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Methods - Toolbox
Methods used and developed during the project
included:
1. Regional orientation, training and analysis
workshops.
Workshops were an important feature of the project. The initial
project planning workshop in Lusaka
in June 2002 provide an opportunity to build the project
team; develop a shared understanding of basic agricultural
biodiversity assessment issues, economic and policy-related
aspects of on-farm conservation, and in participatory project
evaluation approaches; develop and field-test the research
methodology for the case studies; to develop an appropriate
information strategy for the project (including form and timing
of outputs); and select relevant projects as case studies,
for detailed participatory field work involving all project
stakeholders (farmers, staff, collaborating institutions)
to learn lessons about pre-conditions for success. Cases were
chosen on the basis of key criteria relating to case study
project focus, impact, length of operation, etc.
Preliminary analysis of the case studies was
carried out by individual project teams, and recorded in the
case-study reports. Then the entire team met in Addis
Ababa in February 2003 to complete the case study repeorts,
work together to synthesise the main conclusions, develop
the initial project web site, and decide how to complete the
remainder of the analysis and information production.
2. Field research methods
A range of field research methods were used and further developed
during the case-study field work. Since resources for field-work
were limited - each case study had to be completed by a team
of two people in only one week - they focused on simple quick
participatory approaches to gather quantitative and qualitative
information approaches. Each case study team included one
person with first-hand knowledge of the project, and another
from another country. Each team also included one biodiversity
specialist and one person with practical experience of using
participatory approaches.
Field research methods included:
- Semi-Structured Interviews: To
obtain detailed and specific information from focus-groups
or individuals. More
details
243kb
- Scoring: A
simple participory tool to generate, compare and prioritise
a list of success criteria for the project case studies,
which will alllow quantitative analysis of data across different
case studies. More
details
142kb
- Institutiuonal
Mapping: A participatory exercise
to develop an inventory of the institutions working with,
contributing to and supporting the project; to highlight
the institutions’ roles and inter institutional linkages;
and to determine the relevance and importance of the institutions
to the project. More
details
159kb
- Stakeholder
Analysis: To identify stakeholders,
their affiliations, roles, interactions, level of interest
in the project and the likely impact of the project on them.
This approach will help in identifying which stakeholders
should be approached to gain maximum relevant information
for the project objective. More
details
118kb
- Timelines: To
find out the events/history of an on-farm conservation project,
in general. More details
99kb
- Trend Analysis: To
establish changes/patterns in key indicators for abc within
the project over a fixed period of time, and to try to understand
how milestones have influenced these changes/patterns. (It
is complementary with scoring). More
details
88kb
To ensure that coparable information was
collected from each case study and to simplify analysis across
the case studies, team members were asked to record their
results in simple Debriefing Documents following a common
format (More
details
221kb) and any other information, thoughts, questions
and comments in Diaries. Each case-study team was also given
a camera to document findings pictorially.
For more on methods, see Methods
Guide by Carlos Barahona
54kb
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