Editorial Introduction: Vulnerability, Coping and Policy

Robert Chambers

these flows. Indicators of poverty are then easily taken

Vulnerability as indicators of other dimensions of deprivation.
'Vulnerable' and 'vulnerability' are common terms in including vulnerability. But vulnerability, more than
poverty, is linked with net assets. Poverty, in the sense
the lexicon of development, but their use is often
vague. They serve as convenient substitutes for 'poor' of low income, can he reduced by borrowing and
and 'poverty', and allow planners and other ;nvesting: hut such debt makes households more
professionals to restrain the overuse of those words. vulnerable. Poor people, in their horror of debt,
Some precision can be found in the use of 'vulnerable appear more aware than professionals of the trade-
groups' where this refers to pregnant and lactating offs between poverty and vulnerability. Programmes
women, to children, or to disadvantaged communities and policies to reduce vulnerability - to make more
such as Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes in secure - are not, one for one, the same as
India. More often, though, vulnerable is used simply programmes and policies to reduce poverty - to raise
incomes.
as a synonym for poor.
Vulnerability, though, is not the same as poverty. lt Care is also needed because vulnerability and security
means not lack or want, but defencelessness. start as 'our' concepts and are not necessarily 'theirs'.
insecurity, and exposure to risk, shocks and stress. To correct and modify them to fit local conditions
This contrast is clearer when different dimensions of requires decentralised analysis, encouraging, per-
deprivation are distinguished, for example, physical mitting, and acting on local concepts and priorities, as
weakness, isolation, poverty, and powerlessness as defined by poor people themselves. To date, such
well as vulnerability. Of these, physical weakness. analysis indicates that for them, reducing vulnerability
isolation and poverty are quite well recognised, and and enhancing security are recurrent concerns.
many programmes seek to alleviate them: powerless- Moreover, in recent years, while conditions have
ness is crucial but it is rare for direct action against it to improved for some people, hundreds of' millions of
be politically acceptable; and vulnerability has others have become more vulnerable: through greater
remained curiously neglected in analysis and policy. exposure to physical or political disaster or threat,
perhaps because of its confusion with poverty. Yet through higher costs of meeting contingencies such as
vulnerability, and its opposite, security, stand out as health expenditures, or through loss of assets through
recurrent concerns of poor people which professional individual or widespread disasters which have used up
definitions of poverty overlook. their reserves, leaving them less to cope with future
Vulnerability here refers to exposure to contingencies needs and crises.
and stress, and difficulty in coping with them. With concerns like these a workshop on vulnerability
Vulnerability has thus two sides: an external side of and coping was held at IDS in September 1988,
risks, shocks, and stress to which an individual or leading to this Bulletin. Some 20 people took part,
household is subject; and an internal side which is about half of them reporting on recent fieldwork. The
defencelessness, meaning a lack of means to cope focus was at the household level, and the aims were to
without damaging loss. Loss can take many forms try to understand better the nature of vulnerability,
becoming or being physically weaker, economically how poor people cope with risks, shocks and stress,
impoverished, socially dependent, humiliated or and what should he priorities for policy and research.
psychologically harmed.
Unlike poverty, vulnerability lacks a developed theory
Failure to distinguish vulnerability from poverty has and accepted indicators and methods of measurement.
bad effects. It blurs distinctions and sustains The articles in this Bulletin provide ideas and material
stereotypes of the amorphous and undifferentiated which should contribute towards developing these.
mass of the poor. Poverty is often defined by Most directly, the first article, by Jeremy Swift,
professionals for convenience of counting, in terms of presents a critique of parts of Amartya Sen's
flows of income or consumption. Anti-poverty entitlement theory, and then outlines a new analysis of
programmes are then designed to raise incomes or vulnerability and security based on a classification of
consumption and progress is assessed by measures of assets into investments, stores and claims. Investments
¡OS fjullcq,n. vol 20 no 2. Inst tute of Des elopntent Sitahes, Sussex
can be personal - in education, training and mortality being sickness. Finally. David Nabarro.
