Areas
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Framework for Engagement
The 6 elements outlined in the framework show the areas of engagement with traditional communities and allow us to determine common themes relating to culture and environment.
The 6 elements are in 2 groupings.
- Influencing elements; such as social context cultural legacy, landscape
- Relational elements: such as community concerns and responses, governance responsibility, people in place.
Beyond presenting data for comparison, the framework enables an understanding of how the social fabric is affected and how responsibility is strengthened or abandoned. The framework also reflects how the path of environmental regeneration can bring about acceptable results or how the path of environmental degradation will increase poverty. Five questions are asked:
- What changed and what remained the same? => What is the current status?
- How is broader society affecting the local situation? => What are the driving forces?
- What is pushing and pulling on the social fabric? => What are the pressures?
- What was acknowledged or not acknowledged, agreed upon or not? => What is the impact?
- What acknowledgements, agreements and actions will bring about desired outcomes? => What is the response?
FRAMEWORK for ENGAGEMENT |
Status Change |
Broader society influence |
Factors that push and pull |
Impact of things acknowledged, agreed and acted upon |
Potential strategies and actions for desired outcomes |
Social Context |
what? |
How? |
What? |
What?
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How?
What?
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Landscape |
What?
When?
Where? |
What?
Where? |
How?
What?
Where? |
How much?
Where?
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What?
Where? |
People in Place (individual users, leaders, elders, innovators) |
What?
When?
Where?
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How? |
What? |
Who?, What?, How much?, How often?, Where?
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What? |
Governance responsibility |
What?
When? |
How? |
What? |
What ?
When?
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What?
How?
When? |
Community concerns and responses |
What?
When?
Where? |
How? |
What?
Where?
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What?
When?
Where?
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What?
How?
When?
Where?
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Cultural Legacy |
What? |
How? |
what? |
What? |
How?
What? |
Once the what, where, when and how are determined, once these questions are answered, dialogue mechanisms are put in place to connect traditional communities with government and other stakeholders. Dialogue will forge social agreements for action and change.
USING THE FRAMEWORK TO GATHER DATA FOR ANALYSIS
To set the scene for the six key questions, a minimum amount of descriptive data is required for each element. The bullet points under each element recommend the type of data to be obtained and suggest the format needed for presentation, wherever possible and appropriate.
1. SOCIAL CONTEXT
- What and where is the community located (impact on access)?
- What is the tenure history of the area from which the community’s present situation emerged (in- and out-migration patterns)?
- What is key in the community’s social situation now?
Poverty and hunger, primary education, child mortality, maternal health, gender equality, HIV, malaria and other diseases, access to resources, access to safe drinking water and general living conditions, socio-economic condition (UN Millennium Development Goals)
- What was the reason for working with ESSC or other assisting organizations?
2. LANDSCAPE
- Features of the landscape, topology, rivers, climate, geology
- Landuse practices of the people, - forests, water, land, coast, minerals and changes experienced
- Resource Transect
- Community map
- Forest type diagram
- Photos
- Farming practices of the people, subsistent, commercial, intensive, changes in practices
- Farming cycle
- Marketing diagram
- Photos
- Cultural values in the landscape – what areas are important to people and why
3. PEOPLE IN PLACE
- What type of resource users are in the area?
- Interview quotes and summaries
- photos
- What type of leaders are there and how strong are they?
- Interview quotes and summaries
- photos
- How do people feel about their place?
- Interview quotes and summaries
- Photos
4. GOVERNANCE RESPONSIBILITY
- How are decisions internalized by the community?
- Leadership diagram
- Photos
- What type of informal or locally organised groups are there and what do they do and why did they develop?
- Diagram and explanation
- photos
- What is the formal government structure and how do people and other stakeholders relate to it?
- Tree diagram of government system/structure
- Stakeholders relationship diagram
5. COMMUNITY CONCERNS AND RESPONSES
- What are the problems identified by the community?
- Key issues diagram/graphs/map
- Photos
- What strategies are they undertaking to deal with these problems?
- Photos
- Indicative plan (transect)
6. CULTURAL LEGACY
- How was the community's cultural identity and sense of self possession developed and from what historical influences?
- Photo of key building/structures
- What foods, handicrafts, skills does the community have that are linked to their identity and resources?
- Photos
- Diagram of types in groups
- What legends, stories, beliefs, myths, taboos does the community have about their place, resources, and behaviour?
- Map
- Photos
- Written documentation
- What Languages are spoken? When and where are the languages spoken? How does the community think their language has changed?
- Interview quotes in the less dominant language.
- How is tourism affecting this legacy?
- Inteview quotes and summaries
- Photos
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