Most communities are not accustomed to being asked for their expertise. Mapping is a great first tool to begin with because it gets the communication and discussion going between you and the community. Local people are rich in knowledge and understanding about their own environment and surroundings, as this is where their families have lived often for generations, so maps drawl by the local community are usually detailed, authentic and accurate.
This particular map is a visual representation of the important places, services and resources in the area, as seen and understood and perceived by the community at the present moment. The map will include houses, roads, basic infrastructure, working places, natural resources, and specific resource and service locations.
Tool purpose:
Time needed:
• To understand which resources and services are most important to the community • To understand the power dynamics surrounding resources within the community – who owns/controls the resources • To identify gaps in available resources and services
2 hours per map
Materials needed:
Chart paper, note cards, markers or other locally available resources, like sticks, stones, straw, beans, seeds, coloured powders or saw dust, etc.
Keyword Search Tags
Project Phase: Initiation Phase
Approaches for Working With Communities: Community Development Approach, Community Engagement Approach
Behavioural Drivers (COM-B): Behaviour Change Diagnosis and Planning
The map below illustrates the community’s own village and environment. It includes infrastructure, such as houses, roads, drinking water facilities, working places and natural resources, as well as resources related to working animals such as grazing land, resting, feeding, and watering areas. It identifies which places and people are important to the community, including those that affect the care of their animals, such as the location of feed sellers, veterinarians, agro vets, and clinics.
Figure T1A Resources & services map for a rural agricultural community
Once a village outline had been drawn, the group added the number of animals per household (black dots). Human and animal-related resources and service providers are shown in the legend and include the doctor, school, seed sellers (human); veterinarian, animal feed seller, agro-vet (animal); and borehole (both). In this map, the veterinarian and the borehole are both located on the outskirts of the community and this likely has implications for their daily activities.
Discussions during and after production of the map may focus on the availability, cost and quality of the resources and service providers available in the village.
Resources and Services Map
Step 1
Start by explaining the purpose of the exercise and ask participants to draw an outline of their community on the ground or a large piece of chart paper using local materials, including: • General infrastructure, such as roads and paths, water points, community feed storage • Households in the community, including details of each household’s family members • Important, well-known places, such as clinic, school, temple/mosque, and meeting places
Step 2
Ask participants to indicate households that have working animals. Show the types and numbers of animals using symbols or local materials. Add details such as whether the animals are male or female (e.g. blue for males, red for females) and the kinds of work they do.
Step 3
Ask participants to identify any animal-related resources or services that are available in the community and add them to the map: • Natural resources, such as animal water supplies, resting areas and grazing areas and/or land where feed is grown • Service providers, such as animal health service providers, animal equipment makers, feed sellers, livestock extension workers etc.
Step 4
Ask participants to identify any human-related resources and services that are available in the community and add them to the map: • Natural resources, such as agricultural land, communal land, forest areas, water sources, resting and social areas • Service providers, such as doctors, traditional healers, schools, shops, banks, money lenders, community-based organizations working on animal welfare Ask participants if there is anything else that they would like to show on the map that they think is important to any aspect of their lives or livelihoods.
Step 5
Encourage the group to analyse and discuss what is shown on the map. Consider using the following guiding questions: • Which resources and services are most important and/or used most frequently? Not at all? Why? • Availability and access to resources and services – which are most available, and which are lacking? Who has access and who doesn’t? Why? • Who owns and/or makes the main decisions about land, water and other important or communal resources? • Are there differences in access or availability of these important assets between men, women, youth, and different ethnic, religious or socioeconomic groups? • Quality and cost of available resources and services, noting different people’s views • Which resources degrade and which improve?
Step 6
If the map was drawn on the ground, document it by either transferring it to a piece of paper or take a photo (indicating which direction is north). A copy should be left with the community. Record the community’s analysis and responses in your project action tracker and follow up with the community later if/when you start action planning together.
Facilitator’s Notes
Mapping on the ground is easiest and allows for everyone can walk around it to see the map from different angles. This also allows a large crowd to view the map, contribute to it and easily make changes and corrections based on community discussions.
