
from, the man is the one who leads in these activities
to do with the maize field.
The gender differences observed in the realm of
agriculture are sometimes aligned with shared
expectations around what’s considered men’s work,
and what’s considered women’s work, as described, for
instance, by this male farmer, “There are certain things
that men cannot do, as men believe that ‘this is a man’s
job,’ or ‘this is a woman’s job.’ Things like weeding are
believed to be a woman’s job. And heading cattle is
believed to be a man’s job.” Women, too, acknowledged
the gendered divisions of labor that persist in their
communities, as these female farmers in an FGD in
Katete described:
Things like building houses, only men do that in
our community. Carpentry work is also done by the
men, as women cannot manage to do such works,
they are labor Intensive. Ploughing using cows is
also done by the men, as most women are not able
to do this. If a woman goes to the fields to plough,
it is because they do not have any husband or male
children to help them out.
Some of the jobs that women do are molding clay
pots, most man are do not like this type of work.
Most men lack interest in wanting to learn how to
mold clay pots because they consider it to be a
woman’s job.
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QUALITATIVE STUDY OF HOUSEHOLD LIVELIHOOD STRATEGIES AND CONSTRAINTS IN ZAMBIA10
The same with cooking, most men feel that this is a
job meant for the women. Most men are also unable
to make mud floors for the house as they believe this
is a woman’s job.
Fetching water from the stream—men are unable to
do this as they believe this is a woman’s job. They
also fail to take care of the children as they believe it
is—a woman’s job.
Yet most women in this study, as well as some men,
emphasized the importance for women to be able
to crossover into men’s work, for reasons of gender
equality as well as mere survival. As these three
women reported:
Women can also do these jobs but the only way to
help women in doing these types of work that only
man are able to do is by creating a women’s group,
and training them on how to do these types of work,
that would help empower women.
Government should send some people to teach
women on the types of work that men do, so that
they also have the knowledge on how to go about it.
Women should have the interest in learning how to
do these types of work, as we all know that death
is inevitable and we should always keep in mind
that, what will happen when our spouses die. We
shouldn’t always rely on our spouses but rather rely
on ourselves.
Finally, women more than men sell produce and
livestock within their communities rather than in
expanded markets outside of their communities.That
more men than women in this study talked about
traveling to communities outside of their own could
provide men with wider networks and more profit.
At the same time, dissension and conflicting opinions
were present throughout the discussions, among
women within an FGD, among men within an FGD,
as well as across communities and between men and
women in general. In addition to sentiments expressed
about gendered crops, a handful of women and men, for
instance, proclaimed that differences between ‘female”
crops and “male” crops were starting to become
less stark.
C.1.a. Job outlook
About 30% of women and men farmers in the sample
reported that the job situation was “about the same,”
or “better” than it had been in times past. Different
people had different interpretations about what “job
situation” meant to them. Some thought of it along the
lines of economic development in their communities,
as expressed in the following, “The area has become
more developed in the last five years; they fixed the
main road, it is now a tarred road, and it used to have
a lot of potholes,” and, “Now there are cars available to
take people to town,” and also, “The positive thing that
has happened job wise is that the government has built
schools where some of the locals have been employed.”
Another stated that, “They have introduced programs to
train us on family planning and some of the local people
work as volunteers.”
Others, especially farmers, conceived of “job situation”
in terms of whether growing and selling is now more
productive or profitable, as expressed by this woman:
It is better than the way it used to be years ago. The
number of people has become more, if you want
to sell at least a few people will come to buy, than
before there were very few people. If you put a
basket of fish to sell, it can be there for a long time
but now, even if you don’t make a lot of money, at
least one or two people will buy.
Similarly, this woman farmer in Mpongwe said, “Things
are good, they have changed. Before, we used to grow
produce for home consumption, but now people have
learned to earn money out of their farms.” Another
woman farmer related the improvement in farming to
learned skills, such as record-keeping:
Long ago, farmers did not know whether they made
a profit or a loss, but these days farmers are more
conscious on whether they make a loss or a profit.
