Scoones, I.Wolmer, W.2016-04-192016-04-192003IDS Bulletin 34(3): 112-1150265-50121650_Politics_of_Livelihood_Opportunity.pdfhttp://hdl.handle.net/10919/66247This brief article draws together some of the conclusions of the Sustainable Livelihoods in Southern Africa programme. This research has sought to move beyond simple technical/managerial "good governance" solutions to sketch the contours of a realistic, but politically sophisticated, sustainable livelihoods approach. The key policy challenges include: instituting real redistributive reforms, particularly of land; redressing imbalances in market entry and engagement; making decentralisation really work to poor people's advantage; and realising rights increasingly enshrined in progressive legislative frameworks. These face formidable obstacles - and a sustainable livelihoods approach must be rooted in an understanding of the historical legacies and contemporary political/administrative and economic contexts in southern Africa. Such an endeavour would, for example, support mobilisation, lobbying, civic organisation and new alliances around a pluralist and activist politics for livelihood improvement and create links to party-based democratic politics; build on and transform forms of patrimonialism and establish strategic linkages between elites and the poor, and abandon the artificial and misleading separation of public/private, state/non-state in both analysis and prescription.application/pdfen-USIn CopyrightRural developmentSustainable developmentLivelihoodsQuality of lifeNatural resource managementCommunity developmentLocal governanceEcosystem GovernanceTechnical reportCopyright 2003 by Institute of Development Studies