key messages national riparian lands research & development program assessing community capacity...
TRANSCRIPT
Key MessagesNational Riparian Lands
Research & Development Program
Assessing Community Capacity for Riparian
Restoration
Overview of Presentation
• Overview of the Research Project
• What is ‘capacity’• Rethinking capacity• What capacity means in
practice• Overview of a ‘capacity
assessment tool’
The Research Project
Aim: to identify the critical success and failure issues affecting community participation in riparian restoration.
Qualitative research based on the experiences of 5 regions involved in ‘demonstration & evaluation projects’
May 2002 - June 2003
Method
• 5 case-studies visited around Australia
• On-site discussions with landholders, managers,etc..
• Focus groups• Feedback from a national
‘capacity’ workshop • Feedback on a ‘draft capacity
assessment tool'
What is ‘capacity’?Norms and values • Shared values, norms, attitudes
• Shared vision• Trust, reciprocity• Identification with a social group
Knowledge • Knowledge and skills• Knowledge about access to resources
Skills in working together
• Leadership• Self-efficacy• Decision-making & problem solving• Conflict resolution, negotiation
Interactional infrastructure
• Networks• Social brokers • Events• Procedures
Source: Cocklin et al 2001:106
“An ability to act towards a shared vision”
A linear approach…
1. Set a target or goal
2. Assume others share this goal
3. Identify ‘barriers’ to getting there
4. Educate or train people and/or provide assistance, to overcome ‘barriers’ (‘Capacity Building’)
5. Hope for broader adoption
By this time the target has often shifted because the context has
changed…
Different frequencies and intensities of PROCESSES:- social and human capital - drought, flood- boom-bust economic cycles
Positive Outcomes
Negative Outcomes
TIME
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apaci
tyA process-oriented approach to ‘capacity’
Rethinking capacity
• Social, economic and biophysical components
• Complex, time and space dependent
A ‘new’ definition of capacity
• the capability of individuals, groups and institutions to understand and respond to the enabling and constraining elements, dimensions and issues that drive the process of capital accumulation and decline (in all its forms) to produce desirable outcomes.
A ‘new’ definition of capacity• Key principles that underpin
this definition:– Participation & engagement– Adaptive management
• learn, • understand, • respond appropriately
– Acknowledge existing capacity:• “Capacity enhancement”
What does capacity mean in practice?
Results of our research
• 35 ‘dimensions’ of capacity identified– at individual, community and
institutional levels
• Each dimension can have a positive (enabling) and negative (constraining) influence
• The dimensions remained similar across Australia– but each region responded differently
• Responses are time- and place-dependent
Johnstone River Catchment
Mary River Catchment
Goulburn-Broken Catchment
Blackwood Catchment
Far South Coast
Key dimensions of capacity• Context
– Economic conditions
– Community support
– Awareness of water quality/quantity issues
– Climatic events– Community
networks– Community
negotiation structures
– Cost of works
• Values and Perceptions– Values– Shared vision– ‘Extension’ skills– Awareness– Open
mindedness– Perceptions of
solutions– Ownership of
problems and solutions
Key dimensions of capacity• Communications
and empowerment– Data availability– Communications –
targeting– Communications –
mechanisms– Consistency of
communications– Cooperation– Empowerment– Inclusiveness
• Program design– Roles and
responsibilities,– Financial security– Program
consistency– Institutional
consistency– Flexibility– Forward planning– Transparency
Key dimensions of capacity• Program
delivery– Decision-making– Consistency of
key people– Personality of
key people– Skills and
experience of key people
– Community ‘champions’
– Monitoring and evaluation
– Institutional capacity
Results of our research…
• Limitations on one dimension are overcome by investing in that dimension, or making compensatory investments in other dimensions– This is not often done explicitly
• We need a better understanding of how the underlying processes interact to produce different outcomes
Implications• Due to the diversity within and
between regions, there is no single approach to ‘capacity building’
• In designing policies and programs, we need to understand:– the ‘most important’ dimensions of
‘capacity’ in the region, at the moment– How the dimensions/processes interact– How the processes can be influenced
to achieve desired outcomes
A ‘Capacity Assessment Tool’
Helping people think through and monitor ‘capacity’
A ‘Capacity Assessment Tool’
• Background – to enable various analyses, over time,
place, stakeholders
• Assessment– 5 themes, 7 dimensions
• Importance weighting (for region)• Project life-stage importance
weighting• Priority setting (optional)• Results• Implications report
Background
Navigation
Assessment
Summary Results
Full Results
Implications Report
Weighting - Importance, Life-stage,
Priority Setting
Using the tool
Assessment tool not a measurement tool
It is the process of working through the tool that is important, the results or outputs of the tool should really only be seen as record of the process
How can it be used
• Checklist of issues in relation to capacity
• Reporting change over time• Diagnostic tool (strengths and
weaknesses)• Participatory research and decision
making
Further Information:•RipRap Edition 24 – Building capacity for river and riparian restoration
hard copy or www.rivers.gov.au
•Assessing community capacity to undertake riparian restoration: tool & discussion paper www.rivers.gov.au/