Consider asking men and women to draw the maps separately. Different participants may draw different maps of the same area and that is ok. It reflects their different views of the community and of the topic discussed. As well, have the two separate maps will validate the results and highlight aspects that are important for men and women.
Remember that you are not controlling the map. Give confidence to people by asking participants to draw the map and gradually take over the entire process themselves.
Intervene only when it is necessary to involve people who are left out. Encourage those who are not participating.
Maps can show how things looked in the past, how they look now and what people would like their community to look like in the future. Maps can also be drawn before and after an intervention to compare changes to available and accessible resources and services.
Next Steps
Mapping in the rapport building stage might follow on with one of the following activities:
T5 Gender Roles and Responsibilities to understand men’s and women’s animal care-giving, management and use roles and responsibilities, and identify whether they desire changes in the division of labour
T7 Historical Timeline to learn which major past events community members perceive to be significant to working animals and people
The maps produced in the initiation phase might be referred to during a both mid-term (monitoring) and final evaluations during to illustrate changes and improvements to working animal resources and services.
This map shows a visual representation of the welfare status of animals within a community and the effects on people and animals. Using this tool will begin to focus both you and the community on the human and animal welfare issues that need further investigation.
Tool purpose:
Time needed:
• To understand community participants’ perceptions about their main animal welfare issues and gauge their level of awareness about good/bad animal welfare states • To identify the status of animals’ welfare in households in the community and generate their motivation to improve their animals’ welfare
2 hours
Materials needed:
Materials needed: Chart paper, note cards, markers or other locally available resources, like sticks, stones, straw, beans, seeds, coloured powders or saw dust, etc.
Keyword Search Tags
Project Phase: Initiation Phase
Approaches for Working With Communities: Community Development Approach, Community Engagement Approach
Behavioural Drivers (COM-B): Behaviour Change Diagnosis and Planning, Motivation
Project Support: Participatory Learning and Action Tools, Needs Assessment
Specific Topics: Animal Husbandry and Management; Animal Welfare, Feelings and Needs
Animal welfare issues map
An animal welfare map (Figure T1b) shows the welfare status of animals in each household within the community, based on specific factors that the community find important. Maps will vary depending on how well the community understands animal welfare and perceives the welfare of its working animals at this early stage.
The map may contain a mixture of:
Animal-based observations, such as weak and healthy animals, lame animals, animals with wounds or injuries.
Owner-based observations related to the behaviour and management practices e.g. who overloads/beats their animal or who doesn’t keep their animal’s shelter clean.
Resource availability and access, such as who has sufficient space or access to grazing land for keeping animals and who does not.
This map can be used to analyse the current animal welfare situation in the community and to identify the initial welfare problems that come to mind. Displaying and discussing the welfare status of each person’s animal is the first step in creating peer pressure for change. The map may also be used as a visual baseline that communities can use to compare against their future progress. When repeated after a period of time, changes in extent of animals with poor welfare status and availability of resources to care for them can be observed by comparing maps.
Figure T1B Animal welfare map from an equine-owning community
This map shows the welfare status of the animals in each household. Once the households with either a female (F) or male (M) horse (black dot) or donkey (white dot) were identified, the group identified animals in good (✓) or bad (x) condition. They then added some specific indicators of negative animal welfare: presence of wounds, malnutrition (lack of food) and beating (whip), and good animal welfare: available shade (trees) or shelter.
Based on the map, the group identified who they considered to be the best owners. They discussed reasons for the observed welfare status of animals, including why there were wounds on the animal and how they could be prevented.
Animal Welfare Issues Map
Step 1
Start by explaining the purpose of the exercise and ask participants to draw an outline of their community on the ground or a large piece of chart paper using local materials, including: • General infrastructure, such as roads and paths, water points, community feed storage • Households in the community • Important, well-known places, such as clinic, school, temple/mosque, and meeting places
Step 2
Ask participants to indicate households that have animals. Show the types and numbers of animals using symbols or local materials. Add details such as whether the animals are male or female (e.g. blue for males, red for females) and the kinds of work they do.
