New Delhi, April 2019: Echoing the national concern to enhance livelihood security and sustainability by scaling up institutional mechanisms that reduce the vulnerability of communities and confirm Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the Department of Policy Studies, TERI School of Advanced Studies (TERI SAS) concluded a high-level conference titled “SDGs and Sustainable Livelihood: Opportunities and Challenges in India”. Keynote speakers and panellists at the Conference highlighted that despite having an edge in the competitive global market, India was still lagging in generating sustainable livelihood and the new upcoming government needs to prioritise and ensure successful implementation of sustainable development goals (SDGs), which will eventually lead to secure sustainable livelihood for the citizens. The Conference and deliberations will act as a prelude for policymakers, especially since a new government will be formed soon, giving a vision to raise the scale of employability, and to look at innovative policies that can support livelihood projects specifically aimed at sustainable development in urban and rural India.

The idea of sustainable livelihood was conceptualised in the late 1990s by DFID UK, and the concept was largely derived from the participatory approaches. Since then, the concept has become extremely popular among researchers, policymakers and development practitioners. It says that a livelihood is sustainable when it can cope with and recover from stress and shocks and maintain or enhance its capabilities and assets both now and in the future, while not undermining the natural resource base.

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