Sustainable livelihoods and political capital: Arguments and evidence from decentralisation and natural resource management in India

This report is a contribution to the debate that focuses particularly on one dimension which is Sustainable Livelihoods as an analytical framework. The potential of SL was examined by applying the framework for analysis in a research project on decentralised natural resource management in India commissioned by the Overseas Development Institute and funded by DFID. The research study explores the interface between administrative decentralisation in the form of watershed management programmes and democratic decentralisation in the form of Panchayati Raj. There are two guiding research questions:

1. What is the comparative capacity of the two institutional systems to support the development of sustainable livelihoods?
2. What principles should determine the institutional mandates of each system, and in which areas should operational boundaries be established?

These questions were pursued using the SL framework at the village level in two districts Dehradun (Uttar Pradesh) and Rayagada (Orissa). In each village, the five capital assets specified in the SL framework were examined in dynamic interrelation to each other and in relation to the vulnerability and institutional context.