Brief 2: Transforming Livelihood Systems: Meeting needs in a changing world

Livelihood strategies are the way people support themselves. People change their strategies as their opportunities, risks, and limitations change. In Darfur, Sudan, the past two decades have seen social, economic, and political changes on an unprecedented scalesignificantly impacting livelihoods.  

This brief reviews how farming, agro-pastoralist, and pastoralist livelihood systems in Darfur are permanently changing in response to these major changes and in the face of ever-increasing pressure on natural resources. We examine these changes by livelihood specialization, describe the different roles men and women play in these changes, and highlight how the changes impact them differently. We also examine how changes in strategies affect the resilience of those strategies and how past strategies have become less effective, driven in part by pressure on natural resources. At the same time, we show how innovations are providing new opportunities to increase production and revenues while sustainably managing natural resources.  

As all livelihood strategies are transforming, existing strategies are evolving, and new strategies are emerging, this brief aims to help actors working in Darfur to update their understanding of the strategies so that programs and priorities evolve to support the new reality.  

This is the second in a series of four learning briefs under the Taadoud II: Transition to Development project. The learning brief series aims to promote awareness and understanding of natural resource use and management in Darfur to support the Taadoud II program and wider programs and policies to effectively build resilient livelihoods. 

ASSOCIATED PROJECT

SUBJECTS

PUBLICATION TYPE

LOCATION

RELATED PUBLICATIONS

Thumbnail image of report cover

This study examines how anticipatory action was perceived and experienced among Ethiopians living with drought alongside other crises.

Thumbnail image of cover

This learning brief explores the continuity and changes to livelihoods in select sites in Isiolo and Marsabit Counties, Kenya, and reviews the implications of the continuity and the changes on the drivers of child acute malnutrition.

Thumbnail image of cover

This learning brief presents preliminary findings on strategic mobility and its nutritional benefits to pastoral and agropastoral communities in select sites in Isiolo and Marsabit Counties, Kenya.

Thumbnail of Report "Do Famine Declarations Really Lead to Increased Funding?

This policy brief examines the relationship between famine declarations and funding since 2011. It shows that, with that one exception, there is little evidence that famine declarations actually result in a rapid increase in funding.

Image of Brief Cover: Actingin in Advance of Flooding

In 2022 UN OCHA led a pilot anticipatory action intervention in South Sudan. This brief presents UN actors’ perceptions of this intervention.

Report cover thumbnail

This report provides insights and perspectives from participatory workshops with displaced female youth in the Kurdistan region of the Republic of Iraq (KRI).

Load more