ABSTRACT
Efforts have been made since the 1990s to gain a better understanding of rural livelihoods and bring rural development strategies more in line with the aspirations and priorities of the rural people. This livelihood approach was a response to the disappointing results of former approaches in devising effective policies to encourage development and/or to alleviate poverty; the central objective was ‘to search for more effective methods to support people and communities in ways that are more meaningful to their daily lives and needs, as opposed to readymade, interventionist instruments’ (Appendini 2001).
