Int. J. Sustainable Agricultural Management and Informatics, Vol. 3, No. 2, 2017 91 Copyright © 2017 Inderscience Enterprises Ltd. Designing a sustainable livelihoods model with an emphasis on drought management Seyedeh Fatemeh Moazaeni, Maryam Omidi Najafabadi* and Seyed Jamal Farajollah Hosseini Science and Research Branch, Islamic Azad University, Tehran, Iran Email: smoazzeni1365@yahoo.com Email: m.omidi@srbiau.ac.ir Email: ehsan100us@yahoo.com *Corresponding author Abstract: The present study has used the ‘sustainable livelihoods framework’ to identify the antecedents of drought management. The main purpose of the study is to investigate the influence of factors of the sustainable livelihood model. The data were collected from a survey given to experts at Agricultural Ministry of Iran. The survey received 162 effective responses based on proportional stratified sampling. Based on the findings from the confirmative factor analysis, the order of effect of latent variables was physical capital (infrastructure) (89%), human capital (85%), political capital (80%), financial capital (79%) and social capital (54%). According to the results, some suggestions are presented. Keywords: sustainable rural livelihood; drought management; livelihoods assets. Reference to this paper should be made as follows: Moazaeni, S.F., Najafabadi, M.O. and Hosseini, S.J.F. (2017) ‘Designing a sustainable livelihoods model with an emphasis on drought management’, Int. J. Sustainable Agricultural Management and Informatics, Vol. 3, No. 2, pp.91–102. Biographical notes: Seyedeh Fatemeh Moazaeni has completed her Master at the Islamic Azad University. She has several academic publications. Maryam Omidi Najafabadi is an Associate Professor in Agricultural Extension and Education at the Islamic Azad University. Her publications and research interest focus primarily on organic farming, sustainable and green marketing. She has published in a number of journals, including the Paddy, Journal of Forestry Research, and Journal of Agricultural and Environmental Ethics. Seyed Jamal Farajollah Hosseini is an Associate Professor in Agricultural Extension and Education at the Islamic Azad University. He has published many papers in several journals.