Ranking Rural Livelihood Capitals in the Central District of Dena county: the Application of Analytic Network Process (ANP)

Sustainable Livelihoods Approach emerged in the 1980s as a new analytical approach in the field of rural development in which the rural livelihood capitals form the basis of the villager's empowerment and their ability to get involved in their own individual and social destiny. This study aimed to answer the question that how much the importance of each type of livelihood capitals is in the Central District of Dena County in an attempt to improve rural development interventions. The statistical population of the study consisted of local experts of Central District of Dena County that involved village managers and village council members out of which 15 individuals were purposefully selected based on their accessibility. Data were collected through a questionnaire which was developed to conduct pairwise comparisons of livelihood capitals according to the ANP method. Super Decisions software was used in order to rank livelihood capitals and their sub-indexes. The results showed that from among the five types of capital, physical capital was at the first priority. In addition, human, natural and social capitals were at the second, third and fourth priorities, respectively. Finally, financial capital was in the last priority. Therefore, in planning and investing to achieve sustainable livelihood in rural areas, physical and human capital should be taken into consideration more than any other capitals.