<p>The general aim of this essay is to situate the AIDS-epidemic in its socio-economic context, in order to see how HIV/AIDS affects households at a micro level. The material for the study was gathered during a minor field study conducted in Mwanza City, Tanzania.  The majority of the population in Tanzania is not part of the formal economic sector and does not enjoy the security of public health care, pension and other forms of support. Instead of being employed in the formal sector these people draw on different informal sources to secure their livelihoods. This has created a context where people are vulnerable in a situation of crisis. Since the 1980s - when the first cases of HIV were recorded in Tanzania - the epidemic has grown and HIV now constitutes one of the major threats to livelihood security.  But what impact does HIV/AIDS have on livelihood strategies in an urban setting? And how does the AIDS-epidemic affect society in general? Theses questions are investigated using qualitative methods and the data is analyzed by means of a livelihood framework.  From the gathered material I could conclude that HIV/AIDS indeed affects the livelihood strategies of afflicted households. Social capital – in the shape of support from family, friends and other networks – turned out to be an important resource. There is, however, an inequity in access to this resource. Stigmatisation has a negative impact on the social capital and increases the vulnerability of the afflicted households.  The essay deals with these issues in a wider perspective in relation to the role of the state and other actors and it is concluded with a discussion on the role of livelihood studies in the prevailing discourse on HIV/AIDS.</p>

<p>Mobile phones have had a tremendous diffusion rate in Africa in recent years. This has brought access to telecommunication to new user groups, among them Tanzanian fishermen. But how does mobile phone use affect the way fishermen live their lives, how they pursue economic activities and how they protect themselves from vulnerability to risk?</p><p>During a field study in Tanzania, interviews with fish boat captains were conducted in order to investigate what impact mobile phone use has on the livelihood indicators empowerment, opportunity and vulnerability to risk. Our research shows that increased access to information, enabled by mobile phones brings positive effects to all indicators. Mobile phone use empowers, both through increased bargaining power and increased control over external events. Mobile phones give increased knowledge about market opportunities and a possibility to work more efficiently. Furthermore, mobile phones give fishermen a possibility to take measures to decrease the risks they are exposed to, such as emergencies out at sea. The negative effects are found negligible. These effects are most likely not isolated to Tanzanian fishermen. Communication through mobile phones can bring similar advantages to other groups that have earlier been excluded from the communication system.</p>

This study examines how people in dryland areas cope with food insecurity and adversities over time. It draws from the experience of the Gogo people living in Mvumi in the semiarid zone of central Tanzania, an area with a long history of food shortages. The study specifically examines the potential for dryland resources to sustain livelihoods. The study looks at the historical perspective of the problem in order to explore factors influencing the food situation in the area. It specifically investigates the role of local knowledge as a factor for adapting to dryland conditions by exploiting seasonality and local diversity. A detailed account is made of the coping strategies among three identified wealth groups in the area. Apart from their wealth levels, households in these wealth categories differ in how they mobilise and deal with labour in various seasons. Households in the well-off group have greater ability in mobilising and using external labour as well as accumulating and managing food surplus. The households in the intermediate group are flexible in utilising their own labour by performing various farm and non-farm activities according to their seasonalities. The households in the poor category sell their own labour and perform various farm and non-farm activities regardless of the season. It is clear from the study that different wealth groups differ in their ability to develop immediate coping into more pro-active livelihood strategies. The study winds up by assessing the potentials of the prominent land resource utilisation strategies in terms of economic, social and environmental perspectives.

The Aids pandemic and structural adjustment policies (SAP) have had effects on lower income households in Zimbabwe which have been devastating and people have been required to adapt their livelihood strategies. Small towns meanwhile are growing rapidly in Zimbabwe and mobility towards these towns may be connected with the changes being forged by SAP on the economic landscape. This study seeks to establish how the individual migrant uses mobility to negotiate this landscape. This involves mobility directed towards small towns to access advantageous provisioning possibilities, and also the engagement in a multitude of family linkages from the small town to other places within the settlement system. Substantiated through a case study of Rusape, this study suggests that lower living costs, higher food security and a more accessible labour market may be attracting migrants from higher level urban centres. The role of the network of kin relations in mobility is important and migrants’ networks over space cover both rural homes and urban areas. The access to networks, however, is being stratified under SAP and the ability to maintain linkages with relatives is declining, suggesting a rising vulnerability connected with the inability of leaving places and entering others.

