Sustainable Coastal Livelihoods

The Sustainable Coastal Livelihoods Project was funded by the UK Government's Department for International Development DFID Policy Research Programme.

The South Asia region has very high percentages of poor in the population, particularly in India and Bangladesh. The diversity of the natural resources found along the coast, and the open-access nature of many of them, means that barriers to entry are low, attracting the poor to the coast in search of livelihood opportunities. However, while the coast presents many opportunities for the poor, it also exposes them to many forms of shocks that increase their vulnerability.

The causes and consequences of the problems facing the poor in coastal areas of South Asia are complex and changing and, from what limited detailed information is available, it is clear that the numbers of people living below or close to the poverty line in coastal areas in the region is increasing.

Past interventions indicated the need to approach the problems of the poor in coastal areas from a holistic perspective which is inclusive of the poor. The Sustainable Livelihoods Approach (SLA), an approach to dealing with and responding to the complexity of poor people’s lives, provides a strong framework for doing this.

The Sustainable Coastal Livelihoods project focused on understanding the problems that the poor faced in the coast and the problems associated with providing effective policies to support the poor. The project explored a wide range of options that aim to help those working in the sector to build more effective policy processes that can address poverty in coastal areas.

The project delivered the following outputs:

Output 1:Factors supporting and constraining the achievement of, sustainable livelihoods of poor coastal people in the Western Bay of Bengal, and the influence of policy processes on achieving those livelihoods, identified.

Output 2: The role of policy structures and processes in the livelihoods of the poor in selected coastal communities in Andhra Pradesh identified.

Output 3: Measures for improving the policy structures and processes to support poor coastal communities in their efforts to achieve sustainable livelihoods, identified and tested in Andhra Pradesh.

Output 4: Guidelines for improving policy structures and processes needed to facilitate and support the achievement of  sustainable coastal livelihoods for the poor developed and their application to the Western Bay of Bengal region developed and promoted.