Characterising the nature of household vulnerability to climate variability: empirical evidence from two regions of Ghana

This paper builds on national- and regional-level vulnerability assessments by developing and applying a livelihood vulnerability index at the community and household scales to explore the nature of climate vulnerability. It provides innovative methodological steps in relation to livelihood assessment to identify the vulnerability of households and communities to drought. This will help to improve drought vulnerability assessments in Ghana and more widely as it shows extra information can be obtained from local-level vulnerability assessment that may be lacking in national- and regional-level analysis. The research employs quantitative and qualitative data collected through participatory methods, key informant interviews and a questionnaire survey with 270 households across 6 communities in two regions in Ghana. Results show that within the same agroecological zone, households and communities experience different degrees of climate vulnerability. These differences can be largely explained by socioeconomic characteristics such as wealth and gender, as well as access to capital assets. Results identify vulnerable households within resilient communities as well as more resilient households within vulnerable communities. These outliers are studied in detail. It is found that outlier households in vulnerable communities have an array of alternative livelihood options and tend to be socially well connected, enabling them to take advantage of opportunities associated with environmental and economic changes. To sustain and enhance the livelihoods of vulnerable households and communities, policymakers need to identify and facilitate appropriate interventions that foster asset building, improve institutional capacity as well as build social capital.     

A gender approach to understanding the differentiated impact of barriers to adaptation: responses to climate change in rural Ethiopia

While adaptation has received a fair amount of attention in the climate change debate, barriers to adaptation are the focus of a more specific, recent discussion. In this discussion, such barriers are generally treated as having a uniform, negative impact on all actors. However, we argue that the precise nature and impact of such barriers on different actors has so far been largely overlooked. Our study of two drought-prone communities in rural Ethiopia sets out to examine how female- and male-headed households adapt to climate change, particularly focusing on how a variety of barriers influence the choice of adaptation measures to varying extents. To this purpose, we built a conceptual framework based on the Sustainable Livelihood Approach. Data were collected using semi-structured interviews and focus group discussions with male- and female-headed households, community leaders and local extension workers. Our findings suggest that gender-based differences in the choice of adaptation measures at the household level are driven by cultural, social, financial and institutional barriers. Barriers to adaptation—particularly when interacting—have a differentiated impact upon different actors. This outcome hints at the need for donors and policymakers to develop intervention strategies that are sensitive to this fact.     

Livelihood asset maps: a multidimensional approach to measuring risk-management capacity and adaptation policy targeting—a case study in Bhutan

The application of a livelihood asset-based approach to adaptation policy targeting is presented through the creation of maps highlighting the spatial contrasts of access to various types of livelihood assets utilizing primary household data. Thus, the livelihood maps provide policy-makers with a tool to quickly identify areas with limited access to certain types of assets, making the latter less able to react to a changing level of climate-related risks. In the case of Bhutan, distinct spatial patterns of asset endowments is identified using five different asset indicators drawing attention to the fact that some areas facing increased level of climate-related risks lack access to productive and human capital, while other areas facing a similar situation have relatively insufficient access to financial assets. This again shows that any non-targeted policy aiming at improving households’ risk-management capacities through asset-building would have quite diverse results even among closely located districts in Bhutan. Finally, relevant policy options concerning the various dimensions of asset holdings are discussed so as to identify options that may benefit poor and vulnerable no matter if the expected outcomes of a changing climate are realized or not.     

挣扎与妥协:农村家庭缘何陷入能源贫困“陷阱”

生活能源改进是实现农村低收入家庭福利提升的关键环节之一,而资产的贫困为能源的消费造成了约束,使低收入农户难以实现能源的改进以脱离贫困现状。该文借助"贫困陷阱"的定义,将这种受制于资产贫困的能源使用困境称为能源贫困"陷阱",并从农户心理视角考察了低收入家庭更容易陷入能源贫困的原因。基于2015年中国综合社会调查(CGSS)数据,对能源贫困线进行了重新计算,认为我国现阶段农村能源贫困线应为户均600 kgce/a,并发现不论在任何能源贫困线下,收入偏低农户的能源贫困发生率、能源贫困深度和强度均远高于中高收入农户。基于此,该文同时从消费量和消费倾向两个方面估计了家庭经济状况对能源贫困的影响,结果表明:相对于中高收入农户,收入偏低农户的能源消费呈现出"既未省钱又未增效"的非经济理性特征,其能源消费负担实际更重,而消费结构却更为低效。进一步地,运用中介效应模型对这一非经济理性决策进行了解释,考察了心理因素在能源贫困"陷阱"形成中的作用,结果发现:收入偏低农户更容易表现出消极心理状态,负面的情绪和对未来的悲观预期使其在能源决策中更倾向于选择传统能源,而不愿做出能源改进的尝试。这种消极心理在一定程度上反映了收入偏低农户在能源改进中主观能动性的缺乏。正如"扶贫先扶志",政府在推行因地制宜的能源政策、开展能源基础设施建设的同时,也应该加强对贫困农户的情感帮扶,以使其产生尝试改进能源的内生动力。     