Step 3
Ask participants to discuss and agree which animal is the best in the community. Mark it on the map using a symbol next to the house. (In figure 1B, ✓ = good, x = bad) Then ask if any other animals in the community are in a similarly good condition. Give these households the same symbol. Next, identify which animals are in a moderate condition, marking them on the map using a different symbol. Finally, show the animals which are in the worst condition.
Please note: You may wish to start the discussion with the worst animal and move up to the animals in moderate and best condition.
If households have more than one working animal, rank all animals within the household.
Step 4
While participants are deciding which animals are in a moderate or poor state, ask them about how they are making their decisions. What criteria are they using in their discussions? These may include the behaviour of their owners in caring for their animals, the facilities or resources being provided to animals, and observations relating to the animals themselves, such as wounds, injuries, or body condition.
Step 5
Using symbols, list the criteria participants used to categorize the welfare status of working animals and place symbols next to the animal or household. For example, if an animal is in poor condition due to beating, poor quality of feed and inadequate shade or shelter, put symbols for each of these next to the household.
Ask participants if there is anything else that they would like to show on the map that they think is important to any aspect of their lives or livelihoods.
Step 6
If the map was drawn on the ground, document it by either transferring it to a piece of paper or take a photo (indicating which direction is north). A copy should be left with the community. Record the community’s analysis and responses in your project action tracker and follow up with the community later if/when you start action planning together.
Facilitation Notes
Mapping on the ground is easiest and allows for everyone can walk around it to see the map from different angles. This also allows a large crowd to view the map and contribute to it.
Consider asking men and women to draw the maps separately. Different participants may draw different maps of the same area and that is ok. It reflects their different views of the community and of the topic discussed. As well, have the two separate maps will validate the results and highlight aspects that are important for men and women.
Remember that you are not controlling the map. Give confidence to people by asking participants to draw the map and gradually take over the entire process themselves.
Intervene only when it is necessary to involve people who are left out. Encourage those who are not participating.
Maps can show how things looked in the past, how they look now and what people would like their community to look like in the future. Maps can also be drawn before and after an intervention to compare changes to human and animal welfare, available and accessible resources and services and disease patterns.
Next Steps
Mapping in the rapport building stage might follow on with one of the following activities:
T5 Gender Roles and Responsibilities to understand men’s and women’s animal care-giving and use roles and responsibilities, and identify whether they desire changes in the division of labour
T7 Historical Timeline to learn which major past events community members perceive to be significant to working animals and people
The maps produced in the initiation phase might be referred back to during a both mid-term (monitoring) and final evaluations during to illustrate changes and improvements to working animal resources and services.
Discuss the map while doing a T22 Animal Welfare Transect Walk later on to see if it represented the ground reality of the animal welfare situation
T1c: Mapping Animal Diseases
A disease map is a visual representation of disease patterns of animals within the community. Using this tool will begin to focus both you and the community on the human and animal welfare problems and issues related to disease that may need further investigation.
Tool purpose:
Time needed:
• To identify major disease outbreaks for both animals and humans and possible linkages. • To understand disease route transmission and how outbreaks are handled. • To identify opportunities to prevent future outbreaks from spreading.
2 hours per map
Materials needed:
Materials needed: Chart paper, note cards, markers or other locally available resources, like sticks, stones, straw, beans, seeds, coloured powders or saw dust, etc.
Keyword Search Tags
Project Phase: Initiation Phase
Approaches for Working With Communities: Community Development Approach, Community Engagement Approach
Behavioural Drivers (COM-B): Behaviour Change Diagnosis and Planning
Project Support: Participatory Learning and Action Tools, Needs Assessment
Specific Topics: Animal Health and Services; Vulnerability and Resilience
Disease map (both humans & animals)
A disease map shows the animals and humans affected by disease. It may be used for both present and past disease problems in the village. This map may identify similarities between good and poor human and animal health and disease. Showing diseases on a map encourages analysis and further discussion of their symptoms, causes and routes or patterns of infection, as well as their effects on people, animals, owners and the community. The discussion can explore people’s concerns about their health, the health of their working animals and the things that they would like to change.
