a guide to taking stock of natural resources management ...pdf.usaid.gov/pdf_docs/pbaaf755.pdfa...

A GUIDE TO TAKING STOCK OF NATURAL RESOURCES MANAGEMENTImpacts and Lessons

October 2013

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

We would like to recognize the following people as the main authors and editors of

version 1.0 of the stocktaking guide:

John Boos Tom Erdmann

Megan Hill Chris Kosnik

Brent McCusker Mike McGahuey Roberta Talmage

We would also like to recognize the following people who were part of the Malawi Field-

Testing Teams:

David Chalmers Maggie Chibwana

James Chimphamba Madalitso Chisale

Jeremy Keeton Daulos Mauambeta

Mark Misomali Blessings Mwale

A Guide to Taking Stock of Natural Resource Management Practices and Impacts


Table of Contents

Foreword Page iii

Acronyms Page v

Glossary Page v

Introduction Page 1

Defining Stocktaking Why Stocktaking is Important Stocktaking Applications Overview of the Stocktaking Process A Success Story: Regreening in the Sahel

Phase One: Prepare Page 7

Why the Prepare Phase is Important Desired Outputs and Products of the Prepare Phase A Success Story Step-by-Step Guide to the Prepare Phase References and Additional Information

Phase Two: Discover Page 16

Why the Discover Phase is Important Desired Outputs and Products of the Discover Phase Using Change Mapping to Discover why Farmers Adopted Natural Regeneration Step-by-Step Guide to the Discover Phase References and Additional Information

Phase Three:Analyze Page 27

Why the Analyze Phase is Important Desired Outputs and Products of the Analyze Phase A Success Story Step-by-Step Guide to the Analyze Phase References and Additional Information

Page i


Phase Four:Apply Page 34

Why the Apply Phase is Important Desired Outputs and Products of the Apply Phase A Success Story Step-by-Step Guide to the Apply Phase References and Additional Information

Tools Page 41

Prepare Checklist Lines of Inquiry for Field Visits Team Member Profiles, Roles, and Responsibilities Sample Itinerary for a Stocktaking Exercise Guidelines and Sample Agenda for the Initial Team Meeting Interview Record Discover Checklist Fist to Five Consensus Building How to Create a Change Map Analyze Checklist Livelihood Framework Apply Checklist Outline of a Stocktaking Report Sample Agenda for 1:1 Meetings with Key Stakeholders Communication Plan

Annex: Geography and Stocktaking Page 70

Evaluation and Feedback Page 74

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Page iii


FOREWORD

Purpose of the Guide The stocktaking guide was created to capture knowledge and best practices in discovering and disseminating innovative and effective natural resource management practices. It is a living document.

Who Should Use the Guide First and foremost, the guide has been written for members of a stocktaking team. It is assumed that each member of the stocktaking team brings expertise and a unique perspective to the stocktaking exercise. The guide gives the team common processes and mechanisms for leveraging the experiences of all team members. In the past, the information from stocktaking exercises has been used to design projects, programs, and strategies; reform policies; and provide information about the impacts produced by investments in natural resources management and agriculture.

How to Use the Guide As you prepare for the stocktaking exercise, review the manual, taking time to explore more deeply the resources and links provided in the guide.Then bring the guide with you into the field and use the step-by-step instructions and tools to prepare, discover, analyze, and apply new learnings.

Printing Instructions File is a PDF Color or black and white Double-sided Left-side bound A4 paper

Note: If using 8 1/2 x 11 paper, change the default paper size in your printer settings before printing..


ACRONYMS

ANR assisted natural regeneration

CBNRM community-based natural resource management

CBO community-based organization

CILSS Permanent Committee to Combat Desertification in the Sahel (Comit permanent inter-tat de lutte contre la Scheresse au Sahel)

CoP community of practice

FMNR farmer-managed natural regeneration

GIS geographic information system

GPS global positioning system

GTZ German Organization for Technical Cooperation (Deutsche Gesellschaft fr Technische Zusammenarbeit)

NGO non-governmental organization

NRM natural resource management

ORID objective, reflective, interpretative, and decisional

PRA participatory rural appraisal

SWOT strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats

UNCCD United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification

USAID United States Agency for International Development

USGS United States Geological Survey

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GLOSSARY

Appreciative Inquiry An approach to organizational and community development that focuses on identifying and leveraging strengths and assets.

Landscape (seascape) A large body of land (or water) that often contains multiple villages or towns; generally the size of a district or province.

Location An area that is larger than a specific site; will often encompass multiple sites; generally, a hamlet, village, or town.

Participatory rural appraisal A rapid appraisal technique where basic information is collected in consultation with local people.

Proof of concept Demonstration whose purpose is to verify that certain theories or concepts have the potential for real-world application.

Practice A way of doing, an action or process that is repetitive and/or structured, such that it becomes an identifiable technique.

Site Specific fields or other points where a natural resource management practice is being observed and where the practitioner is being interviewed.

Theory of change A hypothesis or supposition regarding how change occurs or is occurring. In the context of this guide, refers to the testing or adoption of new or innovative natural resource management practices. Usually formulated as an if/then statement.

IntroductionPrepare

Discover

Analyze

Apply

Introduction

Defining Stocktaking Stocktaking is a process to identify and assess impacts and lessons from natural resource management (NRM)1 initiatives2 . Its purpose is to use the findings from that assessment to inform project, program, or strategy designs and policy dialogue, and to publicize impacts from NRM investments. Stocktaking involves field visits to sites where NRM initiatives have had an impact on livelihoods, ecological services, biodiversity, and the like.These visits are typically carried out by multidisciplinary teams that systematically gather information on the NRM practices, the benefits produced by the practices, and the barriers removed and conditions established that contributed to the adoption of the practices.The team analyzes the findings to discern lessons that can be used to design and implement initiatives and to disseminate the outcomes of NRM initiatives. Recognizing that many project impacts and lessons occur after a project has closed, stocktaking often takes place in the years following the End-of-Project report. To fully capture the perspective of the producer who adopted the practice and achieved the impact(s), stocktaking uses a non-judgmental approach.

Why Stocktaking is Important People may wish to use stocktaking for at least two reasons: (1) improving the design and implementation of projects, programs, and strategies, and (2) increasing peoples awareness of the significant impacts of NRM initiatives on people and the environment. In designing projects, designers logically seek evidence-based information about the inputs and outputs that are both necessary and sufficient to achieve a projects objectives. By taking stock of previous initiatives that had made progress in achieving NRM objectives and working backwards, practitioners can identify the activities that helped achieve the objective and the pathways that linked inputs and outputs with the objective.

NRM suffers from several disadvantages when trying to publicize its impacts. Firstly, many impacts occur after the conventional End-of-Project evaluation, by which time the donor has often ceased to pay attention to a projects impacts and lessons. Secondly, impacts are sometimes unanticipated and not captured by performance indicators. Finally, unlike the health and education sectors where the clients come to central sites (clinics and schools) where information can be routinely collected, NRM impacts often occur in isolated sites that are rarely visited. Stocktaking deliberately looks for impacts that would otherwise never be discovered (see the Sahel case).

1In the stocktaking approach, NRM covers agriculture, forestry, fishing, range management, and other fields where people manage resources in pursuit of livelihoods, ecological services, and the like. 2Initiatives can mean a project, program, or strategy funded by a donor or host country, or actions taken by a producer (e.g., a farmer, herder, fisher, or hunter) or group of producers.

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Overview of the Stocktaking Process

Stocktaking Process Map

Refine and clarify NRM practice Conduct preliminary research Select sites Form multi-disciplinary team Develop detailed schedule Select key areas of inquiry Determine methodologies and tools Examine photographic evidence Pre-test tools

Observe and conduct interviews Organize and process data as a team Refine lines of inquiry

Characterize knowledge, attitudes and practices Determine bio-physical and socio-economic characteristics Identify similarities and discrepancies Identify changes over time Determine potential for scalability Determine contributions to livelihoods Summarize findings and conclusions Convene validation workshop

Determine who to engage and decision points to influence Produce written publications Disseminate findings using social and mass media Convene workshops and conferences Organize meetings with key stakeholders, decisions makers and opinion leaders Identify sites for peer-to-

peer exchanges

Prepare

Discover

Analyze

Apply

The four phases of stocktaking are:

Prepare Selecting NRM practices that will be assessed and preparing for the fieldwork Discover Identifying, describing, and assessing NRM initiatives in the field Analyze Discerning how and why a particular improved NRM practice was adopted, identifying its impacts, and assessing its potential for scaling up

Apply Disseminating the results and findings of the stocktaking exercise.