Perceived stressors of climate vulnerability across scales in the Savannah zone of Ghana: a participatory approach

Smallholder farmers in sub-Saharan Africa are confronted with climatic and non-climatic stressors. Research attention has focused on climatic stressors, such as rainfall variability, with few empirical studies exploring non-climatic stressors and how these interact with climatic stressors at multiple scales to affect food security and livelihoods. This focus on climatic factors restricts understanding of the combinations of stressors that exacerbate the vulnerability of farming households and hampers the development of holistic climate change adaptation policies. This study addresses this particular research gap by adopting a multi-scale approach to understand how climatic and non-climatic stressors vary, and interact, across three spatial scales (household, community and district levels) to influence livelihood vulnerability of smallholder farming households in the Savannah zone of northern Ghana. This study across three case study villages utilises a series of participatory tools including semi-structured interviews, key informant interviews and focus group discussions. The incidence, importance, severity and overall risk indices for stressors are calculated at the household, community, and district levels. Results show that climatic and non-climatic stressors were perceived differently; yet, there were a number of common stressors including lack of money, high cost of farm inputs, erratic rainfall, cattle destruction of crops, limited access to markets and lack of agricultural equipment that crossed all scales. Results indicate that the gender of respondents influenced the perception and severity assessment of stressors on rural livelihoods at the community level. Findings suggest a mismatch between local and district level priorities that have implications for policy and development of agricultural and related livelihoods in rural communities. Ghana’s climate change adaptation policies need to take a more holistic approach that integrates both climatic and non-climatic factors to ensure policy coherence between national climate adaptation plans and District development plans.     

Livelihood strategies,environmental dependency and rural poverty: the case of two villages in rural Mozambique

This article attempts to explore the nexus between rural households’ environmental dependency, poverty and livelihood strategies. Households’ income from each livelihood activities formed the basis for categorizing households according to livelihood strategies. The principal component analysis, agglomerative hierarchical and the k-means cluster analysis were employed to determine the four livelihood clusters and to assign households to the identified livelihood strategies. Households’ environmental dependency, poverty and asset holding were compared across the strategies, and the determinants of livelihood choice were analyzed using multinomial logit model. The results indicate the existence of marked differences in environmental dependency, rural poverty and asset endowments across the livelihood groups. Household’s total saving, access to credit, production implements, business cost, exposure to agricultural shock determined household’s access to a more remunerative livelihood strategy. Incomes from each livelihood activities for the identified livelihood strategies were analyzed, and their implications were also discussed.     

Remittances and natural disasters: ex-post response and contribution to ex-ante preparedness

Macro- and microeconomic evidence suggests a positive role of remittances in preparing households against natural disasters and in coping with the loss afterward. Analysis of cross-country macroeconomic data shows that remittances increase in the aftermath of natural disasters in countries that have a larger number of migrants abroad. Analysis of household survey data in Bangladesh shows that per capita consumption was higher in remittance-receiving households than in others after the 1998 flood. Ethiopian households that receive international remittances seem to rely more on cash reserves and less on selling household assets or livestock to cope with drought. In Burkina Faso and Ghana, international remittance-receiving households, especially those receiving remittances from high-income developed countries, tend to have housing built of concrete rather than mud and greater access to communication equipment, suggesting that they are better prepared against natural disasters.     

Rainfall variability and household coping strategies in northern Tanzania: a motivation for district-level strategies

Climate variability is an important stress factor for rural livelihoods in most developing countries where households have been adapting to environmental shocks for decades. Climate change results in increased variability and poses new challenges for rural livelihoods, as well as for policymakers in adjusting policies to changing conditions. This paper examines the potential relationships between rainfall data and household self-reported harvest shocks and local (spatial) variability of harvest shocks and coping strategies based on a survey of 2,700 rural households in the Kagera region of northern Tanzania. The results show that rainfall patterns in the region are very location-specific and that the distribution of household reported harvest shocks differs significantly between districts and correspond to the observed variability in local climate patterns. Coping strategies are focused on spreading risks and include reduced consumption, casual employment, new crops, external support and the selling of assets. There are no large differences in applied coping strategies across the region, but district-level data demonstrate how local strategies differ between localities within the districts. The results emphasize that in order to target rural policies and make them efficient, it is important to take into account the local conditions that rural households face when experiencing climate-related shocks. Finally, shocks reported by households appear to correspond well with observed variability in rainfall patterns.     

