Many VAWG and HIV/AIDS initiatives already integrate some element of livelihoods programming into their responses given that the majority of African women and girls live in contexts of economic marginalisation. The reality is that this is often done ineffectively- focusing on small-scale, un-lucrative enterprises for women while not considering questions of dignity and choice, access to markets or barriers to work and trade, building job skills beyond petty trading, and using livelihoods spaces for activism and emotional healing.
AIR is currently developing programming around transformative livelihoods. This will push the discussion beyond the limited economic frame of ‘income generation’ towards thinking and practice around about how livelihoods interventions can contribute to emotional well-being/mental health, to social transformation and justice for women.
