Successfully getting a project off the ground requires hard thinking and involves some tough decisions. The first step is to identify the key stakeholders who will help to define the project. These key stakeholders will form the core implementation project team. Choosing the core implementation team is one of the most important decisions in the project management process. Positive leadership combined with technical expertise builds the momentum required for successful project planning-and good planning is paramount to project success.
The next tough choice is deciding what project to do first. Some projects simply should not be started. They might not have enough priority or they might suffer from fatal flaws that are not evident at first glance. Social science tools are especially important for selecting and prioritizing projects during the strategy definition stage. While a diversity of methodologies exist for selecting priority conservation areas and potential strategies, the key criteria common to all approaches include: perceived need or opportunity, overall feasibility, prudent timing, adequate resources, and acceptable risk. Projects worth doing should have appropriate agreed-upon objectives, adequate time available to meet the objectives, and enough resources available to commit to the project.
Once a project is selected, the specific goal and objectives for the project need to be defined. The goal is a general summary of the desired state that a project is working to achieve. A good goal meets the criteria of being visionary, relatively general, brief and measurable. In contrast, an objective is a specific statement detailing the desired accomplishments or outcomes of a project. Ideally, meeting the project's objectives will help to achieve the project goal. A good objective meets the criteria of being impact oriented, measurable, time limited, specific, and practical.
An important step in defining the goal is to ask the question "from whose perspective?" Gender is an important factor in determining who uses what part of a natural resource, who is affected by how others use a resource, and who decides how to use a resource. The project goal needs to reflect the interests and needs of all the stakeholders who need to be involved in the project-across gender, ethnicity, age, and occupation. It is thus necessary to get input from both men and women when defining the project goal and objectives. A number of tools are available to help facilitate this process.
In addition to defining the project goal and objectives, it is important to also define potential risks and constraints at the initiation stage of the project, in order to anticipate problems that might arise once the project is underway. Even with clear goals, it is important to establish the feasibility of what you have proposed. The goal of risk and constraint analysis is to establish whether the project is feasible within the constraints of economy, politics, laws, and organizational and community structure. All of these are limiting factors for carrying out conservation projects and a focus of many social science tools.
Do you need practical tools for integrating socioeconomic issues into the strategy development process of your project?
User's Guide to Assessing the Socio-Economic Root Causes of Biodiversity Loss
By Macroeconomics Program Office, 2000, World Wildlife Fund (WWF)
The purpose of this guide is to provide a step-by-step, practical methodology for conducting in-depth studies of the root causes of biodiversity loss. The analytic approach developed by World Wildlife Fund (WWF) offers a way to balance both quantitative and qualitative data to gain a complete picture of what is driving biodiversity loss at various sites. It is intended to be used to complement rigorous and quantitative ecological or biological studies whenever possible. The approach is primarily designed for use and adaptation by field staff, scientists and other conservation practitioners in the field who are interested in conducting root causes studies of their own.
English (17 pages, PDF, 189 KB)
Participatory Population Appraisal: A Manual to Assist Rural Communities in Anticipating and Planning for Change
By John S. Williams, 2003, Population Reference Bureau
This manual focuses on local population dynamics of rural communities the distribution movement, growth (or decline) of local population and the consequences for sustainable development, the health and well-being of people and the quality of the local environment. It also illustrates concepts, methods, and tools useful for enabling those concerned with sustainable development to address population issues within local planning efforts.
English (56 pages, PDF, 1.03 MB)
Socio-economic and Gender Analysis (SEAGA) Publications
By Socio-economic and Gender Analysis (SEAGA) Program, Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO)
The SEAGA publications offer practical tools and methods for integrating socio-economic and gender issues at different levels and within different technical areas. SEAGA Information Kit: These documents briefly illustrate what the SEAGA program is about and how it works. Macro, Intermediate and Field Level Handbooks: The three handbooks provide practical information for field workers (field level), development planners (intermediate level) and policy makers (macro level) on how to undertake socio-economic and gender analysis at the respective levels. Each handbook presents case studies and tools to help development practitioners collect, analyze and use information. Each handbook also suggests methods for integrating the findings to policy program and project identification and formulation. Guides: These are issue- and sector-specific guides that integrate socio-economic and gender analysis. For example, the "SEAGA Sector Guide on Irrigation" combines irrigation issues and practices with socio-economic and gender analysis concerns. The emphasis is on 'why' and 'how' to plan activities in a participatory way. The guides use real examples and studies to illustrate main issues and the practical use of tools and concepts.
