A Nuanced Analysis on Livelihood Resilience of Vietnamese Upland Households: An Intersectional Lens of Ethnicity and Gender

Abstract

“How to gauge the resilience of a household’s livelihood?” and “who is resilience for?”; as the world’s volatility increases, especially with unprecedented changes in climate, interest in these questions continues to rise. While many previous conventional attempts to measure resilience at the household level have largely employed the “objective” top-down framework relying mostly on a macro observed socioeconomic dataset, this present work seeks to estimate household resilience through an alternative bottom-up method, called the “subjective” resilience approach. With specific reference to the context of two ethnic Pa Cô and Tà Ôi minorities living in upland areas of Central Vietnam, this study aims to (1) measure household resilience to climate change by scoring five livelihood capitals, financial, human, social, physical, and natural, by applying the Household Livelihood Resilience (HLR) framework; and (2) provide an intersectional lens of ethnicity and gender in relation to the household’s livelihood resilience. To achieve these goals, in addition to two focus group discussions and eleven in-depth interviews, an empirical survey of 236 households was conducted between September to December 2021. Our findings indicated that there are differences in observed livelihood resilience among the ethnic minority groups and, within that, between gender (sex, status) factors. Ethnic women and poor households have a lower resilience than other groups in society due to their lower human capital and limited access to public and financial resources, which are to some degree linked to the difference in the gender division of labor and the cultural norms of patriarch traditions. This study highlights the importance of considering gender and poverty in resilience-building efforts and offers insights for future programs in multi-ethnic developing countries such as Vietnam.