Rural livelihoods in Somaliland are changing. For generations, livestock production and small-scale farming have been central to rural household economies. However, recurrent droughts, uncertain rainfall, environmental degradation, and limited economic opportunities are making dependence on a single livelihood increasingly difficult.

This reality motivated our recently published study, “Livelihood Diversification and Its Determinants among Rural Households in the Maroodijeex Region, Somaliland,” in Discover Sustainability.

We wanted to answer a straightforward but important question: How are rural households diversifying their livelihoods, and what factors are associated with their ability to do so?

Why we undertook this study

Research in Somaliland has increasingly documented climate variability, drought, food insecurity, and household adaptation. Yet these challenges are closely interconnected. When rainfall becomes unreliable, livestock productivity declines, or crop production fails, rural households must find alternative ways to maintain income and meet basic needs.

Livelihood diversification can provide one such strategy. Households may combine livestock and crop production with wage employment, small businesses, remittances, or other activities rather than relying on a single income source.

However, empirical evidence on the structure and extent of livelihood diversification in rural Somaliland remains limited. Our study therefore brought livelihood structure, diversification levels, and associated household factors together within a single analytical framework.

How we conducted the research

The study included 377 rural households across Abaarso, Darasalaam, Dacar Budhuq, Baligubadle, and Salahlay in the Maroodijeex Region. We adopted a mixed-methods approach, combining a household survey with key informant interviews, focus group discussions, and field observations.

Rather than simply classifying households as diversified or not diversified, we used the Simpson Diversification Index (SDI). This captures both the number of household income sources and their relative contributions to total income. We also applied MM-estimator robust regression to examine factors associated with diversification while reducing the influence of extreme and high-leverage observations.

Conducting household research in rural Somaliland presented challenges, particularly the absence of complete household sampling lists. The 2024 National Electoral Commission voter registration records therefore provided the most comprehensive available administrative basis for proportional village selection. We recognize the potential sampling limitations associated with this approach and explicitly account for them when interpreting the findings.

What did we discover?

One of the most striking findings was the changing composition of rural household income.

Off-farm and non-farm activities accounted for 63% of total household income, compared with 37% from crop and livestock production. Wage labour contributed the largest share at 34.8%, followed by livestock production at 27.7%, business and trade at 23.0%, and crop farming at 9.3%.

However, this shift should not automatically be interpreted as economic progress.

Our qualitative findings indicated that diversification was often driven by necessity rather than opportunity. Recurrent droughts, unreliable agricultural production, and limited livelihood options were pushing households toward wage labour, petty trade, and other activities. Diversification can therefore represent resilience, but it can also reflect underlying vulnerability.

Diversification itself remained relatively limited. The mean SDI was 0.275, while 39.3% of households remained specialized in a single income source. Only 34.2% were classified as highly diversified.

What enables households to diversify?

Our findings highlight the importance of productive assets.

Access to irrigation showed the largest positive association with livelihood diversification. Landholding size and livestock ownership were also positively associated with diversification, while household-head age showed a smaller positive association.

This reveals an important challenge: households that may need diversification most may also lack the productive resources required to pursue additional livelihood opportunities.

Why does this research matter?

Our findings suggest that promoting livelihood diversification requires more than encouraging households to establish additional income-generating activities. Diversification requires a productive base.

Improving access to irrigation, land productivity, livestock assets, and viable economic opportunities can strengthen households’ capacity to build more resilient livelihood portfolios. This is particularly important in drought-prone areas where traditional farming and pastoral systems face increasing environmental pressure.

The study also challenges the assumption that increasing non-farm income necessarily represents successful rural economic transformation. In vulnerable settings, movement toward wage labour and other activities may instead represent constrained adaptation to declining agricultural reliability.

More broadly, this research contributes empirical evidence from Somaliland, a context that remains underrepresented in international livelihood and climate-resilience research. We hope the findings contribute to wider discussions about how rural households in drought-prone regions can move beyond short-term coping toward more sustainable and resilient livelihoods.

Read the full article:
https://doi.org/10.1007/s43621-026-03842-1