In 2012, researchers from the Secure Livelihoods Research Consortium (SLRC) surveyed almost 10,000 people across five countries: the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Uganda. Three years later, in 2015, research teams went back to the same towns, villages and communities to track down and interview the very same people once more. They were successful in 86% of cases: more than 8,400 of the original respondents were found and re-interviewed, thus enabling us to directly observe individual and household change over this three-year period.

This synthesis briefing – one of two in this series – outlines the background and findings of the SLRC longitudinal panel survey. It also provides a number of recommendations for policy-makers and practitioners working on issues of service-delivery, livelihoods and state-legitimacy in fragile and conflict-affected situations.