Violence and complex humanitarian emergencies: implications for livelihoods models.

Area of Science:

• Social Sciences
• Humanitarian Studies
• Development Economics

Background:

• Complex humanitarian emergencies (CHEs) present unique challenges for understanding and modeling livelihoods.
• Existing sustainable livelihoods frameworks face limitations in protracted instability and conflict settings.
• Violence significantly disrupts traditional livelihood strategies and asset accumulation.

Purpose of the Study:

• To explore the nature of violence in CHEs and its implications for livelihood systems modeling.
• To adapt existing livelihoods frameworks for environments characterized by protracted instability and conflict.
• To reconceptualize vulnerability as endogenous to livelihoods systems in violent settings.

Main Methods:

• Analysis of political economy of violence theories.
• Examination of asset and liability dynamics within livelihoods systems during conflict.
• Adaptation of sustainable livelihoods frameworks considering policy, institutional, and process perspectives of violence.

Main Results:

• Assets crucial for livelihoods in peacetime can become liabilities in conflict.
• Violence fundamentally alters the structure and function of livelihood systems.
• A reconceptualization of vulnerability is necessary for accurate modeling in violent contexts.

Conclusions:

• Livelihoods approaches require significant adaptation for CHEs.
• Models must integrate the multifaceted impacts of violence on assets, liabilities, and vulnerability.
• An adapted livelihoods model for CHEs is presented, incorporating violence as an endogenous factor.