A “livelihood” refers to the capabilities, assets and strategies that people use to make a living. That is, to achieve food security and income security through a variety of productive economic activities.

For Oxfam Canada, “sustainable livelihoods” are those that allow people to cope with and recover from shocks, maintain quality of life over time, and provide the same or better opportunities for all, now and in the future.

Of all the basic human rights protected by international law, Oxfam’s livelihoods programme seeks to help realise poor peoples’ rights to a sustainable livelihood, including closely related rights to a safe environment, housing, clean water and sufficient food.

Our analysis and experience of working directly with those people and groups who enjoy the fewest rights and/or gross human rights violations have led Oxfam to believe that:

• All human beings have economic rights as part of their fundamental human rights;
• Power imbalances in markets – at all levels – are a leading contributor to the denial of economic rights – reversing such imbalances can lift millions out of poverty;
• Achieving market development and greater power in markets for poor people requires organisation by people themselves as well as redistribution and sound market regulation and management on the part of governments and other organisations;
• International trade can be a powerful engine for poverty reduction, but international trade rules are currently loaded against the poor and the environment; changes in national policies are also imperative and often a pre-requisite for more equitable international trade;
• Economies must be managed to ensure that growth is a means to economic and environmental equity for current and future generations rather than an end in and of itself.

Oxfam Canada's  livelihoods program strategy is based on a holistic analysis of poverty and reflects in its implementation on the other principles that underlie a sustainable livelihoods approach - people-centred, responsive and participatory, multi-level, conducted in partnership and sustainable. In pursuit of this strategy, Oxfam Canada:

• Directly and indirectly promotes the development and regulation of local and global markets to promote equitable and sustainable growth, gender equity and to reduce people’s vulnerability to crises;
• Ensures that women, in particular, and small producers, gain greater access and control over an appropriate mix of assets and resources with which to pursue their livelihood strategies, and that the unpaid caring, household and community work – done mainly by women – is recognised and invested in as a critical livelihood resource;
• Works to strengthen organisations and coalitions of producers, labourers, employees, trade unions and women’s organisations in order that they are able to develop practical economic alternatives, as well as influence and hold to account their governments, corporate actors, and international institutions;
• Improves information flow and knowledge creation about successful strategies and experiences relating to the achievement of sustainable livelihoods around the world.

For greater impact and learning, Oxfam is currently focusing its livelihoods programme on the following two strategic themes:

1. Pro-poor agricultural development, focusing especially on the power of poor producers, especially women in local, national and international markets.
2. Increasing the power of women workers, especially those working in global trading chains, to increase security and improve employment and working conditions.