Exploring sustainable livelihoods approaches in relation to two interventions in Tanzania

Whilst sustainable livelihoods ‘thinking’ is potentially valuable in advancing our understanding of the complexity and socially embedded nature of people's lives, sustainable livelihoods frameworks and principles are too eager to codify this complexity and to produce toolboxes and techniques to change the internal management of development interventions. Drawing on research in Tanzania, this paper offers an analysis of two interventions that apply aspects of sustainable livelihoods approaches (SLA). Whilst both interventions demonstrate much good practice, both are fundamentally limited in their potential for sustainable impact. This paper demonstrates the importance of the external context within which an intervention exists and explores some of the limitations faced by development agencies in trying to ‘manage’ sustainability.