Figure T1C Animal disease map for influenza
The map above (figure T1C) was made by a community in a village where there was an epidemic of influenza. First the participants mapped their households and indicated where the animals were located. Then they showed which people and animals were affected by influenza and when, also indicating which people and animals had died. Using the dates of illness, the group mapped the source and route of transmission of influenza using arrows. Based on this, the owners developed an action plan for treatment of affected people and animals and prevention of further disease transmission.
Disease Map
Step 1
Start by explaining the purpose of the exercise and ask participants to draw an outline of their community on the ground or a large piece of chart paper using local materials, including: • General infrastructure, such as roads and paths, water points, community feed storage • Households in the community, including details of each household’s family members • Important, well-known places, such as clinic, school, temple/mosque, and meeting places
Ask participants to indicate households that have working animals. Show the types and numbers of animals using symbols or local materials. Add details such as whether the animals are male or female (e.g. blue for males, red for females) and the kinds of work they do.
Step 3
Ask participants if there are any people or animals suffering from sickness or disease right now, at this moment. Encourage them to show all the sick people and animals on the map, using a different symbol for each disease.
Step 4
Ask participants to show past cases of human and animal disease belonging to each household. Ask participants if there is anything else that they would like to show on the map which they think is important to any aspect of their life or livelihood.
Step 5
Encourage the group to analyse and discuss what is shown on the map. Consider using the following guiding questions: • What are the reasons for the diseases? • When did the diseases occur (seasonal, or related to work patterns?) • How are the diseases recognized? • What are the possible sources of infection and/or contamination? • How are they spread? (If known) • Where do they go for treatment or who do they go to? • What are the implications of working animals’ disease on their livelihoods and wellbeing? • What are the implications of human health issues on their working animals’ welfare?
Step 6
If the map was drawn on the ground, document it by either transferring it to a piece of paper or take a photo (indicating which direction is north). A copy should be left with the community. Record the community’s analysis and responses in your project action tracker and follow up with the community later if/when you start action planning together.
Facilitator’s Notes
Mapping on the ground is easiest and allows for everyone can walk around it to see the map from different angles. In this way, a large crowd to view the map and contribute to it.
Consider asking men and women to draw the maps separately. Different participants may draw different maps of the same area and that is ok. It reflects their different views of the community and of the topic discussed. As well, have the two separate maps will validate the results and highlight aspects that are important for men and women.
Remember that you are not controlling the map. Give confidence to people by asking participants to draw the map and gradually take over the entire process themselves.
Intervene only when it is necessary to involve people who are left out. Encourage those who are not participating.
Maps can show how things looked in the past, how they look now and what people would like their community to look like in the future. Maps can also be drawn before and after an intervention to compare changes to disease patterns.
Next steps
Mapping in the rapport stage might follow on with one of the following activities
T5 Gender Roles and Responsibilities to understand men’s and women’s animal care-giving and use roles and responsibilities, and identify whether they desire changes in the division of labour
T6Seasonal Calendar to identify periods of scarcity and risk for the community
T7 Historical Timeline to learn which major past events community members perceive to be significant to working animals and people
The maps produced in the concept stage might be referred back to during a both mid-term (monitoring) and final evaluations during to illustrate changes and improvements to working animal resources and services.
A mobility map is a diagram showing the movement of people around their locality and their reasons for moving. This map has been adapted specifically to enable examine movement patterns of working animals, including where people go with their animals, why they go there, socially differentiated mobility and access to animal-related resources and services [48]. Mobility maps can begin analysis of the impact of movement on the welfare of working animals and implications of mobility patterns on people’s lives, in terms of labour burdens and livelihoods.
Tool purpose:
Time needed:
• To understand where working animals and their owners, users and cares travel, distances travelled, travel time and frequency of visits • To understand the frequency that animal-related resources and services are accessed and potential physical barriers to accessing them • To identify potential mobility patterns negatively contributing to working animal welfare • To understand the implications of socially differentiated mobility on working animal welfare, and the associated livelihoods and labour burdens of animal owners, users and carers of both sexes when conducted and responses compared between different social groups.
1.5 hours per map
Materials needed:
Chart paper, note cards, markers, or other locally available resources, like sticks, stones, straw, beans, seeds, coloured powders or saw dust, etc.