In short, people have started keeping records. What
has changed for people to start keeping [records] is
that we were taught by people from the agriculture
department. There were times when they would
come but other people would not be around so it
was up to us who had been taught to teach those
that were not present.
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FINDINGS 11
14. It is not possible to generalize the findings of farming outlook to other Zambians in this study, or to verify whether farming really is improving based upon
the personal accounts as reported in this study. Yet, public spending in Zambia in agriculture has risen in recent years, and recent data from the World Bank
forecast economic growth, to strengthen to 4.1% in 2017, 4.5% in 2018, and 4.7% in 2019 (see http://www.worldbank.org/en/country/zambia/publication/zambia-
economic-brief-reaping-richer-returns-from-public-expenditure-in-agriculture).
As explained one man, ‘‘Things are now good; before
we used to grow produce for home consumption, but
now people have learned to earn money out of their
farms. Long ago farmers did not know whether they
made a profit or a loss, but these days farmers are more
conscious on whether they make a loss or a profit—in
short, people have started keeping records.’’
But people had different reasons for perceiving
farming to be better, with some acknowledging that
the availability of fertilizer led to improvements, as this
woman in Mpongwe said, ‘‘Things are getting better, we
are able to cultivate through FISP (Farmer Input Subsidy
Program), we are able to buy fertilizer.” Others assessed
improvement in agricultural productivity by the quality
of their lives, such as their ability to send their children
to school or the ability to feed and clothe their family, as
one woman farmer stated, “I am very satisfied because
we are living and feeding well at home, we have good
clothes so we are content.”14
Other farmers saw things differently, “The difference
that we have seen from 2012 is that we never used
to have floods but now we do, and they destroy our
crops that is a problem.” Another man said, “It’s not too
good, there isn’t much to do here. The only job is being
a farmer, other than that, there is nothing.” Indeed,
most women and men in the study proclaimed the
job situation to be bad, “Other than working on farms,
there are no other jobs here.” Others thought that the
situation had been better in the past but has recently
worsened, as described by a woman in Kalomo: ‘‘In the
past five years, I have seen that things are becoming
more difficult. In the past things were much better,
we were able to save some money and maybe build,
however this is not possible anymore.’’ A group of men
farmers in one FGD said the following, when asked
about how the job situation is:
I say it is bad because we depend on our hands to
farm, so we don’t farm big portions of land.
The challenge is that we had cows and they all
died from diseases so comparing the way we used
to cultivate when we had cows and now it’s very
different. We are now cultivating on small portions
of land.
Those with cattle are a few because in this area may
be only 5 people have cattle but five years ago most
villagers had cattle.
If we compare things from five years ago and now,
things are not very good right now in farming, they
have gone down. But with gardening things are still
okay because gardening does not require a lot of
capital the only challenge is that sometimes we have
pests that eat up these vegetables like tomatoes and
rape [kale].
Sometimes you will find that you are not able to work
so you end up doing business not that you want to
but because you need to survive and there is no work.
I do not see anything nice as the profits that we
make from these businesses is not enough to take
the children to school, so I see nothing nice about
the job situation here.
A few expressed the belief that farming productivity has
worsened, as shown by this woman farmer in Mumbwa,
‘‘Farming has become bad. The reason why I am saying
this is because people who used to do commercial
farming are now doing peasant farming, and this is
because there is not enough land for people to plant.
The population has become large and most of the
people only plant for home consumption.’’
To cope with such hardships, men and women strategize
in a number of ways, as will be further explored in
the next section. Among the most food insecure
households, however, women and men offer their
labor to wealthier households at either a daily wage
rate, or at a “piece” rate, for each activity performed.
This work is called piecework (ganyu in chiChewa).