Each phase of the stocktaking process is described in the following sections with step-by-step guidelines, tips for success, references, and sources of additional information.

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IntroductionPrepare

Discover

Analyze

Apply

A Success Story: Regreening in the Sahel For the last several years, much has been written about regreening in the Sahel, specifically about the millions of hectares of farmland benefiting from farmer- managed natural regeneration (FMNR) a form of agroforestryand from water-harvesting practices.The story has been reported by major newspapers and periodicals in Europe, the United States (New York Times, Boston Globe, Time, The New

Yorker, National Geographic, National Public Radio, and the Public Broadcasting Service) and Africa.The Secretariat of the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) has promoted regreening through side events and plenary

presentations and by honoring farmer-innovators. Senior decision makers in the subregion

have included it in national food security discussions. In addition, the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) made it a cornerstone of its Sahel Resilience Strategy.

However, 10 years ago few had heard of regreening.What happened to increase peoples awareness of its impacts on food security and resilience and to make it a major building block for agriculture and NRM initiatives in the Sahel?

In 2005 a multidisciplinary team conducted a pilot study of promising land management practices in the Tahoua,Tillabri, and Maradi regions of Niger.Team members included researchers from the University of Niamey (Niger), the Free University of the Netherlands, the United States Geological Survey (USGS), USAIDs FRAME project, and the German development agency, GTZ. The team included agricultural economists, agronomists, pastoralists, soil scientists, geographers, and remote-sensing specialists.This pilot, co-funded by USAID, the Swiss Development Cooperation, and the Netherlands Development Cooperation, was the first of a series of studies conducted across the Sahel, which eventually became the Sahel Studies.The Sahel Studies were conducted under the auspices of the Permanent Inter-State Committee to Combat Desertification in the Sahel (CILSS), a high-level body representing 13 Sahelian states. Its mandate is to invest in food security research and combat the effects of drought and desertification in order to achieve a new ecological equilibrium in the Sahel. The Sahel Studies were aimed at updating assessments conducted in the 1980s that had identified and characterized NRM and agricultural practices that had proven effective in fighting the effects of the droughts of the 1970s and 1980s. During the Sahel Study pilot, the team found that tens of thousands of hectares of hardpan lands in the Tahoua region of Niger had been converted to productive crop fields through the use of zais (planting pits) and other water-harvesting practices.The reclamation

FMNR was initiated in the early 1980s by Serving-in-Mission, a faith-based organization in Maradi, Niger.

Map of Western Sahel 2013 Felix Koenig/Wikimedia Commons

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was so successful that markets were created for lands that had been considered useless for everything except as low-value range.The team also found that farmers in the Maradi region had increased productivity by treating large areas of sandy soils with FMNR.With a couple of notable exceptions, the practices had been extended through non-governmental organizations (NGOs), not large projects. Consequently, no single entity tracked the spread of water harvesting and FMNR over time and space, and the pilot team could only estimate the extent to which the practices had been extended over the intervening 20 years. In 2005, it was estimated that water harvesting in Tahoua was taking place on tens of thousands of hectares and that FMNR may have covered a million hectares.

Following the pilot study, Nigerien researchers from the University of Niamey conducted a series of in-depth studies assessing the impacts of the adoption of FMNR, water harvesting, and other practices, and identifying the actions and strategies developed to overcome barriers to the diffusion of those practices.They found, for example, that womens producer groups that had converted useless hardpan lands to high-potential grain fields had to fight to keep the transformed lands from being taken away by men.They reported on farmers and herderswho had been in bloody conflict with each other over common resourcescoming together to negotiate rules for managing such resources.These rules created win-win situations that not only improved the livelihoods of both groups but also significantly reduced the number and severity of conflicts.They found that villages with FMNR fared relatively well following the drought in 2004/05.They also reported on how changes in the application of the Nigerien Forest Code accelerated the spread of FMNR.Taking stock of peoples investment in water harvesting and FMNR not only provided an accounting of the biophysical changes that had taken place but also provided insights into the barriers that were removed to diffuse regreening practices. Such insights are very useful in designing programs, informing policy decisions, and tracking progress.

In order to get a more accurate account of the area under better land management in Niger and elsewhere in the Sahel, the USGS used time series images from satellites and aircraft to estimate the magnitude of the spread of FMNR. In addition to analyzing time series of remotely sensed data, USGS personnel conducted extensive ground-truthing work, including on-the-ground transects and low-altitude aircraft.This helped to produce more reliable analyses.The USGS findings revealed that FMNR had been adopted on nearly 5 million hectares in Nigers Maradi and Zinder zones and on almost 500,000 hectares in the Seno Plaines of Mali. On-the-ground follow-up showed that much, if not most, of the regreening had taken place within the last 20 years. In addition to the analyses that quantified

The Regreening of the Sahel helped to reduce vulnerability to food crises. 2013 Woodrow Wilson Center

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IntroductionPrepare

Discover

Analyze

Apply

the magnitude of FMNR, the USGS provided images that compared on-farm tree cover at three points in time (1955, 1975, and 2005), which provided graphic proof of regreening.

While the above provided the evidence of impacts from regreening, the message had limited impact until it was extended broadly.This happened in a number of ways, all of which depended on people who championed regreening.These included senior CILSS officers who participated in a number of fora, including side meetings at the Conference of Parties of the UNCCD. Actions by the Africa Regreening Initiative (http://africa-regreening.blogspot.com/) and World Vision allowed another group of Sahelian champions to use the Internet, the media, and strategic meetings to provide people with the evidence. Initially their message was met with skepticism, as it ran counter to the prevailing Afro-pessimism attitude. However, through persistence and the continued provision of the evidence from the studies, attitudes changed. For example, the Secretariat of the UNCCD went from skepticism to supporting regreening. In 2011 the Secretary invited one of the farmer-innovators to speak at the Conference of Parties at the meetings in South Korea.

These time-series satellite images from the Zinder region of Niger show the increase in tree cover on crop fields between 1975 and 2005. This increase occurred as population grew and land set aside for fallow disappeared. 2005 Tappan/USGS

A stand of Faidherbia albida trees in grain fields in southern Niger, naturally regenerated from seed. Note that all the trees are about the same age indicating that at sometime in the past decade or two, this land was barren and that farmers took deliberate measures to ensure the establishment of this stand. The F. albida is a favorite agroforestry species because it loses its leaves in the rainy season and provides nutritious pods as animal feed. 2013 Reij/Free University of the Netherlands

This series shows the positive impact of interventions on increasing on-farm tree density. Time series from 1984, 1996, and 2002 (left to right). 2009 Reij, Tappan and Smale/IFPRI/USGS

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http://africa-regreening.blogspot.com/


Why was stocktaking in the Sahel important and how has it been used? Firstly, it was important to let the publicin both the recipient and the donor countriesknow that some investments in the Sahel paid off and that people had land management practices with which to fight back against their many challenges. Secondly, stocktaking provided an evidence-based foundation for designing projects, programs, and strategies to achieve economic growth and strengthen resilience. Instead of having to ask,What do we think needs to be done to increase productivity and strengthen resilience in the Sahel?, people designing projects, programs, and strategies were able to ask,What did people do, at scale, to increase productivity and strengthen resilience? While not a panacea, taking stock of past initiatives not only allowed researchers to identify the benefits of various practices but also showed them the barriers that had to be overcome before rural producers would invest in the practices. (In some cases, the impacts and barriers were surprising and unlikely to have been part of the design had they not been seen during an ex-post assessment.) Typically, those barriers were overcome by a mix of training, technical assistance, better markets, more secure rights, better knowledge, and access to capital and inputsall the elements found in the designs of projects, programs, and strategies.