Keyword Search Tags
Project Phase: Initiation Phase
Approaches for Working With Communities: Community Development Approach, Community Engagement Approach
Behavioural Drivers (COM-B): Behaviour Change Diagnosis and Planning
Mobility maps usually highlight the accessibility/location and of availability of services and resources, movement of working animals to and from their places of work and other commonly visited destinations, and the related distances travelled to reach them and who uses them during these times/travels. This map can also capture the distances to various animal-related services and resources, the frequency of visits and the time required for a visit. For example a mobility map could detail the distance and associated time needed to travel for veterinary care, repair harnesses, collect animal feed, take animals to water or graze, and visit other destinations, such as animal fairs or markets.
Figure T2 Mobility map created by a community in Senegal
The mobility map was drawn by a group of working animal-owning farmers. It shows that most movements are made within Touba Devckovek, but Thies and K. Demra Ngoye are also visited. The double lines represent main roads. Thin lines with arrows represent the frequency of visits.
Mobility Mapping
Step 1
Start by explaining the purpose of the exercise and then ask participants about all the places they visit within and outside the community with their working animals. Ask the helper to record all the places and destinations travelled by community members with their working animals on cards or a sheet of paper using words or symbols.
Examples of places/destinations may include:
• Workplaces • Resource centres (e.g. equipment, tools, agricultural supply) • Markets (e.g. human and/or animal feed) • Water points (e.g. well, borehole) • Service providers (e.g. doctor, veterinarian etc.) • Religious places (e.g. mosque, church, synagogue) • Animal fairs or far-away trading destinations • Migratory workplaces • Places of social importance/gathering (e.g. visiting relatives, meeting places, places of significance for celebrations) • Other communities or towns
Step 2
Ask participants to then draw a map on the ground or on a large piece of chart paper with the community at the centre. Then have participants add the places and destinations identified in step 1 to the map relative to the communities and villages. Then have them draw major roads and access routes. Major roads are represented by a double line in the T2 example, with labels to inform the distances between each major community.
Ask the group to discuss the frequency of visits, reasons for travel, the distances and the time spent travelling. In the example (figure T2), places visited daily are represented by a line with five arrows on it, while those visited less frequently are represented by three arrows and those visited rarely are represented by one arrow.
Step 3
Encourage the group to analyse and discuss what is shown on the mobility map. Consider using the following guiding questions: • Which regularly visited destinations require the most time to reach and why? (e.g. road condition or distance) • Who does this burden of travel time commitment fall to? Is it shared equally between men and women owner, carers, and/or users? Why or why not? • Which routes or movements are perceived to negatively affect the animals’ welfare and why? For example, which routes are the heaviest loads carried, which routes put animals at the highest risk of injury? • Are there any potential physical or social constraints affecting people’s mobility (e.g. are certain places only accessible for certain groups e.g. men or women, variability in market times or availability of veterinary services)? • What are the implications of different people’s mobility on the lives of working animals and their own lives (e.g. livelihoods, time, or labour burdens)? What could be done to address any mobility issues identified to be impacting the lives of working animals and their own lives?
Step 4
Record any identified mobility patterns or issues which if addressed could improve working animal welfare to your project action tracker and follow up with the community later if/when you start action planning together.
Facilitator’s Notes
Ideally, mapping is carried out on the ground, so that everyone can walk around the map and see it from different angles. This will allow a large crowd to view the map and contribute to it.
Different participants may draw different maps of the same area, which may reflect their different views of the community and places/routes of importance. Consider asking men and women, and owners and carers of animals to participate in this activity. You may wish to use different colour markers, string, stones /beans/stickers to represent the different categories of participants. Alternatively, consider doing this activity separately amongst women and men, especially if it is not culturally appropriate for men and women to do the activity together. If conducted separately, try to have the two groups come together at the end of each exercise to compare the maps and discuss reasons for any differences as time and local context permits.
Remember that you are not controlling the map. Give confidence to people so that they gradually take over the entire process themselves and encourage those who are not participating.
If the facilitator notices that different social groups have identified different mobility patterns, it should be noted into your project action tracker.
