This was the first issue of Sustaining Livelihoods in Southern Africa, a joint initiative of Khanya-managing rural change cc, PLAAS of the University of the Western Cape, and CARE. We aim with this to stimulate debate and sharing of experience about livelihoods in the region. In this first issue we introduced readers to the sustainable livelihood (SL) approaches. Included are summaries of relevant documents/publications including examples of the different ways that different organisations operationalise SL, including CARE, DFID OXFAM, and Khanya-managing rural change. Some of these documents are not recent. However they provide clear background information about the evolution of the SL approach. SL programmes/projects that are underway and forthcoming events such as workshops are highlighted. We invite readers to make contributions of short articles or comments for future editions.