There is a strong track record in addressing many NRM challenges. Instead of asking,What do we think that we need to do to achieve our objectives?, we should be asking,What did people do to achieve those objectives? But, first we need to recognize that there is a track record and then we need to use it.

- Mike McGahuey

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Phase One: PreparePrepare

Phase One: Prepare

Discover

Analyze

Apply

Prepare

Refine and clarify NRM practice Conduct preliminary research Select sites Form multi-disciplinary team Develop detailed schedule Select key areas of inquiry Determine methodologies and tools Examine photographic evidence Pre-test tools

Learning Objectives

After reading this chapter, the stocktaker should understand and be able to: Select stocktaking practice(s) and site(s) Plan for field visits

Why the Prepare Phase is Important

The Prepare Phase lays the foundation for gathering the information that can inform decision making at all levels and help practitioners better tell the NRM story. Selecting practices that respond to critical questions, selecting sites where impacts are likely, and selecting a team that has relevant experience and knowledge will increase the likelihood of a productive outcome. Becoming familiar with your practice through a literature review and preliminary expert consultations will lead to more effective site visits. Finally, identifying a target audience and NRM practice themes from the beginning will allow the team to look for answers that might otherwise be missed.

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Desired Outputs and Products of the Prepare Phase

The following outputs or products should be available by the end of the Prepare phase:

A clear and concise description of the objectives of the exercise as well as the key questions to be addressed

The identification of the target audience for the stocktaking findings A brief summary of the stocktaking team, preferably with the background and expertise of each

member A summary of essential information from the preliminary research A summary of the key knowledge gaps A customized checklist of lines of inquiry or question topics A detailed schedule or plan for the stocktaking exercise, including an itinerary and logistics for the

site visits A logistics plan showing who is responsible for setting up visits, getting the necessary equipment, setting up lodging and meals, and so forth

Pre-tested tools, ready to be used during the site visits.

A Success Story In Malawi, stocktakers visited over 15 field sites in just one week.With such a rigorous schedule, the Prepare phase was crucial to the activitys success.The team identified a local partner Total Land Carewho knew the local farmers and communities and had their trust.The team communicated the overall purpose and rationale for NRM stocktaking. Based on this,Total Land Care proposed a series of site visits to see conservation agriculture and natural regeneration, among other activities.The team then held frequent and detailed logistics planning meetings with Total Land Care to develop day-to-day itineraries for the site visits.

Logistics planning discussions covered: Estimating travel times between the sites Advising on vehicles and fuel

requirements Setting up initial meetings with Total

Land Care field agents once the team arrived in a given area

Making suggestions for local hotels and

field meal arrangements.

Based on exchanges with the team,Total Land Care was able to finalize plans for visits Rto the sites and meetings with farmers and

community representatives.

epresentatives from Total Land Care facilitate a line of inquiry with Malawian farmers. 2013 Jeremy Keeton/DAI

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Step-by-Step Guide for the Prepare Phase

The start of the process: NRM stocktaking exercises typically begin in response to a request to design a project, inform a policy, or identify and learn about impacts from past investments.The nature and source of the request will play a role in selecting the sites and the team members. For example, if the objective is to inform policy reforms, the sites visited should provide evidence of the consequences of particular policies.The team should include members who have credibility with policymakers and who would likely be part of the policy discussions. If the objective is to educate the public on the impacts of NRM over time and space, the team should include someone who can provide graphic evidence of the changes, for example, by obtaining and using satellite or other forms of remotely sensed data.

Once the objective has been identified, the sites and team members are selected. Site selection should take into consideration the objectives of the trip, accessibility, and whether the people you desire to interview will be available. Gathering information about the sites and getting that information to the team members before the visit will help people get the most from the visits. Good sources of information include field-based NGOs that have substantial experience in the field, relevant government agencies that are responsible for the sectors and subsectors of interest, donors working in the sector, and producer unions and groups. If there have been projects in the area, seek out the project reports and/or evaluations. Other sources for site selection include the academic community and the private sector.

As noted above (and detailed below in Step 5), the team should be multidisciplinary, with particular attention given to expertise that can address the specific questions being asked.The members should include host-country specialists who are well respected and are NRM champions. By making them part of the stocktaking process, their ability to advocate for the sector should be strengthened.

The stocktaker should also bear in mind the target audiences for the findings.These often fall into one or more of the following categories: (1) local producers and communities, (2) project, program, and strategy designers and implementers, (3) policy- and decision makers, (4) the general development community or development academics and practitioners, and (5) the general public.

The five steps are detailed in the pages that follow.

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1. Refine and clarify NRM practice. The broad NRM stocktaking practice(s) will often be suggested during the start of the process phase described above. During the Prepare phase, this should be further clarified and defined through additional dialogue. In many cases, this will entail honing in on a single NRM practice. However, in some cases, the presumed positive results may have been generated by a suite of practices promoted as part of a program (e.g., community-based natural resource management or CBNRM) or growing out of a movement.A single practice as the focus of a stocktaking exercise versus a suite of practices will affect the scale of the exercise. In the first case, the stocktaking will usually occur at a limited number of sites or locations where the new practice has emerged. In the latter case, the scale is often larger and may encompass much of a given country if the suite of practices was part of a national-level movement or program.

2. Conduct preliminary research. Once the objectives have been identified and the practice defined, the stocktaking team will collect information on candidate sites as well as on what is already known about impacts and lessons from the adoption of the practices of interest. Conversely, knowledge gaps, or what is unknown about the practices, should also be identified and summarized. It is recommended that this research be summarized in a short document that team members can reference and build on during their field visits.

Tools See the tool section of guide for a full description or example of the listed tool.

Prepare Checklist

Lines of Inquiry

Team Member Roles and Responsibilities

Sample Itinerary for a Stocktaking Exercise

Guidelines and Sample Agenda for Initial Team Meeting

Interview Record

Resources for identifying the area or sites to be visited include the following:

Host-country professionals may have seen a variety of initiatives (either project-or producer-led) over time and space.They should be asked to identify producer initiatives as well as projects. Given that important and pertinent project outcomes happen after the end of a project or are not tracked by performance indicators, they should also be asked to assess past projects.

Development organizations may have carried out a variety of initiatives over time and space. Again, the outcomes of both past and present projects should be assessed.

Farmers organizations and networks may know of innovative NRM practices.

A literature review, including gray literature (project reports, thought pieces, etc.) and peer-reviewed articles, can shed light on pertinent NRM practices.

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If available, remote photography can assist in identifying anomalies in the landscape. (See Annex for examples of how satellite imagery can be used in NRM stocktaking exercises.)

3. Select the field sites. Stocktakings point of departure is the NRM practice itself. Consequently, the sites selected should have a reasonable number of cases where people are using the practices of interest. The sites biophysical assets should be representative of a larger geographical area. This means they should not contain features that are found nowhere else in the country or subregion, that is, features that would reduce the chance of replicating a given practice. The population should also be representative of the larger zone of interest (e.g., without assets that most would not have) and the incentives for using practices should not have depended on inducements that may not be generally available (e.g., large subsidies). In addition, when an NRM practice is closely linked to a small enterprise, efforts should be made to interview other actors in the value chain (e.g., middlemen, buyers, and processors).

4. Form the multidisciplinary team. The composition and experience of the stocktaking team will not only determine the kind and quality of gathered information but will also be vital to applying the findings. Overall, stocktakers should build a team consisting of development professionals who know the biophysical and socioeconomic context (the development landscape).The members should represent the biological, social, and economic sciences; in particular, one or more team members should possess expertise in the specific natural resource(s) to be investigated. It is essential that the team be well represented by host-country specialists. Stocktakers should pay attention to the gender balance on the team, as well as how interviewees will perceive them. Some power dynamics may be difficult to observe, but overall the team should be neutral and unbiased. Team composition is important in order to both ask the right questions and get good responses.

5. Develop a detailed schedule. Once the sites have been selected, a detailed plan for the field visits

Tips for Success

Communicate with as many host-country practitioners, experts, and organizations as possible from the start to build up interest and support.This may unearth information that was previously unknown.The host-country nationals who are part of the stocktaking team can help drive this process through their professional networks. Their enthusiasm for the subject should be nurtured: this will ultimately ensure the use and application of the stocktaking findings.