Next Steps
Consider following this activity up with one or more of the following tools to build upon discussions resulting from this exercise:
T6 Seasonal Calendar to further understand seasonal patterns, activities, resource availability, and vulnerability risks.
T11a Changing Trend Analysis to reflect on changes to the lives of animals and animal-owning households over time and generate discussion and motivation to address causes of negative changes perceived.
A Venn diagram seeks to represent relationships between individuals, groups and/or other key actors or resources by representing them as “components” or “nodes”, and the associations between them as links or lines. Various attributes such as colour, size, distance between and other properties may be used to characterize different kinds of relationships. For example, Venn diagrams have the potential to visually represent the relative importance of different relationships or resources, the frequency of interaction between actors, and/or access to different actors or resources. For the purpose of animal welfare, the tool has been adapted to analyse relationships between animal owners, users and/or caregivers and animal-related resource and service providers, as well as assess the relationships between individuals, groups, and actors important to the lives of animal-owning communities and their animals. The process of visually mapping relationships can inform planning by enabling targeted strengthening and/or development of new relationships, for both the community and the organization.
Tool purpose:
Time needed:
• To identify animal-related resource and service providers animal-owning communities rely on most and their level of satisfaction with each one. • To identify the community’s preferred resource and service providers to build or strengthen their capacity, or improve relationships with those less preferred. • To identify gaps in service provision, which if addressed, could better meet the needs of animals and people. • The activity may be repeated to assess changes and improvements that have resulted from any activities implemented by communities and/or the facilitating organization.
1.5 - 2 hours per diagram
Materials needed:
Chart paper, coloured sticker dots and/or coloured markers, coloured index cards or sticky notes, large circular cut-out of different colours and sizes.
Keyword Search Tags
Project Phase: Initiation Phase, Planning Phase
Approaches for Working With Communities: Community Development Approach, Community Engagement Approach
Behavioural Drivers (COM-B): Behaviour Change Diagnosis and Planning
Project Support: Participatory Learning and Action Tools, Needs Assessment
Specific Topics: Animal Health and Services
Resource and service provider Venn diagram
This tool enables community members to identify all the animal-related resource and service providers on which they rely. Examples of resources include: water points, grazing land, fodder production or storage areas, grain grinders, animal shelters; while service providers may include: local animal health service providers, veterinarians, feed supply shops, working animals’ equipment shops and/or money lenders. This activity may build on information gathered in theT1 Mapping activity - related to the most important resources and services to the community - as it goes into more detail to understand usefulness, availability, frequency of use and satisfaction with each provider. Once identified, participants are able to analyze their relationships and usage of different resources and service providers, including their relative importance to the welfare of their working animals and people who depend on them.
Figure T3A Venn diagram of a community’s animal-related resources and service providers
In the example above, members of an animal-owning community created Venn diagram to represent the animal-related resources and service providers they rely on. The size of the circles represent the perceived relative importance and usefulness. Distances from the centre represent availability and arrows represent frequency of use. Discussions highlighted the following important information:
The government veterinarian is shown in a large circle because this service provider is perceived to be useful, and was placed far from centre circle due to their poor responsiveness/availability, with infrequent use indicated by two arrows.
The local animal health service provider was felt to be more useful, represented by a slightly larger circle; however, their services are similarly used infrequently, despite their higher responsiveness/availability.
Participants indicated satisfaction with the local animal health service provider due to their lower relative cost despite recognizing they provide lower quality care.
They also indicated they were unsatisfied (red dot) with the government veterinarian due to their higher cost and low responsiveness, despite acknowledging that they provide higher quality service.
Discussions also highlighted that participants only call the local animal health service provider if animals get very sick, identifying an absence of preventative animal health practices amongst animal-owning households.
Resources and Service Provider Venn diagram
Step 1
Start by explaining the purpose of the exercise and then ask participants to identify the resource and service providers that are important to them in terms of usefulness to their animals. Ask them to start by first identify the MOST useful resources and service providers and represent them on the LARGEST size pre-cut circle of paper with words or symbols. Alternatively, they may use local materials and place them on top of the paper circles.
