TEEBAgriFood’s Evaluation Framework and methodologies

TEEBAgriFood’s Evaluation Framework answers the question: What should we evaluate about food systems? And TEEBAgriFood’s methodologies answer the question: How should we do these evaluations? TEEBAgriFood illustrates five families of applications to compare: (a) different policy scenarios; (b) different farming typologies; (c) different food and beverage products; (d) different diets/ food plates; and (e) adjusted versus conventional national or sectoral accounts.

TEEBAgriFood gives ten examples showing how to apply this framework and methodologies for various types of evaluations. One of them is, for example, a study in New Zealand of 15 conventional and 14 organic fields that valued 12 ecosystem  services  and found both crops as well as other ecosystem services to be higher in the organic fields.

The TEEBAgriFood evaluation framework provides a structure and an overview of what should be included in the analysis. However, methods of valuation depend on the values to be assessed, availability of data, and the purpose of the analysis. Ideally one should be able to say with some confidence what are the externalities associated with each euro or dollar spent on a given kind of food, produced, distributed and disposed of in a given way. The application of the framework requires an interdisciplinary approach, where all relevant stakeholders, including policy-makers, businesses, and citizens, understand and identify questions that are to be answered by a valuation exercise. Therefore, stakeholder engagement across sectors is critical to the effective application of TEEBAgriFood in specific contexts and policy arenas.

Partnerships and collaboration around nutritional security

Working together with other stakeholders for synergy helps in ensuring success.

Pooling human, technical and financial resources helps in achieving more for less time and money, and also helps curb replication of solutions.

All partners and the community are actively involved in the entire process thus each party takes ownership resulting to success.

  • Cordial relations among all stakeholders
  • Timely communication and coordiantion to enable participation
  • Resource allocation by each participating partner to ensure smooth operations hence no gaps/delays in service delivery

Stakeholder collaboration is essential for successful problem diagnosis, identification, planning and implemetation of any interventions in the community

Designing Community Action Plans

Community led initiatives have a higher chance of success. Working with the community for the community is one of the best ways of ensuring process and results ownership.

In our reference case of Vihiga County, after desseminating results of the baseline survey to the intevention community, with the guidance of all participating partners the locals were allowed to brainstorm and come up with possible feasible interventions.

This largely contributed to the success of the project as the participants enthusiastically made effort to ensure successful implementation and continuity. Some members voluntered their land and other resources towards the project, it beng their very own.

Partners offered some financial support to kick start the project, and also agri nutrition knowledge and skills.

Inclusivity

Collaboration

Community active participation

For an intervention to work best, let it be community owned and actioned from inception, with the guidance of other participating partners like the government and donors.

Collecting Agirnutrition and Konwledge, Attitude and Practice Data

Reliable and recent data about the study community is a key contributor to the success of an intervention.

Data provides prior knowledge of the community and possible areas of collaboration with other exisiting projects, if any exist.

In our Vihiga project, results of the baseline survey informed us of the current situation (exisiting nutritional gaps). The results were also shared with the communities and it is from these findings that the communties based their deliberations and came up with possible ways of tackling the problems found.

For scaling up of the project in Turkana and Ethiopia, we will utilize agrinutrition data collected earlier in both areas.

Data collection in the mid and end will help determine the effectiveness or otherwise of the intervention

  • Selection of a representative sample 
  • Accuracy in data collection, entry and analysis
  • Simplified dissemination of research findings to enable uderstanding by the community hence relevant intervention.
  • It is important to carry out a diagnostic study before any intervention plans in order to establish exisiting gaps
  • Our use of mixed methods in data collection helped in data verification
  • It is important to invest in the whole research process-data collection, cleaning and analysis for accurate representative results.
Nature Trust Alliance: a partnership for shared services to save on administrative costs

PONT is part of a cooperation between four funds called the Nature Trust Alliance (NTA), to share operational services. NTA was established between the Caucasus Nature Fund (CNF) and PONT in June 2016. In March 2017, Blue Action Fund joined the working partnership followed by the Legacy Landscapes Fund in 2020. The mission of NTA is to “provide operational support to our partners to allow them to focus on their core missions in nature conservation”. The NTA office is in Frankfurt as all four partner funds of NTA are registered foundations in Germany. NTA enabled PONT to establish its Regional Programme Office in Tirana, Albania from which the grant programme is managed. Through this partnership for shared services, PONT is saving costs for administrative purposes (payments; accounting; reporting; audits; investment support; communication).

Strengthened negotiating position with external service providers (banks, auditors, etc.)

