4.2. Program Design: Tools

What have previous local interventions incorporated in their approach?

Module Outline:

Once an intervention is proposed and decided upon through solution identification, program design is about determining what needs to happen and how the necessary actions will be completed. This module presents techniques for pinpointing available resources and partners and strategising how to best utilise them.

There is no one-size-fits-all approach to program design, and donors often encourage specific methods. Gaining a broad understanding of multiple styles will help you become a more effective peacemaker, environmental manager, and community facilitator. See Modules 4.3 and 4.4 for worksheets and tips about how to engage groups of people in program design, remembering that the more buy-in you have to a process, the more likely your work will be successful.

Module Objectives:

- explain why Resource and Actor Mapping are useful first steps in program design
- appreciate that various activities and goals will require differing levels of investment, and that Low-Hanging Fruit Analysis can help concentrate resources where they will do the most good
- understand how LogFrames can help guide program design

Resource Map

WHAT IS A RESOURCE MAP?

A resource map illustrates a community’s available assets. These might include economic, environmental, physical, social, and other means.

Resource maps document the interactions between systems and people, highlighting which resources (including ecosystem services) are accessible to whom, who uses them, how they use them, and what they use them for. Resource maps can also highlight existing but underutilised assets, whether they be natural features, infrastructures, or institutions.

WHY CREATE A RESOURCE MAP?

By visually documenting community geography, resource maps help highlight the assets, services, and ecosystems that might help - or hinder - a proposed intervention. They can also help you consider how the location of project activities might impact community groups in different ways. Ultimately, a resource map is about identifying supports and limitations, so you can best design a program that will leverage available resources and avoid or mitigate potential concerns.

Resource maps can be a valuable tool in baseline assessment; however, you are strongly encouraged to repeat the process once you have identified a proposed solution. This is because (1) the community engagement process will likely lead to additional information to include on the map, and (2) producing a resource map specific to assets that could be valuable for the chosen intervention can be particularly useful in program design.

WHAT ARE SOME LIMITATIONS OF A RESOURCE MAP?

Resource maps are only as informed as their creators: Key assets may be overlooked or misunderstood, depending on who contributes to the map. It can be useful to start a resource map with an existing template (i.e., a map from Google Earth or a similar service); however, the chosen boundaries and highlighted features on that initial template will fundamentally impact what is and is not included on the resource map. Knowing which biases and assumptions you are starting with - perhaps inadvertently - is key.

Given seasonal changes to resource availability, especially those related to ecosystem services, a resource map may not accurately capture asset flows at every point in the year.

Actor Analysis

WHAT IS ACTOR ANALYSIS?

Actor analysis is the process of evaluating key individuals, groups, and institutions that influence and/or are influenced by a chosen context or activity. Actor analysis involves identifying relevant actors and determining their interests, capacities, and connections.

WHY CONDUCT ACTOR ANALYSIS?

Actor analysis provides a basis for understanding how different components of a community affect and interact with each other and their environment. By understanding the power dynamics and relationships between actors, as well as individual actors' goals and capabilities, you can identify opportunities for cooperation, possible barriers to collaboration, and strategies for accomplishing your proposed intervention.

Identifying who will be excited by your solution and which resources they bring to the table can help inform how you plan to get things done. Knowing who might object to a proposed solution and why they would be concerned will guide you in designing your solution in such a way that their concerns are addressed, avoiding potential roadblocks or challenges to the project.

As discussed in Unit 1, some form of actor identification is a necessary component of community mobilisation; however a more rigourous actor analysis should be completed at this stage, since there will likely be additional actors who will be necessary to engage in order for the intervention to be successful, and/or who will be affected by the project. Participatory approaches will be especially useful in identifying and understanding a wide range of potentially involved/impacted actors.

Ultimately, actor analysis is about knowing who to engage as partners, and how to go about getting them involved through a well thought-out program design.

WHAT ARE SOME LIMITATIONS OF ACTOR ANALYSIS?

Actor analysis inherently involves simplifying very complex people and groups into brief statements about their goals and capacities. Depending on who is conducting the analysis, it is very likely that at least some actors will be spoken for, with assumptions made about their desires and resources. This may introduce inaccuracies; at a minimum, some nuance will be lost in the process.

As with many tools and models, there are trade-offs to the amount of detail to include in analysis. Having too many actors represented in your analysis can quickly become unwieldy; but omitting key people or relations may result in missing key possibilities for the program, and/or failing to anticipate community pushback to the project.

