Livelihoods Explorer Glossary

Key terms used in the Livelihoods Explorer are defined below. For additional information, view the full FEWS NET Glossary.

Some of these definitions are adapted from the Practitioner’s Guide to HEA.

Term	Definition
Activity	See Livelihood Activity
Baseline	The quantified analysis of sources of food and income and of expenditure for households in each Wealth Group over a defined reference period.
Baseline Storage Sheet (BSS)	A spreadsheet that enables field teams to enter, check and analyze individual interview data in the field, and to analyze and summarize field data during the interim and final data analysis sessions.
Calendar	See Seasonal Calendar
Characteristics	See Wealth Group Characteristics
Household	A group of people, each with different abilities and needs, who live together most of the time and contribute to a common economy, and share the food and other income from this.
Household economy	The sum of ways in which a household acquires its income, its savings and asset holdings, and by which it meets its food and non-food needs.
Key parameters	A main food or income source in a Livelihood Zone, providing over 5% of 2,100 kcal/person/day for at least two wealth groups or over 10% for one wealth group, or serving as a major source of food or income in the lean season.
Livelihood Activity	An activity undertaken by households in a Wealth Group that produces food or income or requires expenditure. When a Livelihood Strategy is used by a specific Wealth Group in a Livelihood Zone, it is a Livelihood Activity. Example Livelihood Strategy Type: Food Purchase Livelihood Strategy: The purchase of husked rice in Livelihood Zone HT02 (2014) Livelihood Activity: The amount of husked rice purchased by the very poor Wealth Group in Livelihood Zone HT02 (2014)
Livelihood Protection Threshold	The total income required to sustain local livelihoods. This means total expenditure to: (i) ensure basic survival (i.e. all items covered in the survival threshold) (ii) maintain access to basic services e.g. health and education (iii) sustain livelihoods in the medium to longer term e.g. purchase of seeds or veterinary drugs, and (iv) achieve a minimum locally acceptable standard of living e.g. purchase of basic clothing or coffee/tea.
Livelihood Strategy	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. 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. Example Livelihood Strategy Type: Food Purchase Livelihood Strategy: The purchase of husked rice in Livelihood Zone HT02 (2014) Livelihood Activity: The amount of husked rice purchased by the very poor Wealth Group in Livelihood Zone HT02 (2014)
Livelihood Strategy Type	A way in which Livelihood Strategies are categorized for ease of comparison. They include: Milk Production Butter Production Meat Production Livestock Sale Other Livestock Production Crop Production Food Purchase Payment in Kind Relief, Gift or Other Food Hunting Fishing Wild Food Gathering Other Cash Income Other Purchase
Livelihood Zones	Geographical areas within which people share broadly the same patterns of access to food and income, and have the same access to markets.
Primary Livelihood System	The dominant patterns of livelihoods identified during the development of a Livelihood Zone map. Descriptions of the Primary Livelihood Systems found in LEX are available on the Search and Filter page.
Reference period or Reference year	A defined period (typically 12 months) to which the Baseline information refers, needed in order to analyze how changes in the future (in crop production, for example) can be defined in relation to the Baseline.
Season	In LEX, Seasonal Calendars contain two types of seasons: Climatological seasons: Seasons determined on a meteorological level such as wet, dry, gu, and deyr. Seasonal livelihood activities: Seasons that correspond to livelihood activities such as planting, harvesting, milking, births, migration, or staple food prices peak.
Seasonal Calendar	A graphical presentation of the months in which food and cash crop production and key food and income acquisition strategies take place, also showing key seasonal periods such as the rains, periods of peak illness and the hunger season.
Strategy	See Livelihood Activity and Livelihood Strategy Type
Stress periods	Stress periods in LEX represent periods of time when income is particularly low or expenditure is particularly high. This can include things like peak staple food prices, disease peaks, and festival seasons.
Survival Threshold	The total food and cash income required to cover the food and non-food items necessary for survival in the short term. It includes (i) 100% of minimum food energy needs; (ii) the costs associated with food preparation and consumption; and (iii) where applicable, the cost of water for human consumption.
Wealth Group Characteristic	A productive characteristic of a Wealth Group, such as number of children at school, type of housing, or owning a computer. It would not include something like owning a television.
Wealth Group	A group of households within the same community who share similar capacities to exploit the different food and income options within a particular Livelihood Zone. People within a Livelihood Zone are grouped together using local definitions of wealth and the quantification of their assets. The level of division depends on how the community view their society, and the purpose of the analysis. Learn more.