Most of the disabled people in the world live in poverty. In order to escape poverty, microfinance is said to be a solution. The Microfinance Institutions do not, however, incorporate everybody who is poor in their programs, which could be assumed. Disabled people and their families are a group which many times are not included in these programs. Since they many times already faces discrimination and also are excluded from the rest of the society they do not have a solution on how to escape from poverty. In Guatemala where the disabled people most surely also are indigenous gives them double stigmas. The purpose of this research is to identify what impacts microfinance has on the livelihoods of the families with disabled children around Lake Atitlán, Guatemala and subsequent to this what adaptations the MFIs should take when working with families within this target group. In order to collect the data a field study around Lake Atitlán, Guatemala with semi-structured interviews was done. The respondents were mothers of disabled children and employees of two NGOs. To analyze the results, DFIDs Sustainable Livelihood Framework was used. Since the frameworks give a broader spectrum than just one category of life it is easier to see what impacts the microfinance have on the livelihood and what the respondents are lacking in the microcredit program. The research demonstrates that microfinance has positive impacts on some aspects of the livelihoods of families of disabled children even if not to many MFIs within the country focus on them. Another conclusion of the study is that MFIs do not need to make big adaptions in order to work with this specific target group, they need however, inform about disabilities in order to end discrimination.

This thesis investigates how capacity development techniques, including training and group formation, can be leveraged to aid in new livelihood development for women living in rural areas who lack the resources necessary for agricultural livelihoods: lack arable land, labour, and capital. This study is situated as a case in an agroforestry development project. The study used multiple qualitative methods to identify how these micro-livestock rearing activities contributed to women’s practical and strategic needs. Key informant interviews (n=5); in-depth interviews, including ranking and scoring exercises, with beneficiaries (n=16); and participant observation all contributed to an in-depth understanding of the relevant phenomena. Interviews were coded and analyzed for key themes that emerged. The study focuses on how micro-livestock as a development intervention may contribute to increased capacities of women in the communities. The conclusions emphasize the importance of fostering knowledge exchange amongst beneficiaries for the maximization of tangible and intangible benefits.

In cities throughout Africa, domestic water is widely used for small businesses. The amount of water used depends on the size of the business and the individuals involved in these businesses are mostly women. However, many of these businesses do not have a direct connection to the city’s water network and the business owners often travel a far distance to purchase water at high prices. To explore this problem, the research titled “Analysis of Domestic Water Use for Livelihood Activities among the Poor in Alajo and Sabon Zongo Communities of Accra, Ghana” was undertaken. The main objectives of the study were two-fold: to measure the extent of domestic water use for livelihood purposes by both men and women in sub-urban communities of Accra and its contribution to their livelihoods, and enhance access of poor women to water to improve their water-dependent livelihoods and thus reduce poverty in Accra. The study also addressed issues relating to health and sanitation and explained that poor water quality in this community is as a result of damaged pipes and dirty storage tanks. The study was carried out using qualitative approach of investigation: interviewing, focus group discussions (FGDs), and direct observation. Statistical Packages for Social Sciences (SPSS) was used to analyze data collected. The study found that income generated from water related businesses contribute either all or more than half of the household income of water-related business operators. Water prices in these communities are ten times the regulated prices charged by the water utility, which have great impact on the profit margins of these small businesses and are often the stronghold of women. The highest level of education attained by most of the water related business owners is Junior Secondary School (Grade 8), which gives a basis for the explanation of their low income and high poverty levels. The study posed some recommendations including the possibility of government’s provision of water to every household in the communities. Furthermore, the implication of this recommendation was discussed, as it eliminates the business of water sellers and obstructs the income generated to support their households. Other livelihood activities that can be carried out by these water-related business owners were stated to include internet café business, grocery store operation, and boutique store operation. Certain limitations of this study have also been identified as its scope was limited to some extent. Areas of further research have also been identified.