Example Actor Map
(see page 37 of this Toolbox)

Low-Hanging Fruit Analysis

WHAT IS LOW-HANGING FRUIT ANALYSIS?

Low-hanging fruit analysis visualises how simple or difficult it will be to achieve various goals within a project. If a community already has the time and resources necessary to complete an activity, that activity would be classified as ‘low-hanging fruit’; low-hanging fruit can be prioritised early on in the project, and will require relatively little oversight. ‘High-hanging fruit’ (that is, aspects of the proposed intervention that are difficult, time-consuming, and/or costly) will necessitate focused program design in order to ensure they receive the special attention and resources required to achieve them.

WHY CONDUCT LOW-HANGING FRUIT ANALYSIS?

Community environmental action planning projects involve a range of activities. Each of these activities will require different amounts of time, resources, and effort. Some will be easier to accomplish, others will be harder.

By considering the ease of different activities and services - including the barriers, opportunities, and outcomes associated with completing them - low-hanging fruit analysis can help guide the formation of an implementation plan. It is particularly useful in prioritising activities and identifying resource gaps that will need to be addressed by the program design.

WHAT ARE SOME LIMITATIONS OF LOW-HANGING FRUIT ANALYSIS?

Low-hanging fruit analysis is built on assumptions about how easy activities will be to accomplish. In reality, some activities may be more difficult than they initially appear, and certain barriers may not be obvious. For example, when reforesting an area, a community might have the requisite saplings, empty land, and motivated volunteers for planting - but do they have vehicles to transport the saplings, plenty of shovels, and water for the planting team? It is important to tease out all necessary resources and potential barriers (including logistical practicalities) when ranking how high or low ‘fruit’ will be on the activity ‘tree’.

During program design, it may be tempting to only ‘harvest’ low-hanging fruit and leave higher-hanging fruit on the ‘tree’ (i.e., build simpler activities into a program design, and ignore more challenging elements). But more difficult activities tend to be more important to the overall success of the project. (And high-hanging fruit can rot if left untouched!) High-hanging fruits require attention over a long period of time, and should be built into the program design from the start, rather than being left till the end of the project. The temptation to address them only once the low-hanging fruit is collected may result in their being completed hastily and/or inadequately, and could even spoil the entire project.

LogFrame

WHAT IS A LOGFRAME?

A logframe (logical framework matrix) concisely and systemically outlines key aspects of program design. Vertically, a logframe outlines a logical sequence connecting specific activities to a 'big picture' goal. Horizontally, a logframe provides a starting place for monitoring and evaluation.

The first column of a logframe presents a hierarchy of program design elements, with specific activities on the bottom leading to outputs, outputs leading to outcomes, outcomes leading to a broader purpose, and the purpose leading to an overall goal. The second column details the indicators that can confirm whether that row's program element has been achieved; the third column outlines which data sources and verification methods will be used to measure the indicator. The final column explicitly states assumptions or conditions that need to hold true for the program elements to feed into each other properly. (For instance, an outcome of 'women making more money' only supports a purpose of 'women's empowerment' if women are able to control their own finances.)

WHY CREATE A LOGFRAME?

The purpose of a logframe is to carefully think through how and why the activities in a proposed intervention will lead to the intended outputs, how and why those outputs will produce desired outcomes, how and why those outcomes achieve a stated purpose, and how and why that purpose feeds into the primary goal. In this way, logframes help break down complicated systems. A logframe can enhance program design in both directions: From the bottom-up, logframes demonstrate how small actions feed into big goals; from the top-down, logframes can guide planning to ensure specific, tangible actions are built into the program design, rather than relying on overly broad ideas without detailed methods.

As discussed in Module 4.1, logframes are a common requirement of donor agencies; as such, using them to aid program design can also help save time and effort when it comes to grantwriting and/or reporting. By providing a structure for program design, logframes help ensure the proposed activities 'fit' the stated objectives. They provide a clear project summary that highlights the relative importance of activities and goals, as well as indicating what will be achieved and what should be monitored in order to measure success.

WHAT ARE SOME LIMITATIONS OF A LOGFRAME?

While the structure of logframes is one of their strengths, that very structure can also be a weakness, if not balanced with flexibility and adaptability. Logframes are, by their nature, linear. Simplified representations of very complex problems and solutions - as all environmentally-related conflict contexts are - can restrict creative thinking and 'miss' potential side effects. It is important to use logframes as one of several tools in program design, and to regularly return to the logframe in order to check assumptions and reevaluate whether project activities are having their intended impacts.

← Previous Module

Next Module →