Sample tool 1: Illustrated example of the elements of the livelihood analysis framework

FACTORS AFFECTING LIVELIHOOD STRATEGIES & PEOPLES ACCESS TO RESOURCES Continued growth of market activities Continued demand for villagers products Government continuing to develop infrastructure Infirmity of legal status of communal land-forestry rights; slow development of laws/regulations Continued logging of luxury wood, backed by powerful forces Continued land speculation & buying Continued in-migration & population growth Occasional drop in buying price of resin liquid Less resin trading during rainy season Low prices for villagers products Irregular rainfall Threat of mining activities that might affect peoples health & livelihoods Inadequacies in services/support provided by relevant government agencies/staff Slow road & bridge building; inadequate resources provided for LIVELIHOOD STRATEGIES infrastructure development Rice & vegetable farming for self consumption Rice, vegetable & fruit production yield still inadequate Food shortage for some months; need to borrow money, rice Resin tapping & selling for buying food during lean months Increased income, but not yet adequate to cover food, basic expenses Still need to develop production, storage, transport, marketing & possibly processing of resin Lack knowledge and resources for processing resin Planting cash crops to get additional income for basic needs Still need to study how to diversify crops to meet consumption & market needs Animal raising, productive activities at home to augment food at home Still need to develop and diversify productive activities at home Forest gathering activities to augment food at home, get some income Still need to develop and diversify gathering, production & marketing on NATURAL HUMAN non-timber forest products RESOURCES RESOURCES PHYSICAL Forest Still need skills FINANCIAL SOCIAL RESOURCE regenerate, on how to better RESOURCE RESOURCES S more forest manage & S VDC Poor roads, resources diversify Inadequate Resin inaccessible No logging of livelihood income association during rainy resin trees, strategies lack money Various season younger trees Still need skills to improve committees Small size maturing on how to deal production & Solidarity of chamcar Increase in with natural buy basic among Inadequate other forest disasters things villagers draft resources (drought, crop No savings NGOs animals Increasing pest) usually supporting Lack demand for Still need to borrow vehicles to certain crops Disputes improve money to transport (within & agricultural skills cover Forest produce between Need to develop expenses resources still villages) knowledge & being skills in plundered/ entrepreneurship depleted and trading (of village products)

Sample tool 2: Matrix-tool for facilitating analysis of livelihoods Livelihood strategies: Natural resources/assets: Examples: Land Water (e.g. rivers, lakes) Forest Wildlife/Environment Shocks: Examples: Diseases / illnesses Natural disasters Man-made disasters Conflicts; political Pests affecting crops Diseases affecting livestock Economic Physical resources/assets: Examples: House/Shelter Wells & Irrigation Farm & Fishing Equipment Road & Transport Rice Mills & Others Trends: Examples: Price of food, medicines, services Price of products used in production Price of goods produced Health (i.e. illnesses & patterns) Production (e.g. cropping cycles) Employment (i.e. jobs during year) Access to other livelihood opportunities Constraints, production: Constraints, processing: Constraints, marketing/trading: Other constraints: 3 Financial resources/assets: Examples: Income/Profits Savings Credit Remittances Governance: Examples: Corruption Impunity Nepotism No budget allocation for villages Human resources & skills: Examples: Skills Ability to Work Knowledge & Information Health Policies, laws, regulations, etc. Examples: Unclear regulations Weak implementation of law Dominance of powerful interests Conflicting policies Community/social resources: Examples: Relatives & Friends Community Groups Institutions (e.g. Pagoda) NGOs & Social Services Socio-economic factors Examples: Discrimination Increasing migration (in & out) Increasing tourism

Constraints, access to resources:

