Die Rolle von Institutionen auf der lokalen Ebene für die Förderung nachhaltiger Lebensgrundlagen in ländlichen Räumen Äthiopiens

这一研究项目旨在调查埃塞俄比亚边缘地区的家庭生计战略。它侧重于在选定的研究领域普遍存在的体制安排，这些安排调停资源应得权利和家庭能力，为实现可持续生计铺平道路。这项研究的基本假设基于这样一种假设，即埃塞俄比亚农村的自然资源退化和贫困问题从根本上是体制失灵的问题(产权界定不充分和治理问题)，限制了农村家庭有效地将其资产(自然、人力、物质、金融/经济、社会/政治资本)捐赠用于加强可持续生计的能力。预计结果将提高政策制定者和包括非政府组织在内的发展机构对微观和宏观政策、应享权利和农村生计可持续性之间的联系的认识。实证研究将采用探索性定性评价方法、调查方法和分析叙事方法相结合的创新方法。这将使对农村家庭可获得的生计资产进行透彻的分析评估，并了解围绕地方一级机构、所涉行为者及其战略的“现实生活游戏”。正是这些制度安排塑造了农村家庭的谋生机会。因此，该研究项目一方面将有助于加深对边缘地区农村生计的了解，以及由此产生的个人、家庭和社区因应内部和外部体制安排而采取的应对和适应战略。另一方面，它将有助于新制度经济学和可持续生计框架中的理论和概念辩论。

This research project aims at investigating households' livelihood strategies in marginal areas at Ethiopia. It focuses on institutional arrangements that prevail in selected study areas which mediate resource entitlements and household capabilities to pave the way towards sustainable livelihoods. The basic hypothesis of this research is based on the assumption that the problems of natural resource degradation and poverty in rural Ethiopia are fundamentally problems of institutional failures (both in terms of inadequately defined property rights and problems of governance) that have constrained the capabilities of rural households to effectivily channel their asset (natural, human, physical, financial/economic, sozial/political capital) endowments towards enhancing sustainable livelihoods. The results are expected to sensitise policy makers and development agents, including NGOs, about the linkage between micro and macro policies, entitlements and sustainability of rural livelihoods. The empirical study will employ an innovative approach combining explorative qualitative appraisal methods with survey approaches and the methodology of analytical narratives. This will allow a thorough analytical assessment of the livelihood assets available to rural households, and of understanding 'real life games' around local-level institutions, the involved actors and their strategies. It is these institutional arrangements which shape the livelihood opportunities of rural households. The research project will thus contribute, on the one hand, to deepening the understanding of rural livelihoods in marginal areas and the resulting coping and adaptive strategies of individuals, households and communities, in response to internal and external instititional arrangements. On the other hand, it will contribute to the theoretical and conceptual debates in new institutional economics and the sustainable livelihoods framework.