capabilities, or physical - in things. such as housing. Claudia Cassels and Mahesh Pant describe the impact
land shaping and the like: stores can be of food. of real on households of an integrated rural development
value, or of cash savings: and claims can be on other project in Nepal implemented over a five-year period.
individuals or on households, patrons. the government. and argue for support to the complex and well-
or the international comniunitv. In this perspective, developed strategies of the poorest in coping with
households have portfolios of investments, stores and crises and with the annual food gap, stressing access to
claims which change over seasons and longer periods. health, veterinary and credit services, and to off-farm
and have strategies lr using them to deal u ith work and markets.
different stresses, shocks and demands.
The next three articles, by Housainou Taal. Tony Beck Perspectives
and Judith l-leyer, illustrate the diversity of actions
and strategies of those who are vulnerable and poor. These articles are distinguished from much writing on
Taal. reporting on two villages in the Gambia, shows deprivation by being based on direct, personal field
how the compounded risks and stress of low and research, and the insights derived from patient and
uncertain rainfall, price fluctuations, variable access sensitive learning from those who are vulnerable and
to markets, and adverse seasonal conditions, are met poor. The findings often do not fit normal
by a repertoire of cropping patterns, crop storage. preconceptions. They qualify and complicate our view
reduced consumption, off-farm work, asset disposal of vulnerability and coping. They challenge stereotypes
and exploiting community and kinship ties. Beck, of the poor and of programmes to help them. Readers
presenting findings from fieldwork in rural West will identify their own perspectives among those
Bengal, highlights four types of activity which are presented. I shall pick out five which strike me as
important for the poorest, but little studied and often important, and which have implications for policy and
overlooked. These are the use of common property research.
resources, which includes gleaning, collection of fuel,
and gathering wild foods: changing the patterns of j. Poor People's Priorities
eating and food preparation; share-rearing of The concepts of poverty which most influence policy
livestock; and mutual support networks. Heyer are those of the rich, who assume that they know what
describes the behaviour of landless labourers in a poor people want and need. By emphasising income
village in a South Indian district, finding that although and consumption, they neglect other aspects. Nor
all were constrained in their options for investment, should vulnerability and security be given more
and none bought land, the asset strategies of two social attention than they deserve, case by case. Poor people
groups of the landless were strikingly different. have many criteria of well-being and deprivation. It is
the outsiders who simplify them down to one or two,
The next three papers are concerned with how or a few. In his re-survey after 20 years of two villages
vulnerability is linked with deprivation, ill-health, and
in Gujarat, N. S. Jodha (forthcoming) found that the
malnutrition. These are examined at the household
households whose real per caput incomes had declined
level and also within the household. From his by more than five per cent were, on average, better off
fieldwork on river blindness in Guinea (Conakry), on 37 of their own 38 criteria of well-being. Besides
Tim Evans describes the effects on households over
income and consumption, they were concerned with
time of the onset of adult disability through independence, mobility, security and self-respect.
progressive loss of sight, leading to extreme stress and
privation and to death and dispersal of other The view is common that the poorest 'live hand-to-
household members. From her study of very poor mouth'. This simplifies and distorts. Besides food they
households in an urban slum in Bangladesh, Jane have other priorities. Although their wants and needs
Pryer finds a strong association of severe child are usually complex, some of what they express as
malnutrition with the ill-health and inability to work priorities can be captured by the three words survival,
of breadwinning adults. Jane Corbett then examines security and self-respect. Significantly, Beck found, as
vulnerability to sickness, and the high economic costs did Jodha earlier, how much self-respect can matter to
to households of ill-health, including how sickness the poorest. Most of Beck's respondents said that loss
makes poor people poorer through delayed treatment, of respect was worse than hunger.
the costs of treatment, and loss of earnings.