 

Economies of scale by pooling certain services

 

Efficiencies in developing and implementing new procedures, systems and legislation compliance (1 time developing/4 times used)

 

Shared Investment Committee and investment policies

It is important to analyse, define and agree on potential shared services. If there are no expected economies of scale it is not advisable to make it a shared service as the level of complexity increases in a shared services set-up. Identical type of services fit better in a shared services concept. In the case of NTA this means that administrative and investment related services in Germany are shared services. As the grant programmes and the site-specific administrative services are different for the four funds these are not included under the shared services.

 

Expectations, procedures and a management / governance structure should be discussed and agreed from the start. Clear and easy communication and decision making tools should be established. Regular knowledge sharing enables continuous improvement through learning from each other. An existing shared service office can be very beneficial for new funds in their start-up phase enabling a quick start. However, the entry of new partner fund should be carefully considered and there should be enough common elements to be beneficial.

Conservation fund

As a strategy of connection and contribution of the citizenship, because in the first edition (2013) We were able to finance all expenses, a conservation fund was generated from the collection of the cost of the registration of the event, the fund was delivered to the Promoter Group CPY and it was invested in conservation actions and sustainable use of the territory, with the fund was bought trap cameras for monitoring biodiversity.
This proposal was not sustainable for following editions, due to the considerable increase of the participation and the associated costs, currently we use the fee of the registrations to complete the event financing.

Have an emblematic conservation project in the region.
Having achieved the total financing of the initiative in its first year.
To have a permanent governance space (Cooperation System and CPY promoter group)

It is necessary to devote greater effort to the raising of economic resources to maintain the conservation fund.
To allocate the money raised in local projects, helps to strengthen the relationship between the promoter group and the community.
Having an external institution that helps finance 100% of the event, allows the creation of the conservation fund.

Capacity building to ensure the ecosystem approach

To improve local governance in the Sumpul River, it was crucial to mainstream the ecosystem approach into land management, and train accordingly water local governance structures, local authorities, and farmers. Together they implement EbA measures to face drought and variability such as: soil conservation practices, protected spring water and implemented agroforestry systems.

 

Capacity building was delivered to: 

  • >100 farmers through a "learning by doing" approach to attain demonstrative results in the field. The EbA measures implemented focused on the ecosystem services of water and soil, on productive diversification and on mitigating the impacts of climate change and variability (winds and extreme rainfall) on crops and goods and  improve water infiltration and availability in the area. 
  • Water Committes on organizational and management skills as well as on integral water management, in order to influence their understanding of the importance of water ecosystem services.
  • Leader and farmer women were trained on communication skills.
  • Municipal officers were part of a regional climate change adaptation training and exchange of experience with other 30 local governements of Mesoamerica. 
  • Synergies with existing projects and local organizations such as Plan Trifinio were crutial. 
  • Exchanges of experience contribute to training processes and to motivate participants to take part in water governance, and recognize the learning value of actions that are carried out.
  • Ensuring the capacities of local organization is key to ensure the provision of water ecosystem services, and will always be a good investment.
Developing flexible governance frameworks for adaptation

Governance for adaptation requires flexible policy and legal frameworks. Therefore, the upper sub-basin’s governance platforms required management instruments that would enable those adaptation options and forms of governance that brought about the greatest socio-environmental benefits to be valued and institutionalized. The Internal Regulations of several ADESCO Water Committees and the sub-basin’s Binational Community Committee were drafted, with the latter also updating its Strategic Plan (five-year plan) and Annual Operating Plan.

 

The process took into account new dynamics and trends in the sub-basin, as well as the EbA approach. The formulation of municipal policies was also supported (Local Adaptation Plans for La Palma and San Ignacio, El Salvador). Given that adaptation to climate change is immersed in a series of uncertainties about future climate impacts and development trajectories, these frameworks and instruments must be constantly evolving, always taking into account lessons derived from field and governance experiences. In this way, adaptation to climate change can move forward under a flexible approach, and through iterative cycles, generate short-term strategies in view of long-term uncertainties.