Household determinants of bushmeat and eru (<Emphasis Type="Italic">Gnetum africanum</Emphasis>) harvesting for cash in the Democratic Republic of Congo

Peri-urban pressure on the Luki Biosphere Reserve in Bas-Congo, Democratic Republic of Congo, is fuelled by growing demand in urban markets coupled with easy access. With data from 175 randomly selected households, this paper examines factors that motivate households to collect two major forest products found in the reserve for cash. We analyse the factors determining the choice of engaging in collection of bushmeat and eru (Gnetum africanum) and the factors determining the success (outcome) in collection using the Heckman selection model. This model explicitly separates estimation of selection into the activity from the outcome, to provide unbiased estimates of both. Results show that being local, higher household labour availability and higher asset endowment were positively related to selection into bushmeat hunting, reflecting higher risk-carrying capacities, ease of access to equipment and resources. Greater market distance being a female-headed household and greater age of household heads negatively affected selection into eru collection, reflecting characteristics of cash harvesting activities. Low education and more local knowledge characterised more successful outcome of eru collection, whereas having more household labour tended to lower outcomes of both bushmeat and eru collection suggesting that labour pools engaged in these activities were not sufficiently skilled, or that a higher proportion was consumed in such households. We discuss our findings in relation to the role of these activities in providing a pathway out of poverty and stress the needs for better integration of conservation and development policies.     

Linking agricultural adaptation strategies,food security and vulnerability: evidence from West Africa

Adaptation strategies to reduce smallholder farmers’ vulnerability to climate variability and seasonality are needed given the frequency of extreme weather events predicted to increase during the next decades in sub-Saharan Africa, particularly in West Africa. We explored the linkages between selected agricultural adaptation strategies (crop diversity, soil and water conservation, trees on farm, small ruminants, improved crop varieties, fertilizers), food security, farm household characteristics and farm productivity in three contrasting agro-ecological sites in West Africa (Burkina Faso, Ghana and Senegal). Differences in land area per capita and land productivity largely explained the variation in food security across sites. Based on land size and market orientation, four household types were distinguished (subsistence, diversified, extensive, intensified), with contrasting levels of food security and agricultural adaptation strategies. Income increased steadily with land size, and both income and land productivity increased with degree of market orientation. The adoption of agricultural adaptation strategies was widespread, although the intensity of practice varied across household types. Adaptation strategies improve the food security status of some households, but not all. Some strategies had a significant positive impact on land productivity, while others reduced vulnerability resulting in a more stable cash flow throughout the year. Our results show that for different household types, different adaptation strategies may be ‘climate-smart’. The typology developed in this study gives a good entry point to analyse which practices should be targeted to which type of smallholder farmers, and quantifies the effect of adaptation options on household food security. Subsequently, it will be crucial to empower farmers to access, test and modify these adaptation options, if they were to achieve higher levels of food security.     

Climate change/variability and food systems: evidence from the Afram Plains,Ghana

While there are many studies of the impacts of climate change and variability on food production, few studies are devoted to a comprehensive assessment of impacts on food systems. Results of a survey of food systems and household adaptation strategies in three communities in the Afram Plains, Ghana, reveal how extreme climatic events affect rural food production, transportation, processing and storage. Adaptation strategies implemented by the three communities during past droughts serve as a foundation for planning responses to future climate change. Results of this study suggest that food security in this region—where droughts and floods are expected to become more severe due to climate change—could be enhanced by increasing farm-based storage facilities; improving the transportation system, especially feeder roads that link food production areas and major markets; providing farmers with early warning systems; extending credit to farmers; and the use of supplementary irrigation. This study also indicates that some cultural practices, particularly those that prohibit the consumption of certain foods, may reduce the resilience of some individuals and ethnic groups to food system disruptions. Understanding the local context and the responses of households is critical to the development of effective strategies for reducing the potential adverse impacts of climatic change on food security in rural Ghana.     

农地转出:缓解还是加剧了农户的多维贫困?

