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Pakistan is one of the most climate change and natural disaster-affected countries in the globe, where the lives and livelihoods of people are repeatedly affected due to these natural disasters. Over the past few decades, the country has been impacted by numerous devastating floods, droughts, and storms. As a result, households face enormous complications, particularly those dwelling in disaster-prone areas. Therefore, this study intends to explore the status of household vulnerability and resilience practices of hazard-prone communities in Pakistan from existing literature. This study has identified the 17 most relevant documents. It argues that household vulnerability is increasing consistently with the increasing rate of disaster intensity. Frequent flooding, landslide, erosion, and crop loss are the leading causes of household vulnerability. This study reveals five types of household vulnerability components which look into several livelihood vulnerability indicators of Pakistani households. Moreover, the study unfolds that the main causes of disaster vulnerability are widespread crop loss, a lack of water, loss of soil fertility, and low socioeconomic situations. The major vulnerability components of dwellers are exposure (increasing summer duration, the rapid increase of population house build-up in the riparian areas, and increasing occurrence of hailstorms), sensitivity, low access to education facilities, human loss, diseases infestation, food insecurity, and social conflict), and less adaptive capacity (social networks, migration, poor emergency services, multiple income sources, and less access to the health facility). To address the household vulnerability, this study has also identified four key aspects of resilience, like social resilience, economic resilience, institutional resilience, and physical resilience. The findings will effectively help to understand the dynamics of household vulnerability and resilience and its measurement and management strategy from developed indicators.

The purpose of this paper is to provide statistical and empirical evidence on the motivations, income determinants and livelihood vulnerabilities of female teenage head porters. The paper draws from the motivational theory and the livelihood vulnerability approach to assess the motivations, livelihood vulnerabilities and income determinants of female teenage head porters in Kasoa, Ghana.

The mixed methods data collection instruments were used to collect primary data from 200 randomly sampled female teenage head porters in Kasoa. It includes both close and open-ended questionnaires, one case study and personal observation.

Based on the estimation, the study found that household poverty, unemployment, desire for regular income and quest for personal independence were significant motivational factors drawing teenage girls into head porting. Also, age of respondents and years of experience in the occupation were the significant determinants of income of respondents. Exposure to frequent malaria, stress and physical pains were common livelihood risk factors faced by the respondents. Majority of them were from the northern region of Ghana and less than 20 percent of them had formal education.

The paper proposed for extensive implementation of robust macroeconomic and specific social protection interventions to enhance equal job and income opportunities as well as to protect the vulnerable.

The study provides statistical and empirical results different from other related studies (Opare, 2003; Awumbila, 2007; Baah-Ennumh et al., 2012; Akanle and Chioma, 2013).

Livelihood recovery is a top priority to sustain resettled communities. The purpose of this paper is to assess livelihood vulnerability of those displaced and resettled in the aftermath of the 2008 Wenchuan earthquake, China, based on a newly constructed locational adjustable framework.

The study takes two resettlement villages in Sichuan Province as case study areas. Face-to-face surveys using a structured questionnaire and semi-structured in-depth interviews were conducted to collect primary data in 2012-2013.

The findings show that distant resettlement of people post the Wenchuan earthquake has resulted in an increased livelihood vulnerability within resettlers and that they face more hazards post-resettlement when compared to host residents in the resettlement areas.

The indicators considered for the livelihood vulnerability index (LVI) are only a subset that represents typical factors applicable in the context of rural settings of China. The LVI may vary if more indicators are incorporated or coefficients obtained using different methods.

Highlights should be placed on livelihood assets and hazards to livelihood of the displaced people. During the transition period there is a pressing need for greater efforts to enhance migrants’ employment skills and assist them to restore viable livelihood activities.

This paper constructs a locational adjustable framework for analyzing and assessing livelihood vulnerability of disaster-induced resettlers from three aspects: livelihood hazards, livelihood assets and coping strategies.

This paper aims to investigate farmers’ vulnerability to climate change and variability in the northern region of Ghana.

The study assessed the vulnerability of male-headed and female-headed farming households to climate change and variability by using the livelihood vulnerability index (LVI) and tested for significant difference in their vulnerability levels by applying independent two-sample-student’s t-test based on gender by using a sample of 210 smallholder farming households.