Similarly, very poor people can show extreme tenacity
The last two articles assess programmes of intervention. in taking a long view and struggling through sacrifice
Alex de Waal bases a critique of famine food relief on to maintain the basis of their livelihood. De Waal
his 18 months of fieldwork in Darfur, Sudan (1985- found a woman in Darfur, on leaving her village in the
87), concluding that in that context food relief did famine, preserving millet seed for planting by mixing it
limit impoverishment, but that it was not significant in with sand to prevent her hungry children eating it. The
directly saving lives - the immediate cause of excess primary aim of famine victims in Darfur was to

2
preserve the basis of their future livelihood. Their 1984-85 famine does not correspond with normal
strategies, as de Waal points out, were 'anti- outsiders' expectations. They returned totheirvillages
destitution' rather than 'survival'. in order to cultivate, walking away from relief food to
re-establish the basis of their livelihoods. This can be
ii. Strategies: Complex and Diverse interpreted partly in terms of two local conditions: a
In the common stereotype. the lives of poor people are relative abundance of wild foods; and a low level of
simple and uniform. The reality is olten the opposite. past contact with government, including no previous
The coping strategies of those who are poor and experience with relief food supplies. Famine behaviour
deprived vary by region, community, social group. in Northern Ethiopia is different: there, people are
household, gender, age, season and time in history. As mo're inclined to move to roads in distress, having in
the case studies illustrate, most poor people have the past been supported b government in crises. Part
strategies which are complex and diverse. There are of the diversity of strategies derives thus from people's
some who seek a single source of support, like the past experience, and in turn affects how best to
chakkiliyans described by l-lever who for a time accept ini erven e.
being at the beck and call of one master. But most poor
people do not choose to put all their eggs in one iii. Changing Degrees of Vulnerability
basket. Rather they reduce risk, increase adaptability. In parts of the rural South. trends can be discerned
and seek a degree of autonomy, by developing and which make poor people more vulnerable. Tobe sure,
maintaining wider options, through the ability and where their incomes rise, they have the means to make
willingness of different household members to do investments, to build up stores, and to establish claims
different things in different places at different times. which make them less insecure. Where services
The range of means which poor rural people use for improve, isolation and vulnerability diminish. Where
subsistence, to maintain their livelihoods, and to cope tenure of land, water and trees is clearly vested in the
with contingencies, is impressive. Some are obvious poorer, they become more secure. But in some
and well known: cultivation, herding large and small countries and regions, especially in Sub-Saharan
stock, labouring in agriculture, off-farm economic Africa, declining real incomes imply increasing
activities, mortgaging and selling assets including vulnerability, and in addition, there and elsewhere,
future labour, begging, theft, and the splitting. four trends with negative effects can be found.
dispersal and migration of families. Others which are The first is a decline in patron-client obligations.
less visible, less well recognised and less studied, are These are disliked more and more by clients who find
mentioned in this Bulletin. They include eating less and them demeaning, and sought less and less by patrons,
worse, deferring medical treatment and expenditure, who prefer a cut-and-dried casual wage relationship to
exploiting common property resources (such as the more open-ended responsibilities to dependent clients.
wild foods of West Bengal and Darfur), and share- Patterns here are not uniform; the South India case
rearing. In addition, Taal, Beck, Evans and Pryer all presented by Heyer is a partial exception where
mention mutual support. In the Bangladesh slum patrons paid relatively high wages to those who
described by Pryer, some workers had a self-help accepted labour attachments.
sickness insurance, and mutual help was common The second trend is declining support from the
among poor slum women but little talked about. Most extended family. Not Just in urban areas, the tendency
of these activities are hard for outsiders to see, and is towards smaller consumption units, as noted by
easy to harm by policy interventions which are blind to Taal in the Gambia, and towards the nuclear
them. household. The weakening of wider family obligations
The investment strategies of the poor also vary. As then leaves households more exposed.