基于六盘山集中连片区的1 112户农户调研数据,在综合考虑样本选择偏差和异质性的基础上,通过构建内生转换模型分析了农户农地转出行为对多维贫困指数的影响。结果表明：农户农地转出行为能够显著地降低多维贫困指数。通过进一步的反事实假设研究,发现农地转出户如果不转出农地,多维贫困指数将提高22.16%;未转出户如果有机会转出农地,多维贫困指数将下降30.22%。尽管农地转出行为能够降低农户的多维贫困指数,但受制于以地为生思想意识的制约,集中连片区农户并不能做出合理的决策。     

人口结构、社会保障与机构投资者的发展——以发达国家为例

近年来我国的经济发展中出现了居民的存款储蓄不断增长与企业资金短缺、股票市场低迷并存的现象。发达国家的经验表明,社会保障制度与金融发展具有明显的相关性：社会保障制度的改革与发展。改变了居民以存款为主体的金融资产结构。使居民金融资产的选择从直接持有转向通过养老金、保险金和共同基金等机构投资者的间接持有，促进了机构投资者的迅猛发展；而机构投资者的资产越来越多的投向了证券资产。进而促进了资本市场的进一步发展。     

Status differences in collective action and forest benefits: evidence from joint forest management in India

Does status matter in community-based forest management? If so, are the high-status households more benefited than the low-status households? What drives status differences, if any, in the appropriation of forest resources? To address these questions, we draw on a theory of status and resource use that defines one’s status as one’s relative position in a group on the basis of power, prestige, honor and deference. Following this perspective, we surveyed the heads of 341 forest-based rural households in India from 2009 to 2010. We find that collective actions themselves are status-driven and the high-status households are more interested and involved in status-maintaining collective actions such as decision-making and implementation, while the low-status households perform general tasks like forest patrol. Moreover, the high-status households derive benefits from local forest significantly more than the low-status households. Further, decomposition analysis shows that a household’s prestige and honor measured by its access to social resources, problem faced and useful contacts explain about 56 % of the status gap in forest benefits, while socioeconomic characteristics explain only 16 % of the gap. Thus, due emphasis on household status from a broader socioeconomic perspective is required to reduce inequality in participation and the distribution of forest benefits in co-management.     

地方依恋有助于提高农户村庄环境治理参与意愿吗?——基于湖北省调查数据的分析

在农村社会转型背景下,从人地关系视角探讨农户地方依恋对其村庄环境治理参与意愿的影响,对剖析农村环境治理难题意义重大。以湖北省为例,利用1074份农户微观调查数据,从环境心理学视角下的人地关系出发,探讨了地方依恋对农户村庄环境治理参与意愿的影响,并进一步运用工具变量法(IV-Oprobit)进行内生性处理与稳健性检验。结果表明:①农户地方依恋水平整体一般,通过提高农户对村庄的依恋水平,可显著提升其村庄环境治理参与意愿。具体而言,农户地方依恋水平每提高1个单位,可使其环境治理“非常愿意”参与的概率提升35.51%。②社会信任在地方依恋对农户村庄环境治理参与意愿影响中发挥显著的调节和中介作用。一方面,地方依恋对农户村庄环境治理参与意愿的影响会随着农户社会信任水平的提高而不断增强;另一方面,地方依恋能够显著增强农户社会信任水平,从而提升其村庄环境治理参与意愿,即社会信任是地方依恋影响农户村庄环境治理参与意愿的重要传导中介,中介效应占总效应的比重为23.37%。③代际差异分析表明,在新生代和老一代农民群体中,地方依恋对其村庄环境治理参与意愿影响均显著。此外,性别、环保意识和环保态度等对农户村庄环境治理参与意愿也产生显著影响。据此,应加强村庄基础设施和文化建设等,不断增强农户的村庄认同感和依恋感,进而在美丽乡村建设中提升农户村庄环境治理参与水平。     

Shocks and coping strategies of coastal communities in war–conflict-affected areas of the north and east of Sri Lanka

A quantitative survey of 1,377 households in three war-affected coastal districts of Jaffna, Mannar and Trincomalee in the north and east of Sri Lanka shows that inflation or price hikes, specially fuel, and natural disasters such as floods and droughts are highlighted as the shocks with the biggest impacts on fisher and non-fisher households. We hypothesise that the pattern/severity of households’ coping strategies to face these shocks depends on a set of household characteristics: livelihood diversity, asset ownership, level of education and the ability to borrow. Livelihood diversity, asset ownership and borrowings correlate significantly with the severity of coping strategies adopted by households for both fisher and non-fisher households. Education and livelihood diversification does not show a significant correlation for fisher households although it significantly affects livelihood diversification of both types of households.     