Wages for piecework are reported to be very low;
those who engage in piecework in Zambia (and in
neighboring countries such as Malawi) typically come
from households that are particularly vulnerable—those
http://www.worldbank.org/en/country/zambia/publication/zambia-economic-brief-reaping-richer-returns-from-public-expenditure-in-agriculturehttp://www.worldbank.org/en/country/zambia/publication/zambia-economic-brief-reaping-richer-returns-from-public-expenditure-in-agriculture
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QUALITATIVE STUDY OF HOUSEHOLD LIVELIHOOD STRATEGIES AND CONSTRAINTS IN ZAMBIA12
who seek piecework temporarily do so to secure food
for themselves and their families, and working on others
farms means they reduce their own farm production.15
As one woman described the work, “Doing piece work
is not so good. The money given is so little, you will find
that you are there working all day and they just give you
5 Kwacha.” Another woman described piecework in her
community:
Doing piece works in people’s farms is mostly
considered to be job for the poor, as they are paid to
plough the farms for the rich in the community. Most
poor people burn charcoal to get some money to
feed their families. The poor people also make bricks
and sell them to earn a living.
The more educated men and women are primary or
nursery school teachers, while others are employed as
health workers at government institutions, although no
one in this study were employed in these positions. As
stated by one farmer in Mpongwe, ‘‘Most of the people
here are not employed, and the only ones employed
here are the teachers or nurses.’’ And another said:
Most rich people in this community are into business,
as they order goods for resale. Some of the rich
people in this community are doctors, teachers
and nurses. These type of people cannot even burn
charcoal, they know that there is someone poor who
will do that job for them.
Women farmers in Katete had this to say about the job
opportunities in their community:
There are very few job opportunities here, mostly
people just farm and most of the jobs found here are
related to that.
Some people do piece works in the fields and are
paid. When cargill was still here, some were picked
as guards, while some others were picked to help
out during the time that the road was constructed,
but they stopped midway.
FRA [Food Reserve Agency] offers contracts to
the locals to guard their maize, but now they are no
contracts that have been offered yet.
Constructions of roads, most of the males here
get contracts when there is a new road being
constructed, but once the job is done, they are
left jobless.
Among business owners, about half of women and men
stated that business was better now than in the past.16
A male small business owner in Mpongwe explained,
‘‘I would say that there is some improvement because
some time back life was a bit difficult, but nowadays
each and every one is able to do one or two things to
make some money.’’ Onr female business owner said,
‘‘It is better than the way it used to be years ago, the
number of people has become more, if you want to sell
at least a few people will come to buy, than before there
were very few people.’’ A man in Mumbwa expressed a
similar sentiment: ‘‘Business is good now because of this
huge population, a lot of people have vehicles which
make it easy for us to go to Lusaka [to] buy things to
come resell here. [This is] unlike it was in the olden days,
where we had to get someone from Lusaka to transport
our goods and pay him. It was more costly than it is
now.’’ One woman believed that the improvements she
observes come from the presence of white land owners,
“In the past five years, I have seen that the job situation
has improved because the number of white farmers
has increased, we are living in the midst of farmers and
there are a lot of jobs on farms such that you can even
choose where to work from.”
Other small business owners said that things today are
worse than they were in times past, and for a variety
of reasons, as expressed by women business owners in
Mpongwe:
Things are not so good here, we suffer. There is no
money for us to do things, only a few people are
able to be comfortable here.
Even transport fares have been hiked.
15. Cole, Steven M. and Parakh H. Hoon (2013). Piecework (Ganyu) as an Indicator of Household Vulnerability in Rural Zambia. Ecology of Food and Nutrition Vol.
52(5), 407-426. Article can be accessed at: http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/03670244.2012.719360?journalCode=gefn20.
16. It is possible that the farmers with whom we spoke were former business owners but had failed at their business.
http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/03670244.2012.719360?journalCode=gefn20
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FINDINGS 13
Things right now are hard to as compared to
sometime back.
People sometimes had mixed opinions even within one
FGD, so that differing views are not necessarily driven
by community circumstances. Among business men
within one community, for instance, a set of responses
included the following:
I would say the situation is just okay, not bad and
not good. Because when you look at businesses
here, some are doing fine and others are not.
