Building and enhancing livelihood resilience in most rural African communities
is becoming a complex policy issue since the principal characteristics of most of
these communities in contemporary times have become their increasingly
differentiated nature and high socio-economic and environmental uncertainty
due to multiple and reinforcing stresses and shocks. A major problem has been
the glaring gulf between national policies and realities on the ground with a
uniform approach being taken in the interpretation and implementation of
general development and livelihoods policies on the ground in most countries.
Yet the standard one-size fits-all policy approach is not possible as situations
have become increasingly dynamic and conditions continue to differ from
community to community. Utilising examples from the mid Zambezi Valley area
of Mbire district in Zimbabwe, this paper argues that national policy frameworks
should allow ample room for innovation, experimentation and knowledge
exchange in local livelihoods. In the same vein, policies and policymakers
should exhibit a profound appreciation of the complexity of contemporary,
dynamically vulnerable environments and livelihoods therein through increased
local stakeholder participation in policy interpretation and implementation as
well as in reconceptualising ‘sustainability’ and viewing it through local lenses