Wealth, Activity, and Strategy Insights

The Wealth, Activity, and Strategy Insights menu contains administrative screens for adding and managing Wealth Group Characteristic Values, Livelihood Activities, and Livelihood Strategies.

Wealth Group Characteristic Values

Wealth Groups are groups within a specific community categorized by a wealth category such as Very poor, Poor, and Better off.

Wealth Group Characteristics are potential attributes of a Wealth Group. These are the items in column A of the “WB” tab of a BSS. This includes:

• Assets like bicycles, mobile phones, fishing gear, and cashew trees.

• Counts of assets like number died, number born, land area owned and cultivated.

• Other community or household descriptors like number of children in school, main source of cash income, school levels commonly attained, and household size.

Wealth Group Characteristic Values are the values assigned to each of the Wealth Characteristics for a Wealth Group in a BSS. These values may be numerical or words/short phrases.

Wealth Group Characteristic Values have eight fields:

• Wealth Group: Each value must be associated with a specific Wealth Group within a Baseline. The Wealth Group can be assigned for an entire Baseline or a specific community within a Baseline.

• Wealth Characteristic: Pick an item from the menu of Wealth Group Characteristics or create a new Wealth Group Characteristic from this page.

• Reference Type: This indicates where the value comes from - Community Interviews (Form 3), Wealth Group Interviews (Form 4), or the Baseline Summary.

• Product: If applicable, an associated product can be selected.

• Unit of Measure: If applicable, a unit of measure can be selected.

• Value: This is the value associated with the Wealth Group Characteristic. For example, “55,” “true,” “yes,” or “primary.” This should not include a unit of measure.

• Min_value: The minimum value of the possible range for this value, found in the summary columns of the WB worksheet. The minimum value is the value in the from column.

• Max_value: The maximum value of the possible range for this value, found in the summary columns of the WB worksheet. The maximum value is the value in the to column.

Livelihood Strategy

A Livelihood Strategy is one of a set of options used by households in a Livelihood Zone to obtain food and cash income and acquire the items needed to live. They are categorized by type for ease of comparison. Livelihood Strategy Types include things like milk production, crop production, food purchase, relief aid, and wild food gathering. See a full list.

Each Livelihood Zone has a set of possible Livelihood Strategies. When one of those Strategies is used by a specific Wealth Group in the Livelihood Zone, it is a Livelihood Activity.

A Livelihood Strategy is not necessarily used by all Wealth Groups within a Livelihood Zone.

Livelihood Strategies have the following fields:

• Livelihood Zone Baseline: The associated Baseline.

• Strategy Type: The type of Livelihood Strategy, such as crop production or wild food gathering.

• Season: The season in which the Livelihood Strategy occurs.

• Product: The product associated with the Livelihood Strategy. For example, if the strategy type is meat production, the associated product might be cattle.

• Unit of Measure: The unit used to measure production from this Livelihood Strategy.

• Currency: The currency of income or expenditure from this Livelihood Strategy.

• Additional Identifier: Additional text identifying the Livelihood Strategy.

Note that the name of the Livelihood Strategy is a combination of the Livelihood Zone Baseline, Strategy type, Season, and Product or additional identifier. These pieces of information are essential for identifying a strategy.

Livelihood Activity

Households in a Wealth Group undertake Livelihood Activities from the list of possible Livelihood Strategies to produce food or income or by making expenditures.

A Livelihood Activity contains the outputs of a Livelihood Strategy employed by one of the following:

• A Wealth Group in a Community in the reference year.

• A Wealth Group representing the Baseline as a whole in the reference year (the Baseline scenario).

• A Wealth Group representing the Baseline as a whole in response to a shock (the Response scenario).

Livelihood Activities contain 14 fields divided into 4 sections:

• General information

  • Wealth Group:

  • Livelihood Strategy: All Livelihood Activities are associated with at least one Livelihood Strategy Type (e.g., milk production, crop production).

  • Scenario: The scenario in which the outputs of this Livelihood Activity apply (e.g. baseline or response).

  • Extra attributes: Any additional attributes from the BSS for this Livelihood Activity. This includes the name of local measures and the number of kcals per unit for the associated product.

• Quantity: Indicates the number that was produced, purchased, consumed, sold, and/or used in another way. Note that if the associated Livelihood Strategy contains a product and unit of measure, then those items should not be included here.

• Kcals:

  • Total Kcals Consumed: Total kcals consumed by a household in the reference year from this Livelihood Activity

  • Percentage: Percentage of annual household kcal requirement provided by this Livelihood Activity

• Economy

  • Price: Price per unit. Note that if the associated Livelihood Strategy contains a product and unit of measure then those items should not be included here.

  • Income: Total annual household income derived from this Livelihood Activity.

  • Expenditure: Total annual household expenditures on this Livelihood Activity.

  • Activity done by: The group mainly responsible for carrying out this Livelihood Activity (e.g., men, women, boy, girls, children, or all)

The following Strategy Types have additional sections:

• Milk production

  • Number of milking animals

  • Average number of days of lactation: Number of days of lactation for the season indicated in the associated Livelihood Strategy.

  • Average daily milk production per animal

  • Skim or whole milk consumed: Indicates if milk consumed by those who are milking the cows is whole or skim milk.

  • Skim or whole milk sold or used for other purposes: Indicates if milk sold or used for other purposes is skim or whole milk.

• Meat production

  • Number of animals slaughtered

  • Carcass weight per animal

• Food purchase, Other purchase, and Relief

  • Relief/Purchase size: Multiple of the unit of measure received each time

  • Purchases per month/Number of times per month the item is received

  • Months per year: Number of months in a year that the item is received

  • Times per year: Number of times in a year that the item is received

• Payment in Kind and Other cash income

  • Payment product (included only for Payment in Kind): Product provided as payment, typically a staple food item in exchange for labor. This will differ from the product associated with the Livelihood Strategy, which is the product produced by the labor.

  • Payment per time: Amount of item received each time the labor is performed

  • People per household: Number of household members who perform the labor

  • Labor per month: Number of times the labor is performed per month.

  • Months per year: Number of months in a year that the labor is performed

  • Times per year: Number of times in a year that the labor is performed

Key Parameter

By default a Key Parameter is a Livelihood Strategy that contributes more than 5% of food + cash for two or more Wealth Groups, or more than 10% for a single Wealth Group.

If the Strategy meets this threshold for the Baseline then it is a Production Key Parameter, and the quantity produced or available should be monitored. It the Strategy meets this threshold for the Response scenario then it is a Price Key Parameter and the price per unit should be monitored. If the Strategy meets the threshold in both the Baseline and Response scenarios then both quantity and price should be monitored.

Note that the threshold is only a default and it is possible to have Key Parameters that don't meet the threshold. For example, a Strategy that provides the majority of income for VP or P households during the lean season may not reach 10% of annual income, but still be considered a Key Parameter.

The Key Parameter admin screen is used to indicate if price and/or quantity should be monitored. Key Parameters contain only three fields:

• Livelihood Strategy: A Livelihood Strategy that has been marked as a Key Parameter.

• Monitor Quality: This box is checked if the quantity produced or available should be monitored.

• Monitor Price: This box is checked if the price per unit should be monitored.