Publicize the exercise beyond the borders of the host country. Engage regional stakeholders to the extent possible.This will promote exchange among a wider range of development practitioners and policy- and decision makers and may provide insight on scaling up and replication in neighboring countries.Again, this may unearth useful information that can inform the field visits and the analysis of the findings.

During initial meetings of the stocktaking team, visualize the field exercise as much as possible.This may include a role play session.Visualization of site visit realities can help anticipate and avoid potential obstacles and will enable more detailed planning.

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should be developed. This should include an itinerary of where the stocktaking will be conducted, the themes for each days discussions, and daily specifics of what the team will be doing. Avoid scheduling too many site visits or interviews per day, especially where the terrain is difficult and distances between sites are long. (For areas such as these, it is wise to schedule no more than two to three visits or interviews per day.) Another consideration is to try to end the field visits and interviews by mid-afternoon to allow enough time to construct initial change maps for each site visit at the end of the day and in the evening. It is also important to leave enough time in the schedule for discussion of unexpected practices or unanticipated findings. Similarly, the schedule should be flexible, allowing for stopping and exploring something that may be seen while traveling from point A to point B. Bear in mind that the people being interviewed made time for the team. Either

skipping the visit or having to rush off before they can

fully tell their story expresses a lack of appreciation.

Other planning considerations include how the team wishes to split its time between interviewing practitioners in the field where the practices of interest are being used, interviewing whole groups and subgroups (women or youth), or interviewing individual key informants. Another question to be considered is whether the team should stay together or split into subunits to hold interviews concurrently. Finally the team should prepare a list of materials that would be needed or add value to the field visits. Such a list may include flipcharts, markers, 3x5 cards (for change mapping), cameras, global positioning system (GPS)

Knowledgeable Team

Members

With respect to forming the team, people who know the landscape would include those who have a keen appreciation of the challenges that most producers face and have seen a variety of successes and failures over space and time. Using the zai (a soil and water conservation technique used in the Sahel in West Africa) as an example, it had been dismissed as a very simple and inconsequential technology.

However, a development practitioner (Chris Reij) was able to appreciate the significance of the spread of modified zais becausehe recognized that run-off was a problem common to farmers across the Sahel, that the zai had allowed farmers to convert marginal lands into productive lands, and that water-harvesting technologies in multiple sites across the Sahel were spreading spontaneously (without being reported).

devices, and satellite and photo images. (The latter may not be available, but they have proven useful in helping practitioners tell their story.)

6. Select key areas of inquiry. Based on the selected topic, the team should review and customize the generic lines of inquiry found in the Tools section. Overall, they should develop general questions that the exercise should be answering; these could take the form of a list of themes or issues to be covered during a particular interview. Important inquiry topics that should be part of stocktaking exercises include economic, governance, and natural resource impacts; enabling conditions (including barriers that were removed and the benefits that accrued); market linkages; and partnerships (including technical assistance and training). Once the lines of inquiry have been refined, the team should develop a checklist of questions or topics that each team member should

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consult during field interviews, so that all important questions or topics are covered and complete information is obtained. See the Tools section for a sample of lines of inquiry for field visits.

7. Determine methodologies and tools to be used in the field. As noted, stocktaking takes a non-judgmental approach in order to obtain the practitioners storythe benefits, the costs, and actions taken to remove barriers. Consequently, the team may consider using approaches like Appreciative Inquiry and participatory rural appraisal (PRA) (referenced at the end of the chapter). For interviews, be they group or individual, the stocktaking team should use a standard data sheet for capturing the information. This

should include headings such as names of those being

interviewed, the location of the interview (e.g., field, village, district, or province), the lead interviewer, and GPS coordinates of the site. The team will be able to refer back to this interview record when discussing the days findings each evening.

8. Initial examination of photographic evidence for selected sites. Remote or large-scale photography, such as that widely available on Google Earth (www.google.com/earth/explore/products/ desktop.html), can depict land cover and provide the backdrop for a stocktaking exercise. Examining these images before departing for the field will provide a general familiarity with the area to be visited. The team

should identify important features and anomalies in

the landscape about which to ask questions. Ideally, the images would span a period from the recent past to a

decade or more ago. This will allow the team to detect

changes over timeanother important line of inquiry during the site visits.

Large vs. Small Group Interviews

Stocktaking teams will encounter awide range of groups to interview, from individuals to possibly 50 or 100 respondents. Group dynamics shift when numbers are large. It is advisable to request to speak to as many respondents as possible, but consider splitting the interview team and respondents into smaller groups.

We owe it to ourselves and to the next

generation to conserve the environment so that

we can bequeath our children a sustainable world that benefits all.

- Wangari Maathai

Overall, the photographic evidence can illustrate the geographic context in which NRM practices occur and where they can be scaled up based on similar biophysical and climatic conditions.When examining these images, particular attention should be paid to anomalies in heavily populated zones that regularly face climatic shocks and/or have challenging biophysical environments.These were the characteristics of hot beds of the spread of water- harvesting and FMNR systems in the Sahel.

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http://www.google.com/earth/explore/products/desktop.htmlhttp://www.google.com/earth/explore/products/desktop.html


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Pre-test tools. Tools to be employed during the field visits should be tested before departure. This will enable the team to revise them as needed and will provide a general sense of whether they are feasible. The tools should be tested with informants similar to the ones that will be encountered during

Pre-testing the questionnaire will probably require time in the field before the full team arrives. It may also need to be tested in several languages. Consequently, this is something that the host-country specialist might do before the arrival of the rest of the team. Overall, this step will ensure that vocabulary and terminology are correct and understandable in the local language. It may require tools conceived outside of the host country to be tested before the arrival of expatriate team members. This is an essential step that will enable the gathering of quality information.


References and Additional Information

Appreciative Inquiry

The traditional approach to change is to look for the problem, do a diagnosis, and find a solution; since we look for problems,we find them.Appreciative Inquiry looks for assets and what works. The result of the process is a vision that describes where the organization or stakeholder group wants to be.As the vision is grounded in real experience,people know how to repeat their success. Links to resources on Appreciative Inquiry:

9 http://appreciativeinquiry.case.edu 9 http://gbr.pepperdine.edu/2010/08/a-blueprint-for-change-appreciative-inquiry/ 9 http://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/newTMC_85.htm

Participatory Rural Appraisal (PRA)

PRA is a growing family of participatory approaches and methods that emphasize capturing local knowledge and enabling local people to make their own assessments and plans. The purpose is to enable development practitioners, government officials, and local people to work together to plan context-appropriate programs. PRA methods include group activities and other exercises to facilitate analysis and action.Although originally developed for use in rural areas,PRA has been employed successfully in a variety of settings. Links to resources on PRA:

9 http://www.crsprogramquality.org/storage/pubs/me/RRAPRA.pdf 9 http://www.wau.boku.ac.at/fileadmin/_/H81/H811/Skripten/811308/2_

WorldBankparticipation.pdf

Most Significant Change

Most Significant Change is a participatory monitoring and evaluation technique that collects impact stories from stakeholders. Participants are involved in telling their stories and in systematically deciding which stories are most relevant to describe project impacts. More information on this method is available at:

9 http://www.kstoolkit.org/Most+Significant+Change 9 http://www.mande.co.uk/docs/MSCGuide.pdf

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http://appreciativeinquiry.case.eduhttp://gbr.pepperdine.edu/2010/08/a-blueprint-for-change-appreciative-inquiry/http://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/newTMC_85.htmhttp://www.crsprogramquality.org/storage/pubs/me/RRAPRA.pdfhttp://www.wau.boku.ac.at/fileadmin/_/H81/H811/Skripten/811308/2_WorldBankparticipation.pdfhttp://www.wau.boku.ac.at/fileadmin/_/H81/H811/Skripten/811308/2_WorldBankparticipation.pdfhttp://www.kstoolkit.org/Most+Significant+Changehttp://www.mande.co.uk/docs/MSCGuide.pdf

Phase Two: DiscoverDiscover

Phase Two: Discover

Observe and conduct interviews Organize and process data as a team Refine lines of inquiry

Prepare Analyze

ApplyDiscover

Learning Objectives

After reading this chapter, the stocktaker should understand and be able to:

Use a Change Mapping tool to gather, organize, and process information in the field.