Heyer found, education can be an unproductive The third trend is rising costs of contingencies.
investment for some, with high opportunity costs from Weddings, brideprice and dowry have tended to rise,
children's earnings foregone. Nor did the poorest in except for the very poor and destitute who simply
her village buy land, partly because it would entail loss cannot afford them. Perhaps more seriously, medical
of mobility. Although their economic status was expenses have risen. Whereas in the past, only
similar, the chakkiliyans and the panadis showed very relatively inexpensive indigenous medicine was
different social and economic behaviour. More available, many poor people now have access to more
generally, poor people try to diversify their portfolio expensive allopathie treatment. A new form of
of assets, defined in Swift's inclusive sense to include impoverishing vulnerability is costly treatment for
investments, stores and claims, so that they can handle sickness which is not cured, as illustrated by the case
contingencies and bad times better and minimise history of Abdullah's family described by Pryer.
irreversible loss. The fourth trend is localised, but severe in areas of
De Waal's Darfur study also illustrates local diversity. recurrent famine such as the Sahel, where interventions
The behaviour of rural people in Darfur during the to provide support for the vulnerable tend to come

3
late. This is mortgage, sale or loss of tangible assets in providing health services and reducing suffering from
order to obtain food, culminating in loss of means of sickness sometimes serve to divert attention from the
livelihood and destitution. Many millions in Sub- economic aspects of ill-health, analysed by Corbett.
Saharan Africa. after the crisis of 1984-85 are more These include the plain facts that the poorer people
vulnerable than before, because they have used up or are, the more it matters to be able to work and earn,
lost most or all of their tangible assets, and have so the more they depend on physical work, and the higher
little opportunity to build them up again. In are the personal costs of physical disability.
consequence, it now requires a less severe ci-isis to At the same time, the bodies of the poorer are more
bring them to dependence on outside support. vulnerable than those of the less poor: they are more
These trends to greater vulnerability are not universal. exposed to sickness from insanitary, polluted and
But where they occur, they pose problems for policy. disease-ridden environments both at work and at
The question is whether and how the state and the home, and to accidents in their work; they are weaker,
international community should and can be open to with malnourishment and previous sickness tending to
claims which were formerly met by patrons, kin and reduce resistance to disease and to slow recovery; and
the disposal of tangible assets. the poorer have less access to prophylaxis or to timely
and effective treatment. Worse, in rural tropical
iv. Assets, Contingencies and Livelihoods conditions, these and other adverse factors usually
Contingencies impoverish in different ways. House- combine in a seasonal syndrome during the rains when
holds have different strategies and exploit or cash their high exposure to infection, hard work in cultivation,
assets in different combinations and sequences. food shortages, isolation, indebtedness and low access
Following Swift's separation of tangible and intangible to health facilities, occur together and interact. The
assets into investments, stores and claims, the
time when it most matters to be able to work is then
strategies of poor people can be seen as the also for many the time when they are physically
management of a complex portfolio of assets, each weakest and most at risk.
with a different profile. The criteria of poor people Among the physical factors which impoverish,
themselves deserve empirical investigation, but some accidents have been neglected, yet many of the poor
characteristics of tangible assets that appear important are exposed to disabling accidents. Rural activities
can be noted: on the positive side, divisibility, ease of such as quarrying, mining, fishing, hunting, building,
sale or mortgage, and good price including avoiding a brick-making, ploughing, and herding, and urban
distress sale and maintaining value in bad times; and activities - in factories, transport and construction -
on the negative side, bad effects of disposal of assets are often physically hazardous. The resulting
can include loss of production, diminished value of accidents are rarely counted and little considered in
labour power, and loss of self-respect. The strategies the literature, yet again and again, individual case
and sequences of coping with crises vary by household studies of destitute households reveal an accident as
and by local conditions, but Corbett's (1988) the event which impoverished - disabling an adult,
comparative analysis of studies of four famines found especially a breadwinner. At a sudden blow, the body,
that an early step taken by poor households when they the poor person's greatest and uninsured asset, is
see bad times coming is to change their diet and eat devalued or ruined. From being an asset, at one stroke
less, reflecting in part the priority they give to it becomes a liability that has to be fed, clothed,
preserving those assets which provide their means of housed, and treated. A livelihood is destroyéd, and a
livelihood. household made permanently poorer.
