International Food Policy Research Institute
sustainable solutions for ending hunger and poverty
Honduras is one of the poorest countries in the Western Hemisphere. Poverty is particularly rampant in the rural hillside areas which traditionally have received relatively little public investment. Given the dependency of large parts of the hillside population on agriculture, the declining trend in agricultural productivity and concomitant increase in natural resource degradation need to be reversed. But since the government and its development partners have insufficient understanding about what drives sustainable rural productivity growth, they have little guidance on how to prioritize expenditures and develop strategic directions for the rural hillside areas.
This report provides critical knowledge about livelihood strategies employed in Honduras’ hillside areas, opportunities that exist, and potential priorities for public policies and investment strategies that lead to improved household incomes and land management decisions. The analyses in this report are based on extensive survey data for 376 farm households, 1066 parcels and 2143 individual plots, located in 95 rural hillside villages in Honduras.
In addition to providing empirical information useful to policymakers and other stakeholders in Honduras, this report makes a methodological contribution to the largely qualitative livelihood strategies literature by developing a quantitative application of the livelihoods approach. While assessing causes and effects of household livelihood strategies and land management decisions in an integrated framework, it shows how this framework can be used as a policy targeting tool, thus integrating the livelihood strategies literature and the policy targeting literature. Besides generating methodological and empirical advances in the livelihoods strategies framework, the marriage of these two literatures offers a practical policy development and evaluation tool for policy makers.
Please RSVP to 202-862-8107 or Email: s.hill-lee@cgiar.org.