In recent years the population of the Hindu Kush Himalayas (HKH) has been confronted with rapid social, economic, demographic, and political changes. In addition, the region is particularly vulnerable to climate change. However, there is a scarcity of cohesive information on the state of the environment and on the socio-economic situation of the approximately 210 million people who reside in the HKH. Specifically, data on livelihood vulnerability are lacking. As part of the Himalaya Climate Change Adaptation Programme, the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development, in consultation with regional and international partners, has developed the Multidimensional Livelihood Vulnerability Index (MLVI), a measure to explore and describe livelihood vulnerability to climatic, environmental, and socio-economic change in the HKH region. This paper documents how the MLVI was developed and demonstrates the utility of this approach by using primary household survey data of 16 selected districts of three sub-basins in the HKH region. The analysis gives important clues about differences in the intensity and composition of multidimensional livelihood vulnerability across these locations that should be useful to decision makers to identify areas of intervention and guide their measures to reduce vulnerability.

The Standard Employment Relationship (SER) in industrialised countries is associated with strong protection for employees who fulfil its criteria but tends to neglect those who do not. Although the theoretical concept of SER has had repercussions around the world, its global empirical incidence and the variation of regulatory patterns associated with it have not been scrutinised so far. Comparative quantitative research in labour law has mainly focused on the overall level of employment protection in the countries of the Northern Hemisphere. Against this background, we ask how legal segmentation in labour law, that is, the exclusion from and gradation in employment protection which seems to be connected with the SER, can be conceptualised and measured in a global perspective. Drawing on leximetrics, a method to measure and quantify norms, we make use of and extend existing data sets such as the Centre for Business Research Labour Regulation Index (CBR-LRI) and Employment Protection Legislation Index (EPLex) in order to grasp the nature of legal segmentation. We identify three main functions of individual employment law in the protection/segmentation context: the standard-setting (S), the privileging (P) and the equalising (E) functions. We develop the SPE-employment law model on the assumption that the three functions are mutually independent in normative terms. The SPE typology offers a genuinely new perspective for comparative labour regulation research, making it possible to see the differentiation of patterns of legal segmentation and their path dependencies in 115 countries. First findings on a global scale show that in 2013 no fundamental difference between the levels of regulation in the Global South and North can be found. Moreover, familiar patterns can be observed such as a tendency to stable and low protection levels in liberal welfare states, and a tendency to universalist types of regulation in former socialist countries.

Cohesive information is lacking when it comes to the socioeconomic status of more than 210 million people residing in the greater Himalayan region. The reasons for socioeconomic disparities between mountain and non-mountain areas, as well as within the mountain system, have not yet been fully explored. To address this gap, the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD) has carried out a study in order to identify and understand the specificity of mountain poverty. Empirical findings based on national livelihood survey data show that poverty is higher in mountain areas and has different causes when compared to other geographic areas in the same country.RÉ SUMÉ Il manque d'informations concernant le statut socioéconomique des 210 million de personnes résidant dans la région himalayenne. Les raisons expliquant ce manque d'information concernant les inégalités présentes dans les régions montagneuses ainsi bien que les disparités entre les régions montagneuses et non montagneuses ne sont toujours pas explorées. Pour combler cette lacune de recherche, Le centre international pour le développement intégré des montagnes (ICIMOD) a mené une étude afin d'identifier et de comprendre la spécificité de la pauvreté montagneuse. La recherche empirique, s'appuyant sur les données nationales, démontre que la pauvreté est plus élevée dans les régions montagneuses et qu'elle est causée par des facteurs différents que ceux présentent dans les autres régions géographiques dans le pays.

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