One view has been that while poor people have assets Medical costs, too, can impoverish. Where treatment
such as livestock, they should not receive support since is sought, as Corbett and Pryer show, it often entails
they can sell them and so remain independent. In heavy expenditure until the household exhausts the
contrast, it can be argued that past crisis interventions tangible assets it can sell or mortgage. Where the
have often come too late, after poor people have treatment fails but the sick person survives, this leaves
become poorer by disposing of productive assets, or the household destitute and with a dependent adult to
after they have taken debts or obligations which support. Once the household is assetless and
prejudice their livelihoods, and that future inter- chronically poor, the costs of any further treatment
ventions should come earlier. may be spread in only small amounts, which are then,
as Pryer found, greatly exceeded by the earnings
y. The Care of Adult Bodies foregone from work lost through disability.
The main asset of most poor people is their bodies. The importance to the whole household of the
General and measureable concepts like 'labour physical capacity of adults is highlighted by the studies
power', 'labour availability' and 'dependency ratio' of both Evans from Guinea, and Pryer from
blunt this sharp point, and miss the stark personal Bangladesh. Evans' model of the progression of river-
reality. The good ethical and humanitarian reasons for blindness in a husband shows appalling pressure

4
placed upon other members of the household, leading by the less poor. Nevertheless, action can fit better
to malnourished children and the early death of his when based on sensitive understanding of who are at
wife. Pryer's finding - that households where an risk, what they want and need, and how they cope.
adult earner had been sick during the previous month
were two and a half times more likely than others to To Support Diversification, Security and
have a severely malnourished child - carries the same Current Coping Strategies
implication. Much attention has been fbcused.
correctly, on the health and well-being of women and
Labour shortages, sources of off-farm incomes,
children, and nothing should detract from that. But mobility, new economic niches opened up by
ecdnomic growth, better marketing and prices for the
what we now see is that among the very poor the health
produce of small farmers, access to services, cheap
of a breadwinner, whether male or female, is critical
for the well-being of the rest of the household: and that
food, and a variety and abundance of common
property resources, are all examples of conditions in
preventing disability in breadwinners, or curing it. can
also prevent malnutrition in children. Indeed, the which poor people stand to do better through
diversification. Nabarro . Cassels and Pant stress the
cheapest way to prevent child malnutrition may often
basic importance of economic growth, and of a range
be to prevent adult sickness, and the most sustainable
way to overcome the malnutrition ofa child may often
of inputs. services and welfare provision that can be
used by households when they need them. Diversifi-
be to overcome the disability of an adult.
cation of what is provided permits diversification of
income sources and assets.
Implications for Policy Support for current coping strategies can take many
forms. In detail, much depends on local conditions
The most general policy implication of these and needs. When poor people's priorities, strategies
perspectives is to question our assumptions. In
and conditions are the starting point, the conclusions
Heyer's words, what seems obvious is often wrong'.
may not be conventional, Two examples arising from
The solution is again and again to enquire of the poor
fieldwork in Mali are improving communications to
what they want and need, and to strive to understand
areas where wild foods are abundant, and enabling
their conditions and how they cope. The answers will
poor people to buy food cheaper in bulk (pers. Comm.
point both to interventions which enable them to be
Susanna Davies).
better off in their own terms, and, often, to a change of
priorities and programmes.