The general aim of this essay is to situate the AIDS-epidemic in its socio-economic context, in order to see how HIV/AIDS affects households at a micro level. The material for the study was gathered during a minor field study conducted in Mwanza City, Tanzania.  The majority of the population in Tanzania is not part of the formal economic sector and does not enjoy the security of public health care, pension and other forms of support. Instead of being employed in the formal sector these people draw on different informal sources to secure their livelihoods. This has created a context where people are vulnerable in a situation of crisis. Since the 1980s - when the first cases of HIV were recorded in Tanzania - the epidemic has grown and HIV now constitutes one of the major threats to livelihood security.  But what impact does HIV/AIDS have on livelihood strategies in an urban setting? And how does the AIDS-epidemic affect society in general? Theses questions are investigated using qualitative methods and the data is analyzed by means of a livelihood framework.  From the gathered material I could conclude that HIV/AIDS indeed affects the livelihood strategies of afflicted households. Social capital – in the shape of support from family, friends and other networks – turned out to be an important resource. There is, however, an inequity in access to this resource. Stigmatisation has a negative impact on the social capital and increases the vulnerability of the afflicted households.  The essay deals with these issues in a wider perspective in relation to the role of the state and other actors and it is concluded with a discussion on the role of livelihood studies in the prevailing discourse on HIV/AIDS.

Mobile phones have had a tremendous diffusion rate in Africa in recent years. This has brought access to telecommunication to new user groups, among them Tanzanian fishermen. But how does mobile phone use affect the way fishermen live their lives, how they pursue economic activities and how they protect themselves from vulnerability to risk? During a field study in Tanzania, interviews with fish boat captains were conducted in order to investigate what impact mobile phone use has on the livelihood indicators empowerment, opportunity and vulnerability to risk. Our research shows that increased access to information, enabled by mobile phones brings positive effects to all indicators. Mobile phone use empowers, both through increased bargaining power and increased control over external events. Mobile phones give increased knowledge about market opportunities and a possibility to work more efficiently. Furthermore, mobile phones give fishermen a possibility to take measures to decrease the risks they are exposed to, such as emergencies out at sea. The negative effects are found negligible. These effects are most likely not isolated to Tanzanian fishermen. Communication through mobile phones can bring similar advantages to other groups that have earlier been excluded from the communication system.

This is a case study about the Maasai and their land rights. The Maasai are semi-nomadic pastoralists, living in southern Kenya and northern Tanzania. It is said that they came to this area, now called Maasailand, about 300 years ago. In the beginning, they were independent and free to walk and graze their cattle without limitations and regulations. But when the British and German colonizers of these countries came to Maasailand, they discovered the advantages of its nature and started creating reserves. The Maasai were not strong enough to resist and it resulted in a land loss of two thirds for them. This has forced them to change their livelihood. They have to combine their pastoral lifestyle with other ways to make a living. The main purpose with the study is to look at how the land loss has affected the Maasai and their livelihoods. The essay is mainly built on secondary sources, but also on a field work from the Ngorongoro Conservation Area, with qualitative interviews. This is used here, in order to give an example of a conservation area where the Maasai and the wildlife successfully coexist. To be able to understand the changes in Maasai livelihoods, the Sustainable Livelihoods Approach has been adapted. With this approach, a more holistic view of the changes can be made. The land losses have not always brought negative results for the Maasai. They have been able to adapt a multiple livelihood, including pastoralism, agriculture and tourist industry. The Maasai might benefit more by adapting different assets; instead of only rely on one.

This Bachelor Thesis investigates the inherent conflict of preservation and livelihood, and what can be done to avoid this problem. The purpose of the study is to investigate if there is an enhanced risk of overexploitation in areas in proximity to forest reserves. This assumption is based on the fact that people living in close contact with nature are directly dependent on ecosystem-services for maintaining their livelihood. Hence, preservation of an area could result in degradation, if unprotected areas will have to sustain more people with, for example, firewood and pastoral land. Based on a field study in Babati District, Northern Tanzania, I have seen signs that imply that preservation of Ufiome, the forest covering Mt Kwaraa, has had effects on areas in proximity to the gazetted forest. The method used to conduct this study was semi-structured interviews with local farmers living in closeness to Ufiome NR, but also with district officials. Finally, I think that the solution to many of the problems that come with preservation are possible to handle by the use of Participatory Forest Management (PFM); Joint Forest Management (JFM) and Community Based Forest Management (CBFM). The key to coming to terms with conservational problems lies on scale-related solutions that focuses on implementing management of natural resources on a local level, claiming that fine-scale ecological issues are best dealt with on fine-scale social levels.

No description available.

The socioeconomic context of many biodiversity rich countries is argued to be heavily dwarfed in current conservation and development debate, resulting in that projects that intersect complex issues of development and conservation are often simplistically deemed as being unsuccessful. The aim of this research has therefore been to attain a more profound understanding of how socioeconomic conditions and local neoliberal contexts effect ICDP projects and to an extent also agroecological transition. In this case study ten qualitative life-story interviews were carried out during a minor field study in rural Las Pavas, Nicaragua. These were further analyzed through the use of the sustainable livelihood approach in order to identify what impacts the local socioeconomic contexts had on participant livelihoods and also what prospects and challenges C.I.P.P’s permaculture project presented in this regard. The empirical evidence shows that participant livelihoods were subjected to several constraints that were buttressed by the neoliberal development context which signified a great reliance on cattle raising as main financial activity at the expense of other important natural assets such as forest and water. Furthermore, demonstrating that permaculture projects had to provide the widest range of benefits with the least amount of risk in order to be adopted.