  • The continuous presence and the rooting in the territory of Plan Trifinio is a powerful enabling factor that provides flexibility in decision making and also vertical scaling. This trinational entity works closely with communities and knows the territory well, yet also has political weight and leverage with authorities, as it is part of the Central American Integration System and is chaired by the Vice Presidents and Presidential Delegate of three countries (El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras).
  • The Sumpul sub-basin has an Integral Management Plan, the implementation of which falls on all sub-basin stakeholders, and which could be revitalized based on the progress made with EbA and the strengthening of governance for adaptation. Flexible governance should contemplate the monitoring, evaluation and updating of this Integral Management Plan based on lessons of implementes projects.
  • The new management instruments prepared by the sub-basin’s governance platforms should in future be evaluated to determine how effective they were as adaptation responses. Any adjustments that result from this analysis will be a sign of flexible governance.
Multidimensional governance for adaptation of water resources

Multilevel and multisectorial governance for adaptation implies working at multiple levels and with differente sectors. It requires creating connections for better articulation between territorial actors.

 

In the upper part of the Sumpul River sub-basin, this entailed working closely with grassroots (community-based) organizations to develop bottom up water resource management. This was done supporting the conformation of  Water Committees linked with Community Development Associations (ADESCOs), the Municipalities and the Binational Community Committee.

 

The capacities of 4 Water Committees and their supply systems were strengthened and were thereafter formalized under municipal governance.

 

Moreover, and following the multilevel governance approach, the Binational Community Committe was strengthened throught restructuring advice, trainings, new management tools, and greater links with municipal governments. This Committee is now leading community water issues to prevent conflicts around water use.

  • Honduras legal framework (General Water Law) that defines different water basin governance structures; and in El Salvador the regulation of the ADESCO Water Committees, with a public health mandate.
  • The existence of the Binational Committee was key, since work did not start from scratch, but rather focused on their strengthening and restructuring, respectively. 
  • The articulation of project and organization efforts across a territory is fundamental (e.g. between IUCN and Plan Trifinio)
  • The strengthening of existing local and community structures is vital, as these have the ability to sustain the progress and changes achieved in the territory, despite the alternation of local authorities.
  • The ADESCOs and the Binational Community Committee undertake important mediation tasks, since the management of water resources can generate conflicts due to the diversity of interests that converge on this issue.
  • The articulation of project efforts across a territory is fundamental (e.g. between the AVE and BRIDGE projects) to achieve greater impacts and efficiencies, through coordinated project agendas.
  • The BRIDGE project in the Goascorán River basin (El Salvador-Honduras) left the following lesson learnt that is also relevant in this case: "Water diplomacy does not necessarily follow a straight path. Effective strategies need to incorporate multiple dimensions and a phased approach, interconnecting existing and emerging structures in the basin."
The ecosystem approach into practice

Under an ecosystem approach, efforts seek to improve the livelihoods and resilience of ecosystems in order to reduce the vulnerability of local communities to the challenges of erratic rains, changing pf seasons, storms and consequent loss of crops. The EbA measures promoted are:

  • Restoration of riverbank forests to prevent river bank erosion during extreme storms and flash floods. This is promoted with annual Binational Reforestation Days and guided by a Restoration Opportunities study in river banks. 
  • Agrodiversification was undertaken with local farmers to increase the number and varieties of crop species, fruit and wood trees in their plots, while combining with animals. This aim to improve the resilience of the system against erratic rainfall and changing seasonal patterns. The model is locally named as "integral farms".
  • Learning and exchange through a network of resilient farmers with knowledge on EbA.
  • Organization of agrobiodiversity fairs for the promotion and rescue of endemic seeds.

The model used a "learning by doing" approach and the adoption of iterative decisions that identify short-term strategies in light of long-term uncertainties. Learning and evaluation allows new information to be considered and inform policies at different levels. 

  • Climate change and, in particular, changes in rainfall patterns, are factors that concern many basin stakeholders, which increases their willingness to prioritize actions that favour water and food security. As a result, many farmers agreed to incorporate sustainable agricultural practices in their farms, taking full ownership of them.
  • The integral farms model facilitates understanding of the value of ecosystem services and helps to substantiate governance with an ecosystem approach.
  • When promoting dialogues on EbA, traditional and indigenous knowledge and experiences concerning climate variability and natural resources must be taken into account. This not only favours coherency in the selection of EbA measures, but also allows elements to be captured that can inform the actions of agricultural extension agencies in the basin and enrich national and regional policies.
  • Indigenous knowledge is fundamental when it comes to knowing which seeds and crop varieties are best adapted to the socio-ecological context. Organization of agrobiodiversity fairs for the exchange and preservation of endemic species seeds intended to enhance the planting of native species. Some are more resilient against climate related stressors; a diverse farm enable and agro-ecosystems turns into protecting communities from negative impacts of climate change, providing food security.
  • The reforestation events proved to be highly valuable activities. This type of action leaves an indelible mark on children and youth, and motivates them to replicate the activity in the future.