Continue identifying the next most important/useful resources and service providers using the next smallest sized circle and so on, until all resources and service providers have been identified with the biggest circles representing the most useful resources and service providers, and the smallest circles representing the least useful. There is often a lot of debate and discussion while categorizing the usefulness of different resources and service providers.
Step 2
Next ask participants to draw a picture representing their animals (or their community) in the centre and place the different sized circles representing resources and service providers around it. Then ask participants to move the resource/service provider circles closer or further away from the centre according to their availability e.g. enough resources or service provider responsiveness available when needed.
Please note circle placement from the centre may be adapted to represent another variable.
Step 3
Once all circles have been placed around the central circle, ask the ask the group to indicate which resources and service providers they use most frequently by drawing arrowheads on the lines between the centre circle and each resource or service provider.
In the example above, a scale of 5 arrows was used to represent the following frequency parameters: • 4 arrows: weekly • 3 arrows: monthly • 2 arrows: every few months • 1 arrow: yearly
Allow participants to define frequency parameters in a way that makes sense to them.
Step 4
Next, ask participants to discuss their level of satisfaction with the resources or service providers. Symbols or objects may be placed on each circle representing the resource or service provider to indicate or score participants’ satisfaction (e.g. happy/sad face ☺/☹, or green/red dot 🟢/🔴, seeds or beans). There is often a lot of interesting discussion and insights generated while participants discuss resources and service providers they are satisfied or dissatisfied with. Additional dimensions may also be added to this Venn diagram exercise by asking participants to use beans, seeds, or stones to represent other variables. For example, participants can score the cost or quality of an animal-related resource or health service providers.
Step 5
Once complete, encourage participants to discuss what the Venn diagram shows. Use the following questions to guide the discussion: • If not already discussed through during the creation of the diagram, it may be helpful to ask: Why some resources or service providers considered useful? Why are participants satisfied or unsatisfied with certain resources or service providers? Why are some resources or service providers relied on more frequently/infrequently? • Are there any resources or service providers missing from diagram which, if existed, could better help meet the needs of your animal? Why are they missing and why are they needed? • What changes in animal-related resources and service providers could better serve you and your animals? • What have you learned because of participating in this activity?
Step 6
The diagram should be documented through photos or recreated on paper. Copies should be made and distributed to the group for their records, future reference and/or action planning. Add a copy to your project action tracker and note preferred resource and service providers.
Facilitation Notes: Resource and service provider Venn diagram
It is useful to examine perceptions of animal-related resources and service providers with different groups in a community as they may rely on or have different perceptions of resources and service providers. Consider asking both men and women from animal-owning households to participate in this activity; or if it is not feasible or appropriate to conduct this activity with both sexes together, consider conducting this activity separately.
Facilitators should not control or insert their ideas into the diagram, but rather facilitate the process so that people design it themselves. Probing questions may be used to encourage people to think about the general categories of individuals, groups and actors to include.
Facilitators are encouraged to adapt the parameters and symbols as needed to investigate topics of interest and/or simplify the activity.
Try representing each resource and service provider on different pieces of paper, as it allows participants to move cards around throughout the discussion. However, the activity may also be drawn directly on the ground using chalk, sticks or stones as needed.
If using paper circles, it is helpful to cut out a selection of different sizes ahead of time. Consider preparing at least 5 different sizes of circles to enable the relative importance of all identified resources and service providers to be effectively captured.
Next Steps
Information on resource and service provider gaps identified in the initiation phase may be useful for informing discussions during the community action planning phase.
Consider using T9 Matrix Ranking and Scoring to better understand the criteria informing animal-owning households’ preferences for different resources and/or service providers, explore their satisfaction/dissatisfaction in more detail and prioritize their preferences for community action planning.
Use preferred resource and service providers, identified dissatisfaction and gaps in use or knowledge to inform project planning.
T3b: Social Networking Venn diagram
The social network Venn diagram illustrates relationships between individuals, groups and/or other key actors or resources by representing them as “components” or “nodes”, and the associations between them as links or lines. Various attributes such as colour, size and distance between each may be used to characterize different types of relationships. For example, Venn diagrams have the potential to visually represent the relative importance of different relationships or resources, the frequency of interaction between actors, and/or access to different actors or resources. For the purpose of animal welfare, the tool has been adapted to analyse relationships between animal owners, users and/or carers and animal-related resource and service providers, as well as assess the relationships between individuals, groups, and actors important to the lives of animal-owning communities and their animals. The process of visually mapping relationships can inform planning by enabling targeted strengthening and/or development of new relationships, for both the community and the organization.