The purpose of this study is to find out how social workers in one medium and one small municipality in central Sweden perceive the need of financial support for young adults for more than one year and what the causes might be. To answer our research questions a qualitative research method was used and four social workers were interviewed. The result has been analyzed based of social exclusion, stigma, as well as on structural and individual level and linked to previous research. Our results show that although young adults are an exception for long duration for financial support, there are those who lack other means of support for a long time. The results also show that young adults often are recurring in the social services, and they are long-lasting. The reasons for the need have been shown to be similar in the medium and the smaller municipality, even if it appears differences seen to affect the clients. The result shows that the absence of school results, mental illness, security and organization of social services are causes of long- term need for income support. The study shows that the long-standing young adults often lack a secure social network and social workers perceive that they are often a security, a stable contact in the young adults' lives that may be difficult for these young adults to leave.

In cities throughout Africa, domestic water is widely used for small businesses. The amount of water used depends on the size of the business and the individuals involved in these businesses are mostly women. However, many of these businesses do not have a direct connection to the city’s water network and the business owners often travel a far distance to purchase water at high prices. To explore this problem, the research titled “Analysis of Domestic Water Use for Livelihood Activities among the Poor in Alajo and Sabon Zongo Communities of Accra, Ghana” was undertaken. The main objectives of the study were two-fold: to measure the extent of domestic water use for livelihood purposes by both men and women in sub-urban communities of Accra and its contribution to their livelihoods, and enhance access of poor women to water to improve their water-dependent livelihoods and thus reduce poverty in Accra. The study also addressed issues relating to health and sanitation and explained that poor water quality in this community is as a result of damaged pipes and dirty storage tanks. The study was carried out using qualitative approach of investigation: interviewing, focus group discussions (FGDs), and direct observation. Statistical Packages for Social Sciences (SPSS) was used to analyze data collected. The study found that income generated from water related businesses contribute either all or more than half of the household income of water-related business operators. Water prices in these communities are ten times the regulated prices charged by the water utility, which have great impact on the profit margins of these small businesses and are often the stronghold of women. The highest level of education attained by most of the water related business owners is Junior Secondary School (Grade 8), which gives a basis for the explanation of their low income and high poverty levels. The study posed some recommendations including the possibility of government’s provision of water to every household in the communities. Furthermore, the implication of this recommendation was discussed, as it eliminates the business of water sellers and obstructs the income generated to support their households. Other livelihood activities that can be carried out by these water-related business owners were stated to include internet café business, grocery store operation, and boutique store operation. Certain limitations of this study have also been identified as its scope was limited to some extent. Areas of further research have also been identified.

Coal mining carries significant impacts for surrounding livelihood practices. Yet, in order to explain how specific impacts become grounded within a particular community, attention must be given to the complex assemblage of socio-political and economic forces operating at the local scale. As such, this paper builds upon 3 months of field research in 2010 to describe the impact of decentralized extractive resource governance at coal mines near the rural coastal village of Sekerat, East Kalimantan. Employing evolutions in political ecology research, the analysis focuses on the evolving governance ‘space’ in order to explain how institutional analyses of resource extraction governance and livelihood governance can be integrated to understand how scalar processes construct a range of real and perceived impacts which condition the decision-making modalities of local villagers. A case is then made for giving greater consideration to the importance of temporality and materiality to explaining how land-based and wage-labour livelihood practices have become ‘reified’ within the local village.

Due to scarce natural resources and problems of governing the commons, alternative management of the commons has again emerged. The earlier known governing methods used by international and state conservation are state or private ownership. Governing the commons with local institutions was brought to attention in 2009 by Elinor Ostrom. In this case-study of governing the commons, a national park is the objective. There are many stakeholders, with a focus on the community institution. The co-management of governing the national park between the local institution, the state and the NGO is analysed to find out if sustainable governance can be achieved in Rio Limpio National Park, and if so how? The rules are set on the conditions of the state about the regulations of the national park, although its protection is legitimized by the activities of the local institution. The regulation that prohibits the use of the natural resources within the park is enforced in a situation -where poor people are directly dependant on the natural resources and have few employment alternatives. This creates conflicts between the state, the NGO and the community of the environmental policies. The study has shown that increased benefits of the community, as with social protection and local participation in decision making, will lead to more successful nature resource management as well as sustainable development.