To Monitor Vulnerability and Act on Asset
For poor people, there are trade-offs between Indicators
vulnerability and poverty, or, to put it positively,
between security and income. Some programmes, like Early warning systems are now many. As Swift points
the Integrated Rural Development Programme in out, low assets would be good indicators of
India, seek to raise incomes but at the same time entail vulnerability. The question is whether it is feasible to
a loan and indebtedness. But poor people all over the monitor the assets and exposure of vulnerable
world are reluctant to take debts which increase their communities and groups so that action can be
vulnerability. One implication is, therefore, that triggered early enough to prevent or minimise further
government programmes which, whatever their impoverishment at times of stress.
benefits, make poor people indebted or in other ways
more vulnerable, should be treated with caution. Such To Put Floors under the Vulnerable
vulnerability can be reduced through group loans, and The Maharashtra Employment Guarantee Scheme
through insurance which covers the debt if the asset is provides a model of how, given the administrative
lost. Reducing vulnerability can be as important an capability to respond, poor people can be empowered
objective as reducing poverty. to demand and receive work and remuneration when
More specific policy implications are presented in they need it. Food-for-work schemes require less
articles in this Bulletin. Without summarising these, sustained administration, and can have the same effect
some which stand out are: - putting a floor under the poor to enable them to
survive a bad time without having to become poorer.
j. To Investigate and Treat Each Group and Et seems more cost-effective, besides more humane, to
Situation in its Own Right use such means to reduce vulnerability and prevent
This Bulletin makes the point again and again that the impoverishment than, once people are poorer or
conditions and strategies of poor and vulnerable destitute, to try to enable them to recover.
people vary. There are practical limits to tailoring Guaranteed markets at good prices for whatever poor
policy and action to individual persons, households or people sell at bad times are another form of floor. The
groups, and programmes targetted to the poorer are items sold vary locally, including livestock, poultry,
notorious for missing their targets and being captured firewood, charcoal and other tree products, and

5
 ewellery. Where people are going to sell these anvwas disabled and die more slowly than with Al DS. and so
maintaining the prices thcs fetch can only help those are dependent for longer, but there are also strong
who have R) sell. similarities. With concentrations of acute AIDS, the
Cheap and accessible food is another form of floor. progression of decline described by Evans for a
Whatever their defects, programmes stich as Andhra household would atiect whole communities, with
Pradesh's cheap rice help the poorest. providing they rising dependency ratios, increased child labour (and
have access to buying it. Assuring basic food at low withdrawal from schools), decreasing areas under
prices is one of the safest ways of mitigating povert\ cubic ation. greater vulnerability to other diseases.
and reducing vulnerability. declining capacity for mutual support. and out-
migration by older children. In such conditions, the
y. To Improve Failback Food priority will be not just to care for the sick but to
sustain the survivors, who will include the very old and
The neglect of famine crops and wild foods in the very young.
agricultural research promises scope for quick gains
through the international transfer of germplasm. and
vii. Implications for Research
for big gains from breeding. The need for a non-toxic
variety of the fall back food kessari dal (Luí/oros Policy for research is one key to better practice.
cativos) is mentioned by Beck. In this ease, a low toxin Besides the articles which follow recent empirical
variety bred in Canada is being transferred to Ethiopia research [e.g. especially Rahmato 19871 has shed new
where other research is also going on. There are light on vulnerability and coping. But much also
probably many similar opportunities, unexploited remains to be known and understood. Some research
because famine and faliback foods have not until priorities are indicated in contributions to this
recently been considered important or of professional Bulletin. Many more could be suggested. Among those
interest. that merit mention are:
Developing simple and sure methods for enabling
y. To Stress even more the Provision of Effective poor people to analyse their conditions and
Health Services Free or at Low Cost identify their priorities:
Health services which are cheap or free, and accessible developing and testing indicators of vulnerability.