Understand why a non-judgmental approach should be followed.

Appreciate the importance of team members regularly corroborating their observations and refining their lines of inquiry.

Why the Discover Phase is Important

The purpose of the Discover phase is to identify and describe the changes made by producers in how they manage their natural resources, the impacts of these changes, the barriers removed or conditions established that contributed to the changes, and the actions that removed the barriers and created the conditions.These outcomes are achieved through site interviews, observations, and team discussions or processing.The aim of the interview is to let the farmer, forester, fisher, hunter, herder, or other interviewee tell his or her story as accurately and completely as possible.The processing part of the Discover phase is intended to fully use the multiple talents of the team to gain the clearest picture of what was seen in the field and to best use the lessons.A secondary purpose of this phase is to ensure that people who will use the findings within the country are on the team.This is based on the premise that those who are part of the Discover process are most convinced by the findings of that process; it is thus critical that host-country practitioners play key roles in this phase.

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Desired Outputs and Products of the Discover Phase

The following outputs or products should be available by the end of the Discover phase: Clear descriptions of the practices and systems assessed Clear characterizations of the benefits as seen from the perspective of the practitioner Clear descriptions of barriers overcome and/or conditions established that led to changes in the

practices Clear descriptions of the actions taken and how and why the actions contributed to breaking down

barriers and establishing conditions Agreement by team members on the facts of what was heard A change map for each site showing the relationships between the various changes.

Using Change Mapping to Discover Why Farmers Adopted Natural Regeneration The Change Mapping tool helps the team identify relationships.The Dan Arziki4 Change Map that follows illustrates how to use the Change Mapping tool during stocktaking field visits. The tool is used to process information about NRM practices and systems, as well as benefits produced by these practices and systems, the barriers removed and conditions established that allowed resource users (e.g., farmers, herders, fishers, foresters, or wildlife managers) to invest in those practices and systems, and the actions (e.g., training, technical assistance, infrastructure, communications, capital, studies, or reforms) that created the conditions or reduced the barriers.

This farmer, in the Agui region of Niger, is standing by a portion of his millet crop produced on this field where the grain was intercropped with field trees. The trees enrich the top soil by recycling nutrients. When preparing the field for sowing his crop, this farmer pruned back the trees and scattered the leaves on the soil. This reduced completion for sunlight and provided the crop with green manure and organic matter.

2013 Reij/Free University of the Netherlands

Dan Arziki is a fictional site in the Sahel. The changes described in the change map are from actual stocktaking case studies in the Sahel.

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Dan Arziki Interview and Change MapBy convention, everything within a box in this tool is a Change and the bullets within the boxes are inputs or outputs that produced that particular Change. (Note that not every Change is a product of actions; some are products of other Changes.)

Point of departure.The point of departure for the team (C1) was Assisted Natural Regeneration Adopted5 or ANR.

The interview started by greetings and introductions, an appreciation for the farmer hosting the team, and an explanation of the purpose of the stocktaking exercise.The team asked the farmer to describe ANR.

The benefits? The second set of questions aimed to identify and characterize the benefits. When asked about the benefits of ANR, the farmer said it increased grain yields (C2) and fuelwood production (C3).When asked about additional benefits, the farmer said that both the increased grain and fuelwood contributed to Revenue Increased (C4). In addition, she said that having field trees reduced the time required to collect fuelwood for the evening meal (C3).

The team next wanted to know whether ANR had helped the farmer cope with the recent drought (i.e., did it build resilience?).The farmer replied that the grain yields had been very low but she had been able to sell sufficient amounts of fuelwood to purchase much of the food required by her family. Hence, she had not been required to sell her productive assets in order to survive.The farmer also said that some of the trees produced nutritious pods and leaves that served as livestock feed.With this she was able to fatten young rams to sell during religious holidays.

Next, the team wanted to know if some of the Changes identified as benefits were the products of additional factors.The farmer told the team that increasing grain yields (C2) required the use of improved seed (C9) and fertilizer (C10) in addition to natural regeneration (C1). She also said that a stronger Cereal Bank (C7) helped in marketing the grain and the establishment of the Woodcutters Association (C8) provided members with a reliable fuelwood market.

Since the farmer had purchased improved seed and fertilizer, the team asked whether she had been assisted by a project in getting the capital (C11) for those inputs. She said that she had received training and technical assistance, which helped her establish a working relationship with a bank. In addition, based on farmer-to-farmer visits, she had learned that using fertilizer in tandem with ANR increased the fertilizers efficiency.The farmer said that both the Cereal Bank and Woodcutters Association had been strengthened by business and organizational training provided by a project.

Assisted natural regeneration refers to a type of agroforestry practice that is currently used on about 5 million hectares in Niger. It is also referred to as FMNR.

5


What barriers had to be overcome and conditions established before the farmer adopted ANR? Once the benefits were identified and discussed, the team asked about the barriers that were removed and conditions established that allowed the practitioner to adopt the practice(s). In the graphic, the practitioner adopted natural regeneration (C1) after she had learned about the practice through farmer-to-farmer visits (C12), was taught the proper techniques (C13), had authority conveyed from the state to manage her own trees (C14), and suffered fewer conflicts over her field trees (C15).

Were there any additional changes? In addition to those benefits related directly or indirectly to C1, the team found that C15 (Conflicts Reduced) contributed to C16 (Civil Stability Strengthened).This finding came about as team members were discussing what they had seen. It was confirmed the next day as they included that specific question in their interviews.

For further tips on interviewing, see References and Additional Information at the end of the Discover chapter.


Dan Arziki Change Map

C4: Revenue Increased C6: Time to Collect Fuelwood

Reduced C5: Revenue Increased C16: Civil Stability Strengthened

C7: Cereal Bank Strengthened Training TA

C2: Grain Yields Increased

C3: Fuelwood Increased

C8: Woodcutters Association Strengthened

C9: Improved Seed Used

C10: Fertilizer Used

C1: Natural Regeneration Adopted

C15: Conflicts Reduced C12: Practice Learned Farmer-to-Farmer Visits C13: Techniques Learned Authority Conveyed

C14: Authority Conveyed Authority Conveyed

C11: Capital Increased Training Intermediary Services

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Step-by-Step Guide to the Discover Phase

1. Observe and conduct interviews. Collect data through interviews and observations.

Begin the day with a quick team meeting to: Discuss any issues from the previous evenings

team meeting.

Tools See the Tool section of the guide for a full description or example of the listed tool.

Discover Checklist Fist to Five Consensus Building How to Create a Change Map

Review the days agenda. Appoint a lead interviewer who will manage the interview process. Appoint a lead note taker who is responsible for taking notes at every site. This ensures a

consistent style and treatment across all of the sites. Other team members are encouraged to take notes, but the lead note taker provides the reference data. Therefore, his or her notes should be nearly verbatim, so that disagreements, questions over meaning, exact statements, and the like can be reviewed at each nightly meeting.

Appoint someone on the team to complete an Interview Record (see Tools for a suggested form) for each interview and reference the Line of Inquiry tool to make sure you are not forgetting an important topic.

Go to the field to see the practice in question.While on the way, team members should be aware of key characteristics of the village, such as general soil and vegetative conditions, livestock, depth of water in wells, the number of young adults in the community, the general condition of lodging (any metal roofs), or whether people have cell phones and other means of communicating beyond the village. While the initial interview may be in a village with a large group, the team members should go to the site where the change has taken place to conduct as much of the interview as possible. Being at the site solicits questions that may not otherwise be apparent in a village setting.At the site of the practice,technology,or system,have the interviewee identify and describe the following (see also the How to Create a Change Map tool):

The practices or systems adopted: The practice(s) or system(s) adopted by the practitioner is the point of departure for the field visit and will be the starting point of reference for the analytical phase.

The benefits produced by adoption: Ask the interviewee to describe the benefits from the practices. Examples include:

Economics: Yields, revenue, risks reduced, whether recurring costs are covered, and so forth

Natural capital: Degradation reduced, productivity increased, diversity increased, and so forth

Power: Control of management decisions.