Despite the fact that conservation ideology has led conservation practice over the last quarter of a century, the removal of local residents from protected areas in the name of biological preservation remains the most common strategy in developing countries. Its wide-ranging impacts on displaced societies have rarely been properly addressed, particularly in regard to the establishment of parks. This thesis is based on 15 months fieldwork carried out among a group of displaced park residents known as Rana Tharus in the country of Nepal. They have long lived in Royal Shuklaphanta Wildlife Reserve in the far-western part of that nation. This thesis is largely inspired by recent academic advocacy that conservation-induced dislocations on rural communities are having a serious influence on policy implementation. Such advocacy is leading to more effective and pragmatic park policies. West, Igoe and Brockington (2006) point out that park residents are an indispensable part of protected areas and their cultural and economic interactions with parks occur in diverse ways. Without a full understanding of these interrelationships, any kind of forced conservation policies will be doomed to fail and cause severe disturbances to people’s lives. Like most protected areas in developing countries, this thesis shows that the unplanned resettlement scheme of Shulkaphanta failed to mitigate the socio-economic losses that Rana Tharus experienced due to their displacement. The ethnographic data notes that when attention is paid solely to the economic losses experienced by Rana Tharus, the social costs such as social exclusion, loss of culture, and psychological depression are rarely addressed in the dislocation program. An inadequate understanding of the links between protected areas and local livelihoods is one of the major causes for the continuation of park-people conflicts including Shuklaphanta. In this thesis, I demonstrate how the displacement and other social changes have gradually diminished the social and economic livelihoods of the Rana people. I argue that many of these social impacts were unexpected because Rana Tharus actively responded to all these changes by putting new social relations into effect. As a result, significant social transformations have occurred in contemporary Rana Tharu society. The undivided household unit was no longer their first preference when the new economic realities made themselves felt, and gender and patrilineal kin relationships became more tense. The traditional labouring system (Kamaiya) that existed between wealthy and poor Rana Tharus declined due to increasing poverty. All these had erased their ability to maintain sustainable livelihoods that they had previously enjoyed. Moreover, substantial loss of landownership had made it impossible for Rana Tharus to share equal social, economic and political status with the new migrants - the twice-born Pahaaris. These accumulated and unforseen results of conservation practices can only be well understood if a holistic analytical perspective is adopted. This thesis borrows the concept of sustainable household livelihood system and the social theories of practice, power and agency to explore the dynamic relationships between conservation, local livelihoods and culture. The stories told by the Rana Tharu provide some important lessons. I argue that dislocation programs should be put aside or at least closely reviewed if their hidden social impacts are not well understood or at least lead to some form of compensation. Such action may prevent the further expansion of park-people conflicts which are shown to hinder conservation efforts of Shuklaphanta and local sustainable livelihoods. / http://proxy.library.adelaide.edu.au/login?url= http://library.adelaide.edu.au/cgi-bin/Pwebrecon.cgi?BBID=1369652 / Thesis (Ph.D.) - University of Adelaide, School of Social Sciences, 2009

xvi, 621 p. A print copy of this thesis is available through the UO Libraries. Search the library catalog for the location and call number. / This dissertation observes ways of speaking about environment and community in Kake, a Native Tlingit village on Kupreanof Island in Southeast Alaska. The study investigates the functions and values of legal/regulatory and economic linguistic resources that travel through time and space, linking Kake to other sites, regional, national, and international. In light of increasing environmental issues world wide, the study examines how legal and regulatory processes influence beliefs about community and environment as a whole. Within the dissertation are case studies to show how local, day-to-day, community and environment-related narratives interact with state discourses. The study asks how words and stories in everyday conversations express and interpret the extent to which local Kake people feel emotion and responsibility for their forest and marine environment and each other. In addition, the study asks how people communicate their narratives about place, community, and work to government representatives, who converse using their own specialized language, narrative, and discourse rules. How, in turn, do local groups interpret and react to law-making and regulatory narratives? In the context of social attributes that help communities focus on sustainable livelihood strategies and the importance of environmental integrity, the study assesses what types of information get left out of discourses between local island people and state representatives. Communicating with official government agency personnel in public hearings, through documents, and in reaction to state decisions, influences changes in local words, stories and perceptions about people and place. The discursive and ideological adjustments that result can enhance or detract from local narratives that socialize moral codes and attachment to community and environment. / Advisers: Carol Silverman, Phil Young

