STEPS Seminar, 16 May 2011 by Lucrezia Tincani, SOAS.

1. Adaptable Livelihoods: wild foods, resilience and food security in rural Burkina Faso by Lucrezia Tincani School of Oriental and African Studies University of London, UK. lucrezia.tincani@soas.ac.uk

2. DRY SEASON RAINY SEASON How does seasonality affect the food security of the household? What factors determine the adaptive capacity of the household over the seasons?

3. theory–> methods –> results –> implications Sustainable Livelihoods FW

4. theory–> methods –> results –> implications Panarchy Theory (ecology) Three properties determine the resilience of the system : Diversity of livelihood strategiesdetermines the number of alternative options Adaptive capacity of livelihood strategies determines how reactive the system is to disturbances, based on whether individual strategies adapt a lot or a little Connectivity determines the flexibility of the system: if strategies are highly connected, all strategies collapse as soon as one is affected (domino effect) Holling, C. S. (2001) Understanding the complexity of economic, ecological, and social systems. Ecosystems4: 390-405.

5. theory–> methods –> results –> implications Fieldwork: Oct. 2009 - Dec. 2010 2 provinces in Burkina Faso 4 villages/province 2 family compounds/village 3 food security levels TOTAL = 23 households = 97 adults 613mm/yr rainfall 921mm/yr rainfall N.B. village selection was based on the project villages of TREEAID

6. theory–> methods –> results –> implications Methodology Quantitative cooking surveys %food* from home production (granary) %food purchased %food collected from forest areas (‘wild foods’) %food received from friends and relatives >> every 2 months (6 survey rounds) = 2x 3day recall Triangulation for every adult in household Asset inventory (livestock & food reserves) Income, expenditure Qualitative individual interviews on motivations, cultural norms… * food = main cooked ingredient of a meal (no snacking)

7. theory–> methods –> results –> implications Research questions How does seasonality affect the food security of the household? What factors determine the adaptive capacity of the household over the seasons? How successful is Panarchy Theory at capturing this adaptive capacity?

8. theory–> methods –> results –> implications Data analysis Data entry and coding: Excel Statistical analysis (non-parametric): STATA v.11 Definition of variables: Diversity = diversity (Simpson’s diversity index) of food sources Adaptive capacity = yearly st.dev. of food source contribution Connectivity = yearly co-variance of food sources

9. theory–> methods –> results –> implications Results (median data for households)

10. theory–> methods –> results –> implications Box plot of the diversity index, plotted over the six seasons, for each field site, indicating the median (white line), the inter-quartile range (grey box), the 95% confidence interval (hooked lines) and any outliers (grey dots).

11. theory–> methods –> results –> implications Box plot of the diversity index, plotted over the six seasons, for Northern households with one or two wives.

12. Scatter plot of the median annual diversity index and the annual adaptation index (yearly st.dev.) , plotted for the Northern and Southern households.

13. Scatter plot of the median annual diversity index and the annual covariance index , plotted for the Northern and Southern households.

14. Ouedraogo, H. (2 wives) Seasonal specialisation Redundancy Bilgo, A. & son (3 wives in total)

17. Many thanks to… KIRAKOYA Aoua BONKOUNGOU Aminata lucrezia.tincani@soas.ac.uk

18. Number of women per hh Number of men per hh AVERAGE = 1.5 men + 2.2 women per household