The results revealed a significant difference in the vulnerability levels of female-headed and male-headed farming households. Female–headed households were more vulnerable to livelihood strategies, socio-demographic profile, social networks, water and food major components of the LVI, whereas male-headed households were more vulnerable to health. The vulnerability indices revealed that female–headed households were more sensitive to the impact of climate change and variability. However, female-headed households have the least adaptive capacities. In all, female-headed farming households are more vulnerable to climate change and variability than male-headed farming households.

The study recommends that female-headed households should be given priority in both on-going and new intervention projects in climate change and agriculture by empowering them through financial resource support to venture into other income-generating activities. This would enable them to diversify their sources of livelihoods to boost their resilience to climate change and variability.

This is the first study that examined the gender dimension of vulnerability of smallholder farmers in Ghana by using the livelihood vulnerability framework. Female subordination in northern region of Ghana has been profound to warrant a study on gender dimension in relation to climate change and variability, especially as it is a semi-arid region with unpredictable climatic conditions. This research revealed the comparative vulnerability of male- and female-headed households to climate change and variability.

The purpose of this paper is to build on recent analysis of sustainable vulnerability reduction of the Government of Indonesia tsunami rehabilitation and reconstruction plan by applying a sustainable livelihood framework for disaster risk management (DRM) for improvement in understanding potential livelihood strategies for the specific context of vulnerable people previously involved in fisheries livelihoods in Aceh.

Brief discussion of the preliminary findings of the work of Salim reveals the recommendation of further examination within a sustainable livelihoods DRM framework. Thus, after development and exposition of this framework, interviews and secondary research allow brief description of the context in which livelihood strategies might be implemented.

By combining the preliminary assessment of resource provisions with discussion of the institutional and vulnerability context of fisheries activities, preliminary recommendations of important considerations in developing appropriate vulnerability‐reducing livelihood strategies are listed under the categories of resource provisions.

This paper should be valuable to researchers interested in further development of applicable DRM models and to government and non‐government agencies interested in the effectiveness of assistance in achieving long‐term sustainable livelihood and sustainable development goals.

With the simultaneous increase of natural hazards and land- and resource-vulnerable women in the rural coasts of Bangladesh, large- and medium-scale infrastructure and livelihood programmes by government and non-government-organisations have been plenty. Yet, gender-responsive and livelihood-integrated infrastructure for these women's adaptation against increasing coastal vulnerabilities has been scarce. This paper outlines an infrastructure framework for improving their livelihood resilience in the scarcity of similar research.

A case study approach was assumed for this research. Based on a conceptual framework, in-depth interviews and focus-group-discussions with vulnerable women and key-informant-interview of NGO/government respondents were primarily used for data collection at Latachapli – a disaster-vulnerable coastal village in Southwest Bangladesh. Findings were derived primarily through inductive thematic coding.

Rural coastal women's livelihood vulnerabilities result from the lack of adequate, spatial/infrastructural and integrated (socio-economic) facilities and institutions. There is a clear need for a community-level and gender-responsive spatio-physical platform to create income generation/livelihood diversification opportunities irrespective of seasonalities, skill/capacity development and sharing/networking possibilities.

Due to case-specificity, research findings are representative but not generalisable. Further research is needed, especially at the intersection of gender, inequality and infrastructure design/planning regarding vulnerable women's resilience.

This proposed infrastructure framework can be considered for similar disaster-vulnerable rural coastal settings as a development policy and a physical infrastructure.

This case study's in-depth probing into vulnerable coastal women's livelihoods contributes to a growing body of knowledge, highlights their complex needs, and re-conceptualises gender-responsive infrastructure in similar communities' sustainable development. Piecemeal funding for social services will be more effective if coordinated with and allocated to appropriate engineering infrastructure. With access to proper community facilities and diverse livelihood opportunities all around the year (in this case, a multipurpose gender-sensitive infrastructure), communities would be more empowered to self-organise and support each other in delivering necessary soft services.

