An Empirical Assessment of Households Livelihood Vulnerability: The Case of Rural Ghana

This study seeks to extend the analytical utility of the Livelihood Vulnerability Index (LVI). Four major contributions were made in this respect; (1) the study introduced institutional influence into the framework, (2) LVI was estimated for each household and results visually presented, making it possible to understand the spatial distribution, (3) it investigated spatial variation of households' livelihood vulnerability and lastly, (4) results were analysed based on gender (household headship). Mixed methods, including personal observation, structured and unstructured interviews and questionnaire survey (N=110) were utilized in collecting empirical data. Results show high households livelihood vulnerability, with institutional influence and socio-demographic profile recording the highest and lowest scores respectively. In terms of headship, male-headed households were likely to be more vulnerable than their female counterparts, although the difference were found not statistically significant (0.617 against 0.580). Spatial variation analysis shows differences in spatial distribution of livelihood vulnerability, albeit insignificant differences, indicating that social groups are likely to vary, hence, erroneous to assume homogeneity among study populations. Results clearly suggest rethinking of institutional roles in livelihood activities and mainstreaming of gender into rural development and livelihood policies.