English (available online at: http://www.fao.org/WAICENT/FAOINFO/SUSTDEV/seaga/4_en.htm)
Español (disponible por Internet: http://www.fao.org/WAICENT/FAOINFO/SUSTDEV/seaga/4_es.htm
Français (disponible sur Internet: http://www.fao.org/WAICENT/FAOINFO/SUSTDEV/seaga/4_fr.htm)
Português (http://www.fao.org/WAICENT/FAOINFO/SUSTDEV/seaga/4_pt.htm)
Making Biodiversity Conservation Happen: The Role of Environmental Education and Communication
By Pat Foster-Turley, 1996, Environmental Education and Communication Project (GreenCOM), U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID)
Recognizing the environmental and economic benefits of biodiversity means acknowledging how people protect or destroy the earth's biological richness. People make decisions and take action based on information, perceptions, and alternatives. This paper demonstrates effective techniques from the field of environmental education and communication (EE&C) that can help biodiversity conservationists and program managers apply their art and science.
English (37 pages, PDF, 101 KB)
Stakeholder Power Analysis Power Tools: Tools for Working on Policies and Institutions, Series 2
By International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED), 2001
Stakeholders are the people who matter to a system. Stakeholder power analysis is a tool used to help understand how people affect policies and institutions, and how policies and institutions affect people. It is particularly useful in identifying the winners and losers and in highlighting the challenges that need to be faced to change behavior, develop capabilities and tack inequalities. A six-step process is presented for stakeholder power analysis.
English (24 pages, PDF, 764 KB)
Are you interested in learning more about integrating the human dimension into goal setting activities at the ecoregional scale?
A Guide to Socioeconomic Assessments for Ecoregion Conservation
By Ecoregional Conservation Strategies Unit, 2000, World Wildlife Fund (WWF)
This document provides a flexible guide to socioeconomic assessments for ecoregion conservation. Four essential tasks are introduced: stakeholder analysis; analysis of threats and opportunities; defining possible interventions; and monitoring and evaluation. Each of these tasks contributes to the ultimate goal of designing, implementing, and constantly improving conservation actions at an ecoregion scale.
English (19 pages, PDF, 59 KB)
Gender and Ecoregion Conservation
By Ecoregional Conservation Strategies Unit, 2001, World Wildlife Fund (WWF), Sharing Across Boundaries, Issue 2
Gender is one of the key variables to consider during a stakeholder assessment, given the influence that gender differences have on how men and women respond to conservation challenges and opportunities. This publication lays out the questions and tools that ecoregion conservation practitioners need to be considering.
English (6 pages, PDF, 70 KB)
Social Dimensions in a Biological World: Integrating Gender and Conservation in Priority Ecoregions
By Center for Conservation Innovation/Conservation Strategies Unit, 2001, World Wildlife Fund (WWF)
Drawing on its range of experience in developing conservation plans that accurately reflect the ways men and women interact with resources, World Wildlife Fund presents this collection of examples, conclusions, and recommendations that explore issues of gender and their integration within conservation planning and action. The paper also explores the variety of approaches and tools to address gender within conservation planning and action-from mapping biological and socioeconomic variables to direct gender analysis.
English (10 pages, PDF, 173 KB)
Conservation on a Crowded Planet: A Population Sourcebook for Conservation Practitioners
By Center for Conservation Innovation/Conservation Strategies Unit, 2002, World Wildlife Fund (WWF)
This sourcebook has been designed to give practitioners guidance in how to undertake or collaborate in population-related assessments and actions. It includes the following: information on how population dynamics affect ecoregions and a summary of current and projected population trends; a set of questions to help assess population-environment interactions at ecoregional and site-based levels; suggestions for specific actions to address population dynamics, including information on partnerships; information on what impacts can be expected from specific interventions, and in what time frame; and resources to support practitioners' efforts to act on population-conservation connections.
English (36 pages, PDF, 1.25 MB)
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