Nuanced assessment of livelihood resilience through the intersectional lens of gender and ethnicity: Evidence from small-scale farming communities in the upland regions of Vietnam

International humanitarian and development organizations are increasingly placing emphasis on resilience-building; however, there is not always full consideration of differences in perspectives and outcomes by ethnicity and gender. Based on empirical evidence from ethnic minorities in the Northwest Mountainous Regions (NMRs) of Vietnam, the current work illustrates how perceptions of livelihood resilience in the context of climate change differ between gender and ethnic groups, especially considering the intersections of those factors. To achieve a nuanced analysis, we examined if and how demographic factors differentially associate with the perception of household livelihood resilience. The household livelihood capital scores from 240 household interviews were derived using the Household Livelihood Resilience Approach (HLRA). HLRA measures the subjective resilience at household level using surveys as opposed to the conventional objective approaches using only observable socioeconomic variables and data. We found that ethnicity has a relatively more substantial role than gender in determining the household livelihood capitals supporting livelihood resilience in the study region, but within that, there are also gender differences. Among different ethnic groups, having a wage-paying job, education, agricultural training, social membership, access to road and irrigation systems, and crop diversity are the main factors contributing to better household livelihood capital scores. Women reported generally lower resilience scores than men did but the average scores varied significantly across four ethnic groups. Based on the evidence from the lens of demographic characteristics, we concluded that resilience-building programs should not only draw on objective resilience measurements but also consider varied self-assessments to reflect the fact that communities are heterogeneous. This could help to ensure greater inclusivity to alleviate poverty and increase livelihood resilience in a developing multi-ethnic country like Vietnam.