and effective, emerge from studies in this Bulletin as These might include households' net assets, labour
more important than ever. They have a greater role in power, dependency ratios, access to food, and
reducing vulnerability and limiting impoverishment exposure to external stress and shocks;
than has been recognised. Adult health, especially the
health of breadwinners, is more important than many assessing the modes, costs and benefits of
have supposed for the nutrition and health of children. prevention rather than cure - of reducing
Many considerations bear on the new fashion for fees vulnerability and preventing impoverishment
and cost recovery as part of structural adjustment. But compared with enabling recovery:
one point to stress in the debate is that charges for assessing and comparing vulnerability and assets
health services threaten to delay or deny treatment within households, between groups of people, and
precisely to those who most need it, and to deter, hurt between regions and continents, and how these
and impoverish those who are most vulnerable. change over time, with special attention to a)
De Waal's Darfur study draws attention to the groups and areas where vulnerability increases,
importance of protecting the health, especially of and b) impoverishing costs of medical treatment;
children, in famines. Relief food can have a vital part assessing and comparing coping strategies under
to play in reducing suffering and in preventing stress, including sequences of response, thresholds
impoverishment, depending on local conditions; but between types of response, and the value and use of
de Waal's conclusion that in the ¡984-85 famine in different sorts of assets;
Darfur, the cause of excess mortality was sickness, not the effects of civil disorder (war, raiding, refugees,
lack of food, points to the importance ofimmunisation, theft etc.) on vulnerability and coping strategies.
of clean water, and of enabling people to stay where This is a gap in this Bulletin, and would include
they are instead of migrating to disease-prone effects on both a) the economic environment,
concentrations in camps and around towns. including local markets and the quantity, quality,
and reliability of supply, and cost of food and other
vi. In Epidemics, to Help not only Sick Adults, but basic goods for purchase or barter, and b) household
also their Dependents strategies, including farming practices, food
In microcosm, Evans' study of river blindness in storage and intra household availability and
Guinea gives hints and clues for scenarios for AIDS in division of labour;
rural areas, as its acute phase becomes prevalent. relief and development policy, and the fit and
River blindness differs in that those afflicted become effects of alternative relief policies and practices in

6
 different conditions and on different groups. This conlidence with which in the past we have combined
includes the relative importance for survival. ignorance with error. They may speculate too on how
limiting suffering, and sustaining livelihoods, of wrong we continue io he.
food relief, cash relief, cheap food including hulk The lesson for the future s to enquire and question.
purchase. food-for-work, fodder relief' for live- douhi ng what we thin k we know, a id learning from
stock. employment guarantee schemes, small and with those who arc s ulnerable and poor. as
loans, purchase of tangible assets poor people sell contributors to i his Bullet/i, have done; and to do this,
at times of stress, health and medical interveotions. not once, not in one local tv. and not for one group
and ways of strengthening and supporting people's onl y, bu t again and again, in each pl a ce. and fo r ea ch
present strategies for coping; sort of person. For t hat is t he surest path to better
the effects of adult disability and death on understanding. and to action that will better fit and
household viability, strategies and behaviour. This serve the diversity (il conditions and people and their
could build on the work of Evans and Fryer, and changing priorities and needs.
the longitudinal studies of Nabarro, Casscls and
Pant, and would be of special relevance in regions
where the acute phase of AIDS becomes endemic.
References
('o, bett. .1.. I 9. '1 imlile and household coping strategies'
Conclusion ii or/ri I)r'rr'Iopoir;iI sol (r lo 9. pp 1099-I 112

The conclusion has to be humility. Through the new .1 od iii. I Ort lico mi ng. 'S scia I science research on ru rai

insights from their fieldwork and analysis. the ch ange: some gaps (a loot note i o dehai e on ru rai pov ertv)'.
contributors to this Bulletin show how ignorant. and ii) Fra nah Bardhan. lorihcom ing. Rotai Leono,uie ('hange
sometimes how wrong. we in the development in South 4sui: .i/,'ihoi/o/ogi' of tleasui'enie,u
professions have been. Through local study and Rahmato. Dessalegn. 1987. 'Peasant survival strategies', in
individual cases, they also show how varied is that Angela Penrose (ed), Rei'o,u/ i/ii l'amine: an evaminahion
universe of vulnerability and poverty for which we of t/ti' issues hc/u;is/ f/mime in Ethiopia. Internai ional
seek simple explanations and single solutions. Most Institute for Relief and Development. Food for the Hungry
who read these articles will feel unease at the International, Geneva