Applying Adaptive Management to Livelihoods in Emergency Settings: Challenges and Opportunities

Adaptive management is a way of working that starts with an assumption of uncertainty around how to address a particular challenge. This brief invites an alternative perspective and provides an overview of how adaptive management can be applied to livelihoods and other market-related work in emergency settings. The foundation of this brief is a literature review of over 85 documents and resources on adaptive management in humanitarian settings, which was completed under the USAID Bureau for Humanitarian Assistance (BHA)-funded IDEAL Activity in 2020. It is accompanied by Resources to Strengthen Adaptive Management for Livelihoods Programming in Emergency Settings, which focuses on how existing tools can be used for livelihoods and markets work in emergencies.