Sample tool 3: Guidelines for facilitating self assessment of capacity of VDAs used during evaluation exercises 1. Point out to VDAs that in order to promote community development it is important that there are strong community organisations that can educate, mobilise and organise people in the community. Because of the importance of community organisations, CIDSE/DPA has facilitated the formation of project committees and has helped other types of organisations like the VDC. Point out that all organisations grow from small and weak to big and strong if capacity building activities (like what CIDSE/DPA had been doing) are regularly undertaken and if the organisation can learn from its experience, both the good and bad practices. Ask what for them is a mature, strong or good organisation? List responses first (e.g. have plan, have structure), then organise these criteria in a flipchart. For example: Have plan Community group 4. In facilitating the above discussion, it will be useful to use the capacity building framework described in the recommendations as a guide in helping the community group identify the criteria for assessing the capacity of the organisation. The capacity building framework suggested were of two formats: a. organisation has the ability to: build leadership and management competency, improve teamwork and reduce internal conflict, structure themselves to become more efficient and streamlined, construct collaborative partnerships with other organisations, improve their information and resource/finance base, and formulate statements of overall strategy and mission gather and analyse information to: assess the situation/issue/service that the group is focused or working on prioritise key issues/areas for action formulate appropriate strategies and realistic and flexible implementation plans develop systems and means to facilitate monitoring, reflection and understanding of changing situation/circumstances finding solutions and new ways of dealing with the new circumstances and, more importantly, with the deeper issues that underlie the changed situation review implementation of activities and learn from experience integrate learning into the strategy and plans b. Five areas of capacity that interact as follows: Have structure Good leaders Etc.

2.

3.

Sense of Identity, Purpose & Will Committed & Competent Leaders & Members Clear Program of Action & Strong Linkages Adequate Material & Financial Resources 5. After the group has identified the criteria for assessing their capacity, choose one criterion (e.g. have plan) and say that a strong organisation can plan independently, while a weak organisation cannot plan without outside support. Ask participants what levels of capacity there are between weak and strong. Facilitate discussion such that there will be four levels of capacity: 1) cannot plan without outside support, 2) can plan but with a lot of outside support, 3) can plan with little support, 4) can plan independently. Use the following figure to further explain the levels of capacity and its relation to internal capacity and external support. Efficient Organisational Structure & Procedures

EXTERNAL SUPPORT

Cannot do without external support

Can do but with a lot of external support

4 3
Can do with some external support Can do with very little support or do independentl y INTERNAL CAPACITY

6.

When group understands the levels of capacity, ask participants to assess their group in terms of the criteria and levels that they just discussed. The group can use simple/round numbers to assess their capacity in each criteria i.e. 1) still weak and needs outside support, 2) better but still needs a lot of outside support, 3) good and needs only little support, 4) very good and can basically do activity with no outside support as shown in the diagram below. However, in order to give the group a wider latitude for assessing their capacity, it might be better to use of percentages, e.g. level 1 could cover a range of from 10% to 29%, level 2 from 30% to 49%, level 3 from 50 to 69%, and level 4 from 70 to 90%. Flipchart 5 Have plan Rice bank committee Water well committee NRM committee Cooperative VDC Others 2 1 1 3 3 Have structure 2 3 1 2 3 Good leaders 2 2 2 2 2 Etc. Average 2 2 1.3 2.3 2.6

7.

Ask what they still need in order to move to the next higher level of capacity, the challenges they face in working towards this, and their future actions to address these challenges Needs Needs NRM committee Challenges Proposed action Proposed action

Cooperative Challenges

Sample tool 4: Action learning assessment framework/tool

1. ACTION What significant things happened? Describe the events. Who was involved, what did they do? What picture emerges? How did I/we feel? 2. REFLECTION Why did it happen, what caused it? What helped, what hindered? What did we expect? What assumptions did we make? What will happen if the situation does not change? 3. LEARNING What What What What would we have done differently if we knew what we know now? did we learn, what new insights? was confirmed? new questions have emerged?

4. PLANNING What do I/we want? What do I/we want to do? What are we going to do differently? How will we not repeat the same mistake? What steps will we use to build these new insights into our practice?

What activities were done? Results? Other activities to be undertaken? Why were activities done or are to be undertaken? Strengths? Weaknesses? Factors affecting? How do these relate to group objectives?

What do we want to do? How will we not repeat mistakes? How do we make sure that plans are consistent with group objectives? What should have been done? How should it have been done? What did we learn?