For the above, ask if there were other factors that were also necessary to achieve these benefits. For example, in the Dan Arziki Change Map, achieving C4

http:setting.At


(Revenue Increased) required C7 (Cereal Bank Strengthened) as well as C2 (Grain Yield Increased).

Ask the interviewee to identify the barriers that were removed or the conditions established that allowed him or her to adopt the practice. The line between barriers removed and enabling conditions is not always clear.Enabling conditions are often intangible and perceptual and may require asking the interviewee if he or she perceived a change in skills, authority, or knowledge.Barriers removed would include such changes as a road that increased access to markets, an explicit policy change, access to capital, identification of a demonstration site, and the like. Be sure to focus on conditions or barriers that were encountered before or during adoption of the practice.Avoid getting into a discussion of current barriers or challenges unless there is a specific reason for it.

Ask the interviewee to identify the actions that removed barriers and established conditions. Think of actions as inputs to the program design.These might include training, technical assistance, peer-to-peer exchanges, changes in government policies, local agreement among resource users, research, and local innovations.

The environment where the innovation was practiced: The description of the environment should include a general description of the biophysical assets, such as climate; the type of system (e.g., dryland or irrigated farming, forest, or mixed system); access to water; access to markets; general topography; infrastructure (roads or irrigation perimeters); general soil type (e.g., hardpan or sandy).The interviewers should also watch for anything unusual (positive or negative) at individual sites.

Tips for Success

Consult with those who know the local culture. Respect local norms and protocol.

Use the opportunity of field visits to collect GPS data. See the Annex for more details on integrating GPS data collection into a stocktaking exercise.

Use common courtesy when conducting interviews. Always ask permission before taking photos of people, particularly of children.

Use a non-judgmental approach to the interviews.The intent is to discover what people did to create and sustain innovation, why they did it (or what benefits were derived), what barriers were overcome or conditions created, and what actions were taken to produce the various Changes. Prejudging goodness or badness will only get in the way of allowing the full story to be told.

When interviewees veer off on a tangent, redirect the conversation by restating the original question.


Socioeconomic attributes: Examples include: access to influence, capital, and markets; literacy levels; access to information; gender; membership of a producer or marketing group; access to regular training; the status of resource access and use; and single or multiple users.

Refer to the Lines of Inquiry as you are interviewing to make sure you are not forgetting any important topics.

Be opportunistic and flexible.Allow time for pursuing unanticipated but pertinent lines of inquiry or emerging subjects that arise during a given interview or conversation. In addition to visiting pre-selected sites, budget in time to stop along the way and visit areas that appear different and promising. Take advantage of interviewing people observed doing interesting and relevant things, even if it is not on the itinerary.

2. Organize and process data as a team. On a regular and timely basis, the team should meet to discuss what it saw in the field and heard from the interviewees and resources people. These meetings should be held as soon after field visits as possible, for example, each evening after a day in the field.The purposes of these meetings include the following:

Organize the changes seen during the day into a change map. (See Change Map tool.)

Corroborate data. Team members should agree on the facts of what they saw and heard. If there are disagreements on the facts, actions should be planned to get those facts, if possible.

Corroborate cause and effect and

sequential relationships6 to the extent

possible. Based on the change map, identify any disagreements about the teams interpretation of these relationships. While there should be

Tips for Success (continued)

Be sure to bear the historical perspective in mind as you interview and observe during the site visits.When looking at a particular aspect or feature of the landscape, ask the local people if it has always been there or if it has changed over time. Similarly, during sit-down meetings, discussions, and interviews, be sure to ask local informants what changes they have seen during their lifetime. Due to this need for a historical perspective, it is important to target older people for interviews and/or focus group discussions.This perspective will be critical for Step 4 outlined above.

Given that questions about a particular topic often follow a logical order, each interviewer should be allowed to finish a set of questions before the next interviewer starts.

Be careful not to make inferences from information (or information not presented) when creating the change map. Listen to the participants and ask questions, but do not infer meanings and explanations.

Sequential relationships occur when a change depends upon a previous change; however, not all sequential relationships are causal. For example, farmer-to-farmer visits often precede the adoption of a practice, but it cannot be said that the visit caused the adoption.

6


agreement on the facts, it is not necessary that all agree on what the facts mean. Such discussions should identify knowledge gaps that could be addressed in the field and broader discussions with experts outside of the team.

Gain insights into generalizations and exceptions. The members will probably have a range of backgrounds and experiences, and some may be able to put the observations into a larger context that would inform the teams discussions. In a phrase, the discussions should not be limited to what the team saw at a particular place.

3. Refine lines of inquiry based on what you saw in the field. In particular, the team should (a) critically assess the questions asked to see if they can be strengthened or, if not relevant, eliminated, and (b) identify questions not asked and, if pertinent, incorporate them into subsequent field visits.Additional questions may be needed to explore knowledge gaps or a team members interpretations.

A society grows great when old men plant trees whose shade they know they shall never sit in.

- Greek Proverb



Interviewing An interview is a conversation with a stakeholder to learn more about NRM. Having prepared your lines of inquiry, follow these steps:

1. Begin the interview by introducing yourself and the team, the overall purpose of the exercise, and the purpose of the interview.

2. Ask the stakeholder if he or she has any questions before you begin. 3. Use a conversational tone when asking questions. A good interview gets the interviewee talking and the interviewer listening, asking probing questions, and summarizing. If more than one person is conducting the interviews, follow the success tip of letting each interviewer finish his or her set of questions before another one begins asking questions.

4. When interviewing a group of stakeholders, give everyone a chance to answer the questions and make sure no one dominates the conversation.

5. Use a non-judgmental approach. The job of the interviewer is to understand why the interviewee did something of interest, not to judge whether it was good or bad.

6. Be specific. Start with general questions but do not end there. For instance, if a stakeholder says he or she overcame poverty, ask what he or she means and what exact techniques were employed.

7. Close the interview by asking the stakeholder for any additional comments or questions, thanking him or her for the time, and telling him or her how to learn more about the results of your stocktaking exercise.

Links to more information on how to conduct an interview: 9 http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/fy393 9 http://ctb.ku.edu/en/tablecontents/sub_section_main_1047.aspx

Facilitating Focused Conversations during Team Meetings One methodology for facilitating group conversations is called ORID. ORID stands for: objective, reflective, interpretative, and decisional. It is a method used to guide conversations that follows how people process information.The stocktaking tool uses this method by first examining the data discovered in the field, then reflecting on the data, interpreting the data, and finally testing what decisions can be made based on the data or what decisions need to be made for the next days interviews.

Link to more information on ORID: 9 http://sps.k12.mo.us/staffdev/ORID.pdf 9 Stanfield, R. Brian, ed. The Art of Focused Conversation. New Society Publishing, 2000.

http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/fy393http://ctb.ku.edu/en/tablecontents/sub_section_main_1047.aspxhttp://sps.k12.mo.us/staffdev/ORID.pdfhttp://Stanfield, R. Brian, ed. The Art of Focused Conversation. New Society Publishing, 2000.


Outcome Harvesting Outcome harvesting is an approach for monitoring and evaluating projects. It is a highly participatory methodology that collects evidence of what has been achieved and determines how a project contributed to that achievement.

Link to learn more about outcome harvesting: 9 http://www.outcomemapping.ca/download.php?file=/resource/files/Outome%20Harvesting%20 Brief%20FINAL%202012-05-2-1.pdf

Mind mapping Mind mapping is a visual approach to note taking, outlining, brainstorming, hypothesis generation, and other problem-solving or idea-generating processes. It starts with a word or concept in the center of a diagram. Connections are then drawn to/from the center. Each connection forms branches of more connections.

