This site uses cookies, as explained in our terms of use. If you consent, please close this message and continue to use this site.
Our themes
We focus on how poverty, gender, vulnerability, social inequality, and livelihood insecurity in the HKH mountains can be better understood and addressed.
The livelihoods theme contributes to resilient livelihoods and prosperous mountain communities in the HKH through robust socio-cultural and economic analysis, knowledge generation, and targeted publications and communications materials.
Amina Maharjan
Theme Leader, Livelihoods
Our focus
The livelihoods theme provides critical analytical and development expertise through a mountain livelihoods lens.
The region’s rural people live in remote and environmentally harsh areas with poor social and physical infrastructures and unfavourable market conditions. Traditional subsistence smallholder farming and migratory pastoral livelihoods in these mountain regions face increasing challenges from the impacts of climate change, human-animal conflicts, increased natural disasters, and the degradation of forests and rangelands. In addition, poor infrastructure, limited access to water and energy, poor market linkages, and limited know-how on the development of marketable products and post-harvest management threaten the sustainability of mountain agriculture and traditional rural livelihoods.
Managing such transformations requires innovative approaches and strategies for sustainable livelihoods. Given their relatively small and scattered populations, mountain communities often go unheard in political and policy discourse. Despite significant progress, technological advancement, and communications developments in lowland areas, economic growth in the region has not translated into inclusive livelihood opportunities for the rural poor in the HKH. Poverty, vulnerability, and inequality are widespread, and access to resources and services and gainful employment opportunities are limited.
Our work focuses on:
Events around the HKH
Featured publication
Documenting processes helps people to understand what is involved. In this publication, we document the process associated with the allo value chain, including stories of private sector actors with a social orientation and how they can bring about social change through common facility establishment, group formation, linking with local opportunities and finding international markets. This document also sheds light on how communities, government, research organizations, and the private sector can work in harmony and bring transformative change to rural livelihoods.
News and features
Stay up to date on what’s happening around the HKH with our most recent publications and find out how you can help by subscribing to our mailing list.
Mountain people live in a rugged but also fragile landscape. The resilience is remarkable even if their environments don't provide for robust economic opportunities.
We address gender issues in all of our interventions – through policy advocacy, research, capacity building, and partnerships.
Other themes
Our themes focus on discipline-specific knowledge. Working in partnerships, theme-based staff develop and customize methodologies and tools, and carry out innovative applied research to address the complex issues in the HKH.