Household preferences and willingness to pay (WTP) for freshwater quality improvement in Pakistan’s Swat River Valley

This two-part study investigates household preferences and willingness to pay (WTP) for water quality improvement of the Swat River in Pakistan. First, a four-point Likert scale was used to rank preferences for water quality benefits without using any financial metric. Results show that households have comparatively strong preferences for non-use benefits. Second, a contingent valuation question was designed to determine WTP for adopting a management plan developed exclusively for water quality improvement in the Swat River. The estimated annual mean WTP per household for water quality improvement is $2.40 when donating to an NGO. Generalizing this value to households living in Swat Valley would generate up to $544,000 per year. The present value aggregate benefit for 15 years would be sufficient to cover the present value of aggregate costs to adopt the management plan. A mandatory program that would require paying for the management plan generates half the WTP compared to the voluntary plan, but is still sufficient to cover costs and may be more feasible than a voluntary program because payment is assured.     

农户分化、城镇住房对农户宅基地退出意愿的影响

通过对武汉城市圈9市10个乡镇16个行政村483名农户的调查,运用描述性统计分析方法和Logistic模型分析法,深入分析农户分化、城镇住房对宅基地有偿退出意愿的影响规律.研究结果表明:(1)农户分化对宅基地退出意愿具有促进作用,且随着农户分化程度深化,其影响效果逐步加强;(2)城镇住房居住效应对农户宅基地退出意愿具有正向影响,财富效应表现为负向影响,总效应为正向促进作用;(3)城镇住房对不同分化程度农户宅基地退出意愿的影响存在显著差异,由纯农型农户向非农型农户转型过程中,城镇住房促进作用逐步加强,但在部分特征样本群中其影响效果存在"瓶颈期".鉴于此,为促进农户参与宅基地有偿退出,应继续推进农村非农经济发展,提升农户非农就业水平,同时将住房保障政策与宅基地退出制度安排长期有效匹配,在通过社会整体制度安排为农户家庭提供非农经济基础与社会保障条件的基础上,有序开展和推进宅基地退出工作.     

三峡库区农村移民安置模式对移民家庭收入的影响分析

利用2007年三峡库区就地后靠农村移民的抽样调查数据,根据农村移民收入来源理论,采用单因素方差分析方法,对移民户和非移民户,以及不同安置方式移民户的收入结构进行比较分析,以说明移民搬迁和不同安置方式对移民收入的不同影响。结果表明：移民搬迁对移民收入存在结构性的影响,即移民搬迁主要影响移民户的家庭经营收入,同时,移民的后期扶持政策抵消了移民搬迁对移民收入的影响;不同的安置方式对移民户收入也存在显著的影响,纯农业安置和兼业安置对移民收入的不利影响较小,而非农业安置对移民户收入的影响较大;非移民安置户享受到的惠农政策和移民后期扶持政策的好处也相对要少;从收入来源的角度来讲,纯农业安置和兼业安置的收入风险相对较低,而非农业安置的收入风险相对较高,所以,纯农业安置和兼业安置对多数农村移民而言是较为适合的安置模式,移民后期扶持补助政策对于稳定移民收入有积极作用     

农户对生物质能源产业参与意愿实证分析——以湖北省为例

生物质能源一直是人类赖以生存的重要能源,它是仅次于煤炭、石油和天然气而居于世界能源消费总量第四位的能源,在整个能源系统中占有重要地位。生物质能源产业的发展不仅仅需要产品生产企业、政府相关机构的参与,微观个体农户同样扮演着至关重要的角色。农户对生物质能源产业的态度和行为,会对政府和生产者的行为选择产生深刻影响。以湖北农户对生物质能源产业的参与意愿的调查为例,运用因子分析法,对农户对生物质能源产业参与意愿和参与行为的影响因素进行分析。分析结果表明：预期收益、年均纯收入、环保意识、文化程度、配套设备生产情况、产品技术成熟度、相关政策支持、商品能源使用率、当地生物质资源量9个因素会影响农户参与意愿。提出了相应的建议：一是提高农户对生物质能源的预期收益和农户收入水平;二是从根本上提高农户综合素质,增强环境保护意识;三是完善生物质能源产业技术、政策支撑体系,合理开发利用生物质资源