Drivers of Livelihood Strategies: Evidence from Mexico’s Indigenous Rural Households

Abstract

Mexico has the largest Indigenous population in the Americas and the most native languages in the region. These Indigenous peoples face a similar set of structural barriers to achieving more sustainable livelihoods, including criminal violence and huge hurdles to accumulating assets, in addition to their poverty. The purpose of this paper is to identify the main drivers of sustainable livelihood strategies in Indigenous households in rural Mexico. Using cluster analysis and a multinomial logit model based on a mixed approach that employs a traditional perspective of development alongside the sustainable livelihoods approach (SLA), our results suggest that a significant proportion of Indigenous households engage in livelihoods linked to the environment and nature, while only a small segment of households has been able to accumulate assets and adopt more profitable non-farming livelihoods. Our findings also reveal how the creation of human capital, the provision of basic services, and support to mitigate the effects of extreme weather all contribute to reducing risk for Indigenous households. The findings suggest that public policies must target these specific issues in order to solve structural problems that limit the efficacy with which Indigenous households use their family assets.