I would [say] bad because most of the people I
know around here are not making money, they are
struggling.
When compared to a few years ago, I would say
that there is some improvement. Because some time
back life was a bit difficult but nowadays each and
every one is able to do one or two things to make
some money.
C.1.b. Best jobs in the community
In light of the many who stated the job situation to be
bad, we explored further what people thought of wage
work, and in the FGDs and KIIs we asked participants
to name which jobs they considered to be the “best.”
The most common response, among everyone, was
permanent employment with the government. This
was followed by responses about jobs in service
professions and in healthcare, as stated by this man in
Katete, ‘‘The best jobs in our community are teaching,
nursing and being a doctor.” Participants acknowledged,
however, that the availability of these positions, and the
educational and capital requirements needed to attain
them, are rare and nearly impossible to get.
Outside of formal positions with regular wages, farmers
reported that farming is ‘‘the best activity” over owning
a small business. Yet farmers also replied with caveats;
for farming to be “good,” farmers need access to
fertilizers, as one woman described, ‘‘Farming is good;
if someone has money for fertilizer, then they can
have enough food in their home and surplus for sell.’’
Respondents reported on the rising price of fertilizer,
‘‘Prices have gone up compared to five years ago…
Nowadays a 50kg bag of urea cost K350 some time
back it was K150 so a lot of people fail to manage.’’
C.1.c. Worst jobs in the community
When asked to name the worst jobs in their
communities, women and men commonly spoke of
charcoal burning, as described by a male farmer in
Mumbwa, ‘‘Charcoal burning is the worst business
because most of the people get chest infections,” and
by a woman farmer in Kabwe, “It’s laborious and gives
less profit.’’ Casual “piecework” labor was identified
among the worst jobs, as the wages are very low and
the work load extensive. Many also reported that a
“night watchman” was one of the worst jobs, as it’s very
dangerous and low-paying.
C.1.d. Aspirations among business owners and farmers
When asked whether farming or business is better,
farmers and business owners had convergent views.
Farmers said that farming is best—as put by one farmer,
“Of all the activities that we have talked about the one
I feel is the best when it comes to income is farming.” A
woman in Mpongwe said, “Farming is the best because
we are able to get food and also able to get money to
take our children to school.” Similarly, another woman
said, “The reason why I have said farming is because,
once the harvest is good, you make money to take the
children to school and also provide at home. Most of
the crops are planted throughout the year, only maize
is the one we plant in October.” One male farmer in
Katete added, “Especially maize farming.” Others said
the following:
If it was capital for farming or employment I would
choose farming because with farming one can go far
with a little money. To run a grocery I need a lot of
capital to buy stock and it may not sell quickly.
With farming if I have K800, I can pay for two FISP
vouchers, that will be 16 bags of fertilizer which is a
good amount but with a grocery that will only buy a
few goods.
Some were sure to emphasize that farming including
animal husbandry, “The reason why I have said farming
is thatI am not only referring to crop farming, but also
to animal farming. In a case where it does not rain that
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QUALITATIVE STUDY OF HOUSEHOLD LIVELIHOOD STRATEGIES AND CONSTRAINTS IN ZAMBIA14
much you can use the animals to sustain yourselves, by
this I mean selling them to make some money.”
Yet there were exceptions, and one woman farmer in
Kalomo said:
I would prefer having a business as compared to
farming, reason being; with farming you gamble,
because you don’t know the rain pattern, it might
not rain as much as you expected and your crops
would have been wasted, but when you start a
business you can never go wrong, as you will be able
to choose which business to venture in.
Business owners reported that owning a business is the
best way to generate income. ‘‘Being a trader or running
a business is the best job here, people are able to make
money from trading,’’ said a female business owner. One
man in Katete said, “In the past doing a business was
not all that profitable but now, people are able to buy
groceries from the shop, so we make profit.” Another
man in Mumbwa reported, “In the past five years, people
used to be paid less money, but now the conditions
have changed and people are now able to get more
money.”
