New Angle: Nepal Journal of Social Science and Public Policy
Chief Editor: Dr. Dil B. Khatri
Editors: Dr. Divya Gupta, Dr. Anushiya Shrestha and Ms Rachana Upadhyaya
Managing editor: Ms Gyanu Maskey
Special Issue on Understanding Changing Rural Livelihoods, Vulnerability and COVID-19 Pandemic
The last couple of decades have witnessed transformation in the rural livelihoods manifested in the shift from traditional to commercial agriculture and growing off-farm employment activities such as (foreign labor) migration, small business, wage laboring etc. This change in means of livelihood has been catalysed by socio-economic and political change in Nepal, particularly through market expansion, access to basic infrastructure such as road, electricity, information and communication technologies and improvement in education.
However, both farm and non-farm-based sources of livelihoods are ridden with multiple challenges. On one hand, there is a wide range of factors such as size of land, shortage of labor, water, and damage of crops by wild animals that is making farming challenging and is pushing rural people towards exploring new sources of livelihoods. On the other hand, globalisation has opened up opportunities for rural people to join the international labour market, though with precarious working conditions.
COVID-19 and associated disease control measures have brought unprecedented disruptions to the lives of people around the world. In the rural Himalayan region too, where the population is already vulnerable to the shocks related to climate change, strict lockdown imposed to control the spread of the COVID-19 disease caused loss of income due to diminished income-generating opportunities, disruption in the social services, broken supply chain, and more. The shock of COVID-19 experienced in tandem with other existing stressors exacerbated the pre-existing vulnerabilities of the people in the region. While there is a broad understanding that COVID-19 has deepened social, political, and economic inequities on multiple fronts, much is yet to be understood about the longer-term impacts of pandemic in the rural Himalayan region. Therefore, it is pertinent to ask how COVID-19 impacts rural livelihoods vulnerability in the Himalayan region.
This special issue of New Angle – Understanding the Changing Rural Livelihoods, Vulnerability and COVID-19 Pandemic focuses on building and further deepening the understanding about the short-term and long-term impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on rural livelihoods and the responses adopted at the local level to cope with the crisis. To that end, we invite papers including but not limited to the following themes.
- Changing dynamics of rural livelihood strategies and practices
- Understanding vulnerability in the rural settings
- Impacts of COVID-19 in the rural livelihoods
- Policy and institutional aspects of COVID-19 containment
- People’s responses to COVID-19 related situations
- Changing dynamics of migration and remittance in the face of COVID-19
- Local responses to the COVID-19 pandemic and lessons
- Local innovations for adaptation in the new normal
Deadline for submission: Send your abstract (250-300 words) of the manuscript by August 31 2021 and full paper by December 31 2021 to the following email address: gyanu@sias-southasia.org or maskeygyanu@gmail.com. Read more…
