AEGIS ECAS 2007 - View abstract

Panel	39. Livelihood, Vulnerability and Health. Moving beyond existing frameworks
Paper ID	591
Author(s)	Merten, Sonja ; Haller, Tobias
Paper	No paper submitted
Abstract	The livelihoods approach considers health as part of the livelihoods assets of a household in form of human capital, which is needed for a sustainable subsistence production or income generation. Yet it does not explicitly focus on questions of access to the basic resources for health which are external to the direct control of a household, such as the availability of clean water or access to health care. This means that the generation of an income exceeding the poverty threshold does not necessarily imply that all basic resources for health are available. The analysis of the processes, which lead to inclusion and exclusion of individuals or groups from access to such basic resources for health and income generation on different levels is important to understand the interrelation between health and poverty. In this paper we discuss how the fisherfolks in the Zambian Kafue Flats, who were ex ante considered to be more resilient to external shocks such as droughts and subsequent famines than their agro-pastoralist neighbours by government agencies, belonged nevertheless to the most insecure groups regarding their livelihoods and health situation during the 2002-2003 famine. At that time the Kafue Flats' fishing villages and camps were excluded from food relief, based on the assumption that fish provided a sustainable income. Yet this was not the case once pressure on the fisheries increased during the food crisis, when more individuals took up fishing as a substituting strategy in order to meet basic needs. Access to fish was no longer secure for all fishermen, which jeopardized their families' food and nutritional security. In addition the fishing camps lacked a sanitary and health infrastructure, which put its inhabitants at a very high risk for various health problems. To investigate inclusion and exclusion processes related to access to resources we draw on the Institutional Analysis and Development Framework which focuses on diverse action arenas, such as political processes defining the different needs of the population in terms of infrastructure, or the local power-relations structuring a differential access to natural resources.

Food security and health among the Kafue Flats' fisherfolks, Zambia: an analysis of exclusion from resources based on the IAD (Institutional Analysis and Development) framework