Links to information and tools on mind mapping: 9 http://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/newISS_01.htm 9 http://www.mindmapping.com/

http://mrexham.com/category/ocr-as/

http://www.outcomemapping.ca/download.php?file=/resource/files/Outome%20Harvesting%20Brief%20FINAL%202012-05-2-1.pdfhttp://www.outcomemapping.ca/download.php?file=/resource/files/Outome%20Harvesting%20Brief%20FINAL%202012-05-2-1.pdfhttp://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/newISS_01.htmhttp://www.mindmapping.com/http://mrexham.com/category/ocr-as/


Phase Three: Analyze

Prepare

Discover Apply

Analyze

Characterize knowledge, attitudes and practices Determine bio-physical and socio-economic characteristics Identify similarities and discrepancies Identify changes over time Determine potential for scalability Determine contributions to livelihoods Summarize findings and conclusions Convene validation workshop

Learning Objectives

After reading this chapter, the stocktaker should understand and be able to: Compare and contrast findings

across sites. Assess and analyze changes over

time. Validate findings in a consultative

workshop.

Why the Analyze Phase is Important

The Analyze phase uses the information from the Discover phase to answer questions critical for designing projects, programs, and strategies; informing policy debates; and better telling the NRM story. Those questions vary from the larger perspective (Do the findings have broader relevance to the sector? What are the prospects for a particular practice to be scaled up?) to more operational ones (e.g.,Were there common drivers of change across the case studies? Were there particular inputs or actions that had multiple or systemic effects? Were changes in practices driven by changes in knowledge and attitudes or by exogenous incentives?). Key components for analyzing the information and data will include examining ways personal and social relationships influence the practice or intervention, considering how conditions changed over time, and identifying patterns and principles across sites. It will achieve this through the components listed above as well as by establishing proofs of concept that are not bound by time or space. Ultimately, analysis leading to enhanced understanding will help expand the benefits derived from the improved NRM practice.

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Phase Three: AnalyzeAnalyze

Desired Outputs and Products of the Analyze Phase

The following outputs or products should be available by the end of the Analyze phase: A summary of the barriers removed or conditions established and benefits driving a detected change (i.e., a new NRM practice)

A summary of the scalability analysis A summary of findings and conclusions (that may include principles, best practices, or theories of change)

The proceedings from the validation workshop, including a final change map(s).

A Success StoryA stocktaking exercise focused on community-based forest management at three sites in Kalimantan, Indonesia, was conducted in 2009.The stocktaking team spent several weeks in the field with rural communities at the study sites. Once data collection had been completed, the team used a combination of analysis methods to generate conclusions.These included:

Qualitative methods to analyze sociocultural aspects of the sites, including customary laws governing the forest management system and the

daily lives of the communities at each of the study

sites

A strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats (SWOT) analysis to identify factors that contribute to sustainable community-based forest management practices

Spatial analysis to determine specific CBNRM practices in different ecological settings, including an examination of community spatial planning and commodity market chains for each study site (the team noted that it is critical to understand the importance of spatial dynamics and the economic interactions that support livelihoods)

Rapid historical analysis to assist in identifying

the dynamics of CBNRM (the team noted that understanding the shifts and transformations that have taken place in the past [and that continue] are valuable in elucidating the underlying factors, the indirect influences, and the barriers that shape CBNRM in different locations).

These analytic methods generated detailed conclusions that were subsequently well received by USAID/Indonesia and other stakeholders.

Stocktakers undergo a community mapping exercise with community members. 2013 USAID Forestry and Biodiversity


Step-by-Step Guide to the Analyze Phase Tools 1. Determine whether the targeted practice challenged prevailing attitudes and practices. Most decisions, whether at the producer or policymaker See the Tool section of the level, are driven by the attitudes and perspectives that guide for a full description or prevail in a country or region. For example, for decades example of the listed tool. farmers across the Sahel were fined for cutting trees on their own fields.This restriction on managing their Analyze Checklist own property was driven by the belief that the state Livelihood Framework must protect trees from the people in order to avoid the total destruction of the countrys forest resources. It was not until this paradigm was broken by hard

evidence and much argumentation that authority and

responsibility were conveyed to rural populations, setting the stage for transformational change.

Consequently, the team should determine whether attitudes and paradigms had been challenged, and, if so, what might this mean in terms of extending promising practices and/or reforming policies.

2. Determine key biophysical and socioeconomic characteristics of each site and location. For each site (fields, ranges, or bodies of water) and location (village), answer the following questions:

Were the sites representativefrom both a biophysical and a socioeconomic perspectiveof the rest of the village or region? For example, if the field was the only lowland in the whole area or if the site was close to a major market and other sites were not, it might be concluded that replicating the NRM practice would not be feasible.

Were there winners and losers? If so, what distinguished each? What would it take for the losers to be winners?

3. Looking across sites and practices, identify similarities and discrepancies. After the stocktaking team has visited several sites, it should compare the following across the sites:Were benefits common across sites and practices? Were the actions taken to produce key results the same? Based on these comparisons, is there an emerging conclusion or theory of change? During this step,the team should be looking for trends as well as outliers or anomalies.Arranging the change maps from the Discover phase by practice(s) and looking at all the change maps together, side by side, will facilitate comparison and help identify common trends. It may be useful for the team to identify common words (or similar wording) that appear on two or more of the change map cards and to look for these words on all of the change maps; again, this will help pinpoint common trends. In contrast, the team should look for significant benefits, barriers, or enabling conditions that only appear once, reflecting on why these did not appear on other change maps.


4. Identify changes over time. At least two methods have been used to assess change over time. The first is the recollection of interviewees and the second is time series of remotely sensed imagery (however, it should be noted that these images are not always readily available). Creating a historical timeline of changes is a critical element of the Analyze phase.

5. Determine the potential for scalability. If it is determined in Step 2 that the biophysical and socioeconomic characteristics are common and found elsewhere in the country, the practice may stand a good chance of being adopted elsewhere.That is,if the practice was carried out on sites with attributes shared by most landscapes and by people with assets shared by most other people, then it may be scalable. If, on the other hand, a given practice is associated with rare, unique, or exceptional conditions, its scalability may be questionable. Overall, the stocktaking team should ask: what are the factors that make a given practice scalable and what factors limit scalability?

Beyond biophysical attributes, there are other important social factors that may enable the adoption of the new NRM practice. The Diffusion of Innovations theory developed by Everett Rogers is based on how farmers did or did not adopt new varieties of corn in the United Statessee References and Additional Information at the end of this phaseproposes that innovations spread beginning with early adopters or people who adopt a change easily, moving along to the late adopters (people who are resistant to change).

Key determinants that affect the pace of diffusion include:

Do the benefits significantly outweigh the costs (either financial or in time) and risks?

Is the change compatible with the individuals belief system?

How complex is the change? Is it easy to see and learn?

Can visits be made to sites where peers have adopted it?

Tips for Success For the steps prior to the validation workshop, the team should generally view their work as organizing the data and other information from the site visits and literature reviews into a more easily accessible form.This information is then presented at the validation workshop. Once feedback is collected, it can be applied during the last phase of the stocktaking exercise.

The Analyze phase takes time. Ideally, the team needs to spend at least two or three full working days together to do justice to these steps. However, if your team includes expatriate stocktakers, then you may have to compress the analytical time. In those cases, you may need to prioritize certain analytical steps based on recurrent themes from the field visits that require the unique skills of the non-local team members.

In order for stocktaking team members and other specialists to do an exemplary job of analyzing findings across multiple sites to assess the scalability of the initiatives, identify development principles that have broad application, and produce evidence-based theories of change for further discussion and dialogue, they should have an in-depth understanding of the countrys or subregions rural development challenges.


How easy is it to try out? (For example, can you get a free sample? Can you try it out at low risk?)

How easy is it to share relevant information about the change?

In general, as part of the scalability analysis, the stocktaking team should identify opportunities as well as barriers, challenges, and threats to further expansion or adoption of the improved practice. They should ask themselves,What do people need to know,think,and do for the change to occur? Ultimately, the stocktaking exercise should provide information and analysis so that others might determine if a new NRM technique could potentially be tested or promoted at another site.

6. Determine the contributions to livelihoods. After collecting all the data and performing some analysis, stocktakers should examine NRM practices in the larger context of improved or secure livelihoods. This is based on the premise that the way these practices might affect change is through improving the livelihoods (income plus other assets) of beneficiaries. Use the Livelihood Framework (see Tools) to conduct this examination.The tool enables simple quantification of the qualitative data that can identify where particular agents or actors have strengths or gaps in their livelihoods.