Business owners viewed farming and selling produce
as not profitable, as this woman in Kalomo described,
“Working on farms and selling at the road side are not
good jobs because there is little money that people
get.” Business owners talked about their autonomy, “The
best jobs are those that you can work on your own, you
can work at your own time without being summoned.”
Business owners additionally explained that farm work
is difficult and bad for one’s health, as exemplified by
another woman from Kalomo, “Working on farms is
bad; that is why we opt to sell at the roads [rather] than
working on farms. If you have not met a target that you
have been given for a day, you will not get paid. Even
when it is raining, people still work, and others get sick
and their health is not good.” And another said, “The
good thing about a grocery is that you can make money
the whole year but with farming it can only be when you
harvest.”17
Likely due (in part) to the scarcity of wage jobs, women
and men expressed preference for self-employment,
either through business or through agriculture, or some
combination of both. A few people, however, stated a
preference for a formal job should the opportunity be
there, citing a dependable paycheck at the month’s end
as the primary reason.
C.2. STRATEGIES ADOPTED, AND EFFECTS ON
INCOME GENERATION AND PRODUCTIVITY
C.2.a. Business ownership
As throughout sub-Saharan Africa, where formal
employment is scarce, women and men in this study
talked about entrepreneurship as a source of successful
livelihoods. The small business owners we spoke with
engage in a range of both agri-related and non-related
entrepreneurial activity, such as brick production,
livestock, fish farming, the purchase and re-sale of
second-hand clothes (salaula), sale of groceries, the
production and sale of milk and other dairy products,
production of thatch, the production and sale of
vegetables, kiosk ownership, tailoring, the production
and sale of local brew, mechanics (both bicycle and
auto), purchase and re-sale of charcoal, and the selling
of various farming outputs. A list of business activity is
shown by district and gender in Table 4.
17. Yet, during the growing seasons, business men and women attend to their farms in the morning hours and use the afternoon hours to tend their business, a
juggling act that many people navigate.
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FINDINGS 15
The women and men reported that they started their
particular business, rather than another kind, because
of that business’s perceived profitability. One man in the
hardware business described it this way:
The reason why I started the hardware business is
because I am a bread winner in my family as my
father died sometime back. So I looked at what type
of business would bring me enough money to feed
my family, I considered grocery but I thought of the
profits that I could get from that and it was too little,
that is when I thought of hardware it brings back
100% percent profit.
Because of constraints such as a lack of jobs, and the
unpredictability of agricultural productivity (due to the
vagaries of weather, for instance, or to lack of access
to inputs such as fertilizer), the Zambians in this study
view business ownership as necessary to achieve
successful livelihoods. A woman who sells tomatoes
in Mumbwa stated, “I started doing business so that I
can be able to provide for my family’s needs.” Another
woman said, “For me, my husband died, so if I just sit at
home who is going to provide what is needed and who
will take care of my children? This is the reason why I
started business.” And a woman in Katete proclaimed,
“I do salaula; it helps me raise money when the rainy
season is over to take my children to school.”
Table 4. Business activity reported by women and men, among business owners*
Business Men Women Total
farming/gardening + selling harvest 3 10 10
selling tomatoes and other vegetables 13 0 13
buys clothes and resells 5 2 7
buys things from Lusaka and sells in Namibia 1 0 1
collects grass and sells to people to make thatched houses 1 0 1
sells charcaol 1 1 2
sells fish 2 0 2
runs a restaurant or bar 5 1 6
sells phone accessories 0 1 1
runs a grocery shop 3 4 7
sells fuel 0 2 2
sells cooking oil 0 1 1
runs a barbershop 0 1 1
hardware business (bicycle parts, car parts) 0 1 1
rearing of chickens or other livestock 3 2 5
tailor 3 0 3
runs a kiosk 1 3 4
sells beer 3 0 3
Total 44 29 70
*Mulitple businesses are counted if a participant reported more than one.
