Towards livelihoods security : livelihoods opportunities and challenges in Embui, Kenya

Abstract

Given the livelihoods challenges which face many rural communities, understanding a community’s livelihoods dynamics and opportunities is one major step to developing workable options to address the challenges. This study has focused on one rural community and used the five determinants of the Sustainable Livelihoods Approach to describe the livelihoods situation in Embui sub-location in Machakos County, Kenya. Residents of Embui have had to deal with the fact that traditional production systems are not sufficient to provide for their livelihoods needs. The community and continues to be challenged by limited capital for diversifying income sources, low skills and limited social and economic services. This study recommends support to marketing of locally produced artifacts, improved access to capital and provision of water for irrigation along with extension services as the key areas of support to improve the living standards of the residents of Embui