Livestock, livelihoods and vulnerability in Lesotho, Malawi and Zambia: designing livestock interventions for emergency situations

This study assesses the contributions of livestock to risk management and coping strategies and to identify livestock-centred interventions that can be used to save lives and livelihoods in crisis and emergency situations in selected countries of the Southern Africa Development Community (SADC). The specific objectives are to analyse the roles of livestock in household livelihood strategies; to examine different sources of risks and household risk management and coping strategies, paying particular attention to livestock-based strategies; to identify emergency response interventions including targeted livestock interventions for reducing food insecurity and vulnerability; and to provide a framework for identifying guiding principles for linking livelihood analysis, project and program design, and implementation in emergency situations. The countries covered in this study are Lesotho, Malawi and Zambia. The ratio of vulnerability to food insecurity appears to be growing in all of these countries with vulnerable households facing dwindling food stocks and rising prices of staple food at the time of the study (UN-RIACSO 2005).