Risk factors for population relocation as a result of severe catastrophes are increasing on a global scale. The frequency of catastrophic weather events is rising, infrastructure is getting older, the population is expanding, and urbanization is increasing. This study explores the influencing factors of livelihood, vulnerability, and livelihood resilience of climate-induced displaced people in developing countries, particularly in South Asia. A mixed-method approach comprising a systematic review and a narrative review has been applied in this study. A systematic review guided by PRISMA has been used to identify the relevant documents and the extracted information has been described through a narrative review approach. This study reveals that climate-induced displaced people are generally vulnerable to maintaining their livelihood, but there are a few exceptional cases where displaced people could diversify their livelihood strategies. The major influencing factors of their livelihoods are riverbank erosion, loss of assets and properties, food insecurity, seasonal hunger, low access to finance, and low job opportunity. This study argues that climate-displaced people have a long struggle to enhance their livelihood resilience, but it is a challenging task for them, particularly at the household level. The major influencing indicators under adaptive, absorptive, and transformative capacities of livelihood resilience are income and food access, agricultural and non-agricultural assets, sensitivity, climate variability and hazards, basic services, social safety nets, and institutional participation. Appropriate governance in the structural and non-structural transformation of livelihood capitals can enhance the livelihood resilience of climate-induced displaced households. In the case of Bangladesh, the coastal and Riverine Island communities are the key victims of climate-induced hazards, so they migrated frequently to reduce their vulnerability and enhance livelihood resilience. The study recommends ensuring transparency and accountability, proper coordination among stakeholders for promoting the resettlement, disaster-resilient housing and infrastructure, and Khas land (government-owned land) to the displaced people can enhance their livelihood resilience.

The purpose of this paper is to contribute to the study of sustainable rural livelihoods by developing a model to measure vulnerability of subsistence communities in dryland regions and identifying the major determinants that contribute to the livelihood vulnerability of these communities.

The author conducted a household survey across three subsistence communities in West Timor (n=627), from June to November 2013. Based on the guideline of the OECD (2008), the author developed a series of indicators and constructed a composite index to measure the vulnerability of dryland communities. The author adapted the livelihood vulnerability index (LVI) measure from Hahn et al. (2009) but refined it by using Shannon’s entropy method in deciding the weights of indicators and statistically tested the correlation between indicators using Kendall’s correlations.

Six major determinants were identified: education (EDU), children’s participation in agriculture (CPA), agricultural income (AI), subsistence food reserve (SUBSIST), social-cultural participation (SCP) and access to water, health clinic and market (ACC). LVI in all communities shows significant and strong relationships with SCP (0.594, p<0.01), AI (0.545, p<0.01) and CPA (0.434, p<0.01). This signifies that constraints to engage in social gatherings, market the harvest and obtain additional labour input are currently the major contributor to the vulnerability in these communities.

Shannon’s entropy is one of the methods for assisting in making decision (ranking) objectively. The results may need to be tested further using other methods.

Using objective weight provides additional information useful for identifying and prioritising areas (sub-components) which require attention and appropriate solutions to prevent households from further impoverishment and increased vulnerability.

Livelihood vulnerability of subsistence community in dry region is closely related to local survival skills and customs. Differences in the level of vulnerability across communities are due not only to geographical location and physical infrastructure, but also the leadership of local customary leaders and village government in looking for ways to improve the livelihoods of community members.

This paper is based on part of the results of a PhD thesis supported and approved by Griffith University. It has not been published before.

This paper aims to understand the vulnerability of community livelihoods (human, social, financial, natural and physical assets) at a coastal environment in southern Mozambique, considering the level of exposure, sensitivity and adaptive capacity to climate change.

The study adopted the sustainable livelihoods approach. Data were collected through distribution of a structured questionnaire to 476 randomly selected households at the municipality of Inhambane. The questionnaire assessed all capital assets, covering 14 indicators and 43 sub-indicators of vulnerability, derived from published literature.

Results indicate that overall community vulnerability is largely derived from the vulnerability of physical, financial and social capitals, illustrated by declared food shortage, low nutrition levels, weak social networks, high level of biomass utilization and lack of financial resources due to unemployment. These aspects largely influence the noticed reduced adaptive capacity of surveyed households.

The study identified the need to improve the overall process of natural resources appropriation and utilization and the improvement of the governance capacity at the local targeting infrastructure, community structure and networks and capacity building that might enhance community livelihoods in changing scenarios.

The study is a contribution to the overall understanding of how livelihoods are exposed to climate change and variability in coastal settings.