AIDS-affected young people’s access to livelihood assets: Exploring ‘new variant famine’ in rural southern Africa

Ansell, Nicola; Hajdú, Flóra; Blerk, Lorraine van; Robson, Elsbeth

doi:10.1016/j.jrurstud.2016.05.008

Cited by 19 publications

(27 citation statements)

References 36 publications

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“…Thus, our study provides important insight into policies aiming to avert or reduce the impact of future epidemics on livelihoods by addressing the important factors that drive these effects. Although there is a scarcity of studies that applied this framework to investigate the impact of EVD, several studies employed the SLF to explore the livelihood effects of other epidemics, mainly HIV/AIDS [ 1 , 2 ].…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The livelihood of a household is deemed sustainable when it copes with, and recovers from stresses without compromising the abilities of future generations [ 21 ]. Factors that weaken some or all of the livelihood assets of households, adversely affect their livelihood [ 2 , 25 ]. Therefore, a complete understanding of the effect of shocks, such as epidemics, on the livelihood of households necessitates the investigation of their influence on the assets owned by the households.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…There is a plethora of evidence in the literature that epidemics such as HIV/AIDS and malaria have profound implications for the livelihoods of the affected society. The impact of HIV/AIDS on livelihoods has been intensively investigated and there is universal consensus that HIV/AIDS adversely affects the livelihoods of individuals, households and communities [ 1 – 2 ], and has macro-level implications for poverty, economic growth, unemployment and political stability [ 3 – 7 ]. Similarly, malaria has been found to have a strong negative effect on the socioeconomic status of households [ 8 – 11 ].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…These assets can broadly be categorized into five categories: physical capital (e.g., infrastructure, tools, equipment), human capital (e.g., knowledge and ability to work), financial capital (e.g., available stocks, access to financial services, regular inflows of money), social capital (e.g., networks for cooperation, trust, support) and natural capital (e.g., land, forests, water) [ 21 – 24 ]. Shocks, such as epidemics, that weaken some or all of these household assets, negatively affect livelihood [ 2 , 25 ]. Therefore, a complete understanding of the effects of epidemics, such as EVD, on the livelihood of households requires the investigation of their influence on the assets owned by the households.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The EVD epidemic may have weakened the resource base of the Liberian society for various reasons. First, the incidence of the epidemic in the households and/or their communities may have weakened the different categories of assets owned by households directly [ 2 , 24 ]. Second, measures taken by the Liberian government to contain the spread of the disease may have further dampened the households’ assets and affected their welfare [ 15 , 26 , 27 ].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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The impact of the Ebola virus disease (EVD) epidemic on agricultural production and livelihoods in Liberia

Gatiso

Ordaz‐Németh

Grimes³

et al. 2018

PLoS Negl Trop Dis

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There is unequivocal evidence in the literature that epidemics adversely affect the livelihoods of individuals, households and communities. However, evidence in the literature is dominated by the socioeconomic impacts of HIV/AIDS and malaria, while evidence on the impact of the Ebola virus disease (EVD) on households’ livelihoods remains fragmented and scant. Our study investigates the effect of the EVD epidemic on the livelihoods of Liberian households using the Sustainable Livelihood Framework (SLF). The study also explores the effect of the EVD epidemic on agricultural production and productive efficiency of farm households using Spatial Stochastic Frontier Analysis (SSFA). We collected data from 623 households across Liberia in 2015, using a systematic random sampling design. Our results indicated that the annual income of sample households from communities where EVD occurred did not differ from the annual income of households from communities where EVD did not occur. Nonetheless, the majority of sample households reported a decrease in their income, compared to their income in the year before the survey. This suggests that the impact of the EVD epidemic might not only have been limited to communities directly affected by the epidemic, but also it may have indirectly affected communities in areas where EVD was not reported. We also found that the community-level incidence of EVD negatively affected crop production of farm households, which may have exacerbated the problem of food insecurity throughout the country. Moreover, we found that the EVD epidemic weakened the society’s trust in Liberian institutions. In a nutshell, our results highlight that epidemics, such as the recent EVD outbreak, may have long-lasting negative effects on the livelihoods of a society and their effect may extend beyond the communities directly affected by the epidemics. This means that the nation’s recovery from the impact of the epidemic would be more challenging, and the social and economic impacts of the epidemic may extend well beyond the end of the health crisis.

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Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%