Esta pesquisa analisa o modo de vida dos moradores locais no interior de uma unidade de conservação de proteção integral, o Parque Estadual Turístico do Alto Ribeira (PETAR). Quando o Parque foi criado já residiam vários grupos humanos na região, entre eles o Bairro Ribeirão dos Camargo, que constitui o local de estudo. O Bairro está composto por aproximadamente 50 famílias. Com a implantação da área protegida, mais da metade das famílias foram incluídas nos limites do Parque, dividindo espacialmente os moradores do Bairro em dois grupos; os de dentro e os de fora do PETAR. As principais atividades econômicas dos habitantes do Bairro, até finais da década de 1980, eram a agricultura de coivara, a caça, a pesca, a criação de suínos, de aves de curral e o extrativismo, como reserva monetária em caso de escassez ou de emergência. Também usavam a floresta como fonte de lenha, plantas medicinais e alimentícias, material para artesanato, materiais para construção e reparação das vivendas e demais infraestrutura, e elaboração de cabos de ferramentas simples para uso na lavoura. Com o estabelecimento do PETAR, e a consequente instauração da legislação ambiental, as principais atividades geradoras de renda dos moradores locais foram criminalizadas, repercutindo na reprodução e manutenção de seu modo de vida. Diante da desproteção do Estado dos direitos de acesso à terra dos agricultores familiares locais, eles se organizaram e desenvolveram uma série de estratégias para permanecer no território que eles acreditam como próprio. Apresentando ante a Fundação Florestal, em 2014, a proposta de criação de uma Reserva de Desenvolvimento Sustentável, fundamentados na Lei N° 9.985 de 18 de julho de 2000, melhor conhecida como Lei do SNUC, que possibilitaria os moradores do Bairro Ribeirão dos Camargo permanecerem na área. Contudo, vários dos antigos residentes abandonaram o local devido às restrições de uso agrícola do solo e do extrativismo. O Bairro sofre de uma contínua emigração, principalmente dos jovens, que logo depois de completar o colegial, não encontram uma ocupação lícita que gere uma renda que lhes permita permanecer na área. No caso do cenário atual não mudar, a descaracterização do agricultor familiar do Bairro é inevitável. O agricultor irá desaparecer, vai passar de mateiro, agricultor familiar, artesão, criador de suínos para guarda noturno, motorista, cozinheiro, servente. Com ele se perderá a agrobiodiversidade local e um cúmulo de conhecimentos da relação ser humano-natureza que poderiam ser valiosos para aprimorar a conservação da biodiversidade no PETAR. / This research analyses the livelihood of local residents in a state park, PETAR (Parque Estadual Turístico do Alto Ribeira in portuguese). When the Park was created several human groups habited the region, among them, the study area the community called Bairro Ribeirão dos Camargo. The community is composed of approximately 50 families. With the establishment of the protected area, more than half of the families were included on the boundaries of the Park, the neighborhood residents were spatially divided in two groups; on the inside and the outside of the PETAR. The main economic activities of the inhabitants of the community were slash-and-burn agriculture, hunting, fishing, raising pigs and chicken, and extractivism as monetary reserve in case of scarcity or emergency. They also made use of the forest as a source of firewood, medicinal and food plants, material for crafts, materials for construction and repair of houses, other infrastructure and simple farm tools for agriculture. With the establishment of PETAR, and the consequent fulfillment of environmental legislation, the main income-generating activities of local residents were criminalized, with consequences on the reproduction of their livelihood. Face the State\' unprotecting of the local farmers\' rights to access to land, they organized and developed a series of strategies to remain in the territory that they believe own. They presented at Forest Foundation, at 2014, the proposal for the creation of a Sustainable Development Reserve -RDS- (Reserva de Desenvolvimento Sustentável in portuguese), based on the SNUC law, a RDS would allow the residents of the Bairro Ribeirão dos Camargo remain in the area. However, many of the former residents have left the site due to restrictions on agricultural use of soil and extractivism. The community suffers a continuing emigration, especially of young people, who soon after completing high school are not finding a lawful occupation to generate an income that allows them to remain in the area. If the current scenario does not change the disappearance of community\' family farmer is inevitable. The small farmer will disappear. He will move from family farmer, craftsman and pigs farmer to night guard, driver, cook, and servant. With family farmer\' disappearance will be lost a local agro-biodiversity and an accumulation of knowledge of the relationship man-nature that could be valuable to improve biodiversity conservation in PETAR.