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QUALITATIVE STUDY OF HOUSEHOLD LIVELIHOOD STRATEGIES AND CONSTRAINTS IN ZAMBIA16
C.2.b. Diversification and increased earnings
The women and men who had been in business for
some length of time told stories about how they had
built their businesses slowly, taking incremental steps
toward more profit, as shown in the following examples
by three men:
I started my business by first farming cassava. After
harvesting I sold it and then started a vegetable
garden where I planted bananas, okra, impwa, rape,
and tomatoes. Now I even grow maize, which I sell.
I raised capital for my business by being a brick
layer’s assistant. After working I would save part of
the money that I was given. When I raised enough
money I started ordering fish from Siavonga and
sell here. After selling, I even started farming maize.
When I sell maize I go and order fish. That is the
business I do I now, I stopped being a brick layer’s
assistant.
I learned vegetable farming from my grandfather
who used to sell his produce in town so when DAPP
came and told us to form interest groups and they
started teaching us. After DAPP left SP [another
NGO] also came in and advised me to utilise my
land wisely so I start planting bananas, guavas,
sugar cane after selling I saw that this business was
seasonal so I started buying chickens, goats and I
opened up a grocery shop.
Often, more profit is synonymous with diversification
into different businesses. About half of the respondents
in this sample talked about running multiple businesses
as a means to maximize livelihoods. In the words of one
woman in Mumbwa:
I started out by vegetable gardening, from there I
started selling village chickens, I would buy them here
and sell in Lusaka at a good price. Now I have also
gone into the business of selling goats and cattle.
Many women and men talked about the necessity of
“multi-tasking,” or diversifying their range of income-
generating activities, in order to sustain livelihoods.
As one woman stated: I run a bar when it’s not rainy
season and during rainy season I grow crops like maize
and groundnuts. And as described by one woman in
Mumbwa:
Most of the people in this community usually multi-
task, you will find a person is doing both farming
and business, reason being sometimes farming is
seasonal and you have your children’s school fees to
look at. That way you need money. That is why most
people multi-task.
And another’s trajectory:
The one I know started out by selling small chitenjes
to women, from there he opened up a katemba (a
makeshift store), he also went into the business of
buying maize from the farmers and selling it to the
millers. Now he owns one of the big shops here, he
has also gone into buying goats and reselling them
in Lusaka. He is doing fine for himself now, he even
built a house in the boma.
C.2.c. How successful
When we asked farmers and business owners how it is
that people in their communities become successful,
their responses, we discovered, revealed other
strategies used by women and men to sustain and
build livelihoods and generate income. The interviews
are rife with assertions about how success is attributed
to hard work and perseverance; for example, “You can
only succeed if you have interest and are committed,”
and “God created us differently—you would find that
someone will have good planning but when it comes to
implementing they do not implement.” Notions around
“hard work” were the most common responses stated,
showing up in 100 percent of the FGDs. Women in
Mumbwa stated, “He has been successful because of
good planning and he is skilled,” and “You have to be
hard workers, able to plan, and disciplined for you to
be successful in business,” and in Kabwe one man said
that of those who are successful, “It’s because of being
hard working.”
Another common response was that business owners
must make wise business decisions, opting to reinvest
in their business or to expand into other activities. Men
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FINDINGS 17
in Katete described how this works in the following
statements:
This farmer started buying cows and later started
buying cars that is how he became successful in
his business.
Others do not misuse their profit, instead they invest
it, that is what makes him successful.
Others have shops and later buy buses, that is how
they expand their business.
Those that are careful on how they use their profits
usually succeed.
And among women in Katete:
Others started by selling little things like fish, tropical
(slippers) until they built their own big shops.
Others started by keeping one chicken until they
started selling when they had made enough money
to buy fertilizers and start farming and own their
own lands.
Others started by gardening things like tomatoes
and selling until they could buy their own animals
and become successful.
Several respondents noted that managing finances well
is integral to success as described by this man in Katete:
There are a lot of people that are very successful
that have been working in farms. There are some
people that have been saving through working on
farms, a person I know who used to save and built a
shop and started selli