7. Summarize findings and conclusions. At the end of the Analyze phase, the stocktaking team should take a step back and examine all of the data and information together. This would ideally consist of data and information collected at multiple sites and locations.When undertaking thisglobal examination, the team should use the similarities, commonalities, and patterns identified in Step 3 above with respect to the NRM practices. These common featuresbasically the conditions under which a given, improved NRM practice occurscan then be formulated into conclusions, often stated as principles, best practices, or theories of change. The stocktaking team should use evidence (the data and information collected) to reach these conclusions and identify principles and drivers of change or success. Moreover, the team should look

Tips for Success (continued) Once the pre-workshop steps have been completed, the stocktaking team should consider synthesizing the analysis of the improved NRM practice(s) into a proof of concept. This is based on the observation that the spread of practices, technologies, systems, strategies, and the like often follows the establishment of convincing examples or proofs of concept, be they at the farm or national policy level.

For exercises that examine a wide range of practices, the team should indicate which practices seem to be the most promising. It should develop more detailed lines of inquiry that can be used by the stocktaking client (e.g., a USAID mission) in subsequent field visits, ultimately improving future development programming.

The stocktaking team should promote the validation workshop and follow up with participants to ensure maximum attendance.

Consider providing lodging and per diems to key workshop participants when travel is required.As an alternative, some sort of conference call or webinar could be envisioned as a way to reduce costs but still obtain input from stakeholders who may not be able to travel to the workshop location.

http:required.As


for common factors of success, for example, particular types of training or village institutional structures.The team should also pay specific attention to shifts in knowledge, attitudes, and practices, as well as changes in perspectives.As with the change map step during the Discover phase, it may be useful to organize this analysis step around the naturewealthpower framework. Subsequently, these conclusions can be presented for validation or confirmation at the consultative workshop (see Step 8 below). If validated or confirmed, these conclusions could then be applied to other development initiatives.

8. Convene a validation workshop. Discussing the preliminary findings and conclusions with a range of development practitioners for validation and confirmation provides considerable value to stocktakings other phases.A validation workshop is a common way of discussingpreliminary findings and conclusions. The output of the workshop should be validation, validation with conditions, or refutation of the stocktakings findings and conclusion.

Encouraging discussion, feedback, and shared perspectives requires an open format. It is particularly important that the host-country members of the team play a major role in preparing and leading the discussions and presentations during the workshop; this will facilitate host-country ownership of the findings and should assist with the uptake and utilization of the results.

Considering NRM Practices as Part of a System

While many innovations such as FMNR, water harvesting, conservation agriculture, micro-dosing, and improved seed provide particular benefits, their impacts have been shown to be greatly expanded when used as part of a system. For example, the use of fertilizers in tandem with sound soil management practices has been shown to double the efficiency of fertilizer use. Consequently, while using these practices in isolation of each other can increase yields, using them as part of a system significantly increases the marginal returns. In the case of fertilizer, using it in a system also may decrease the risks that sometimes act as barriers to its use.

Look! Look! Look deep into nature and you will understand everything.

- Albert Einstein

http:perspectives.As



Diffusion of Innovation Diffusion of innovation is a theory that explains how new ideas and technology are adopted, based on the work of Everett Rogers on the diffusion of improved varieties of corn in the United States.

Links to learn more: 9 Rogers, Everett M. Diffusion of Innovations. 5th ed. Free Press, 2003. 9 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diffusion_of_innovations 9 http://www.enablingchange.com.au/Summary_Diffusion_Theory.pdf 9 http://www.stanford.edu/class/symbsys205/Diffusion%20of%20Innovations.htm

Participatory Impact Pathways Analysis Participatory impact pathways analysis is a development methodology that brings together stakeholders to analyze and co-create theories on why a project had or did not have an impact.

Links to learn more: 9 http://www.cgiar-ilac.org/files/publications/briefs/ILAC_Brief17_PIPA.pdf 9 http://betterevaluation.org/resources/guides/impact_pathways

Stakeholder Analysis A stakeholder is any person or organization who is affected, positively or negatively, by the stocktaking process. Stakeholder mapping identifies these individuals or groups and plans how to include their perspectives in the stocktaking process.

Links to more information on stakeholder analysis: 9 http://www.panda.org/standards/1_1_stakeholder_analysis/ 9 http://www.ifpri.org/pubs/dp/ifpridp00772.pdf 9 http://www.cgiar-ilac.org/files/publications/briefs/ILAC_Brief17_PIPA.pdf 9 Reed, M., et al. Whos in and why? A Typology of Stakeholder Analysis Methods for Natural Resource

Management, 2009.

Additional Materials 9 Situation Analysis An Approach and Method for Analyzing the Context of Projects and Programme, IUNC (http://cmsdata.iucn.org/downloads/approach_and_method.pdf)

9 Nature, Wealth, and Power: Emerging Best Practice for Revitalizing Rural Africa, USAID, 2003 (http:// dyson.cornell.edu/faculty_sites/cbb2/Papers/NWP_Final_for_web.pdf)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diffusion_of_innovationshttp://www.enablingchange.com.au/Summary_Diffusion_Theory.pdfhttp://www.stanford.edu/class/symbsys205/Diffusion%20of%20Innovations.htmhttp://www.cgiar-ilac.org/files/publications/briefs/ILAC_Brief17_PIPA.pdfhttp://betterevaluation.org/resources/guides/impact_pathwayshttp://www.panda.org/standards/1_1_stakeholder_analysis/http://www.ifpri.org/pubs/dp/ifpridp00772.pdfhttp://www.cgiar-ilac.org/files/publications/briefs/ILAC_Brief17_PIPA.pdfhttp://cmsdata.iucn.org/downloads/approach_and_method.pdfhttp://dyson.cornell.edu/faculty_sites/cbb2/Papers/NWP_Final_for_web.pdfhttp://dyson.cornell.edu/faculty_sites/cbb2/Papers/NWP_Final_for_web.pdf

Phase Four: ApplyApply

Phase Four: Apply

Prepare

Discover

Analyze

Apply

Determine who to engage and decision points to influence Produce written publications Disseminate findings using social and mass media Convene workshops and conferences Organize meetings with key stakeholders, decisions makers and opinion leaders Identify sites for peer-to-

peer exchanges

Learning Objectives

After reading this chapter, the stocktaker should understand and be able to:

Connect stocktaking results with NRM practitioners and users.

Promote utilization of the findings.

Why the Apply Phase is Important

Using the results and findings is the ultimate purpose of any stocktaking exercise.To do this effectively, stocktakers must be able to communicate and champion what they have learned and concluded during the Discover and Analyze phases.Targeting specific stakeholder groups with tailored messages and employing a wide range of communication techniques and mass media tools will be important aspects of this process. It is also crucial that stocktakers identify opportunities for incorporating results and conclusions into decisions and policies affecting natural resources and the environment, as well as development programs and projects linked to these sectors.Applying results is also essential for reinforcing connections between stakeholder groups. For example, stocktaking is a way to assist both practitioners and policymakers by linking impacts, the conditions that contributed to the impacts, and the actions that established the conditions. More broadly, knowledge generated from stocktaking exercises is vital for development practitioners.The Apply phase is where stocktaking contributes to expanding the NRM knowledge base.

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Desired Outputs and Products of the Apply Phase

The following outputs or products should be available by the end of the Apply phase: Workshops or conferences with representatives from key stakeholder groups to discuss the

stocktaking findings

A report summarizing the stocktaking results and analysis A visual tool, for example a slideshow of photos or a video clip, illustrating the stocktaking findings Strategic one-on-one meetings with decision or policymakers and influential stakeholders to discuss stocktaking findings

Establishment of and/or engagement with an appropriate community of practice (CoP) to continue learning and promoting stocktaking results.

A Success StoryFrom late 2009 through 2011, the CK2C project and the World Wildlife Fund conducted and facilitated stocktaking exercises of

a guide to taking stock of natural resources management ...pdf.usaid.gov/pdf_docs/pbaaf755.pdfa...

Documents