Tool purpose:
Time needed:
• To identify individuals, groups and key actors perceived to be important to households and their animals (positively or negatively). • To understand the relative importance of different actors. • To understand differences between men and women’s access to individuals, groups and key actors within their social network. • To inform planning by identifying social network gaps that, if addressed, could better meet the needs of animals and people. • This tool may be useful for identifying potential collaborators or partners already working in the community.
2 hours
Materials needed:
Chart paper or coloured dust, chalk, coloured sticker dots and/or coloured markers, coloured index cards or sticky notes, stones, sticks, seeds or beans.
Keyword Search Tags
Project Phase: Initiation Phase, Planning Phase
Approaches for Working With Communities: Community Development Approach, Community Engagement Approach, Societal Outreach and Campaigns Approach
Behavioural Drivers (COM-B): Behaviour Change Diagnosis and Planning, Opportunity
The social network Venn diagram can be used to analyse social networks within a community. The household or community could be the focal point for analysis.
Figure T3B Venn diagram of a social network in Kenya
In the example above, a men’s equine welfare group in Kenya created a simple social network map. The central circle represented their community and different coloured circles were used to represent individuals, groups and other key actors with whom participants had relationships that were perceived to have an impact on their lives and the lives of their animals. Lines were drawn from each social connection to the centre, with the length of line representing the perceived strength of each relationship. The size of each circle represented the perceived importance of each relationship to their lives of the lives of their animals. In Kenya, as village elders have provincial administration capacity they are considered and categorized under local government. KSPCA (Kenyan Society for the Protection and Care of Animals) is also a non-governmental organization that has a mandated protection that is directly linked with the government.
Social Network Venn Diagram
Step 1
Start by explaining the purpose of the exercise and ask participants to identify people, groups, and key actors that they perceive as significant to theirs and their animals’ lives. Use the following types of individuals, groups, andkey actors (not resources) as a guide for probing the community, whilst keeping the conversation animal related.
You can add more as contextually appropriate:
• Social groups (e.g. close friends, relatives, neighbours) • Community groups, local associations and organizations, local financial institutions (e.g. self-help group) • Local government staff (e.g. social service officers) • Non-governmental organization (NGO) and/or agency staff • Key service providers • Others e.g. employers, market buyers/sellers, financial service providers
Ask if there are any individuals, groups or organisations missing from the social network which, if existed, could better help meet household needs and/or the needs of your animal? Why are they missing and why are they needed?
Ask the helper to write responses on different note cards or pieces of paper, asking the group which ones are most important (large circles), important (medium circles) and least important (small circles) ensuring they are colour categorised as above, using words or symbols and place them on the ground for all to see.
Step 2
Ask the helper to draw a circle in the middle of the chart paper or on the ground and make a symbol representing their community in the centre. Organize all cards in large circle around the community circle.
Next, ask participants to move the cards around the centre circle as per the relative strength of the relationship with those actors. Those closest to the centre represent the strongest relationships, while those farthest away the weakest. The facilitator should clarify the criteria that makes a weak versus a strong relationship, such as accessibility, availability, and level of satisfaction and whether they have a positive or negative impact on theirs and their animals’ lives. Place a symbol (e.g. +/- OR happy/sad face OR green/red dot) on each actor’s card to indicate the nature of the relationship, making sure it reflects the impact on both humans and animals.
Step 3
Once all cards have been placed, ask participants which of the actors support their animals specifically. Mark the card with coloured dot or sticker representative of the animal. The more the dots or sticker representing the animal are placed on an actor, the more support the actor provides.
Step 4
Ask participants to identify which relationships are accessible by men, women, or both, by placing a different indicative mark on the card (either using pens or stickers, or bean types). If the relationship is accessible to both men and women, ask whether accessibility is equal for both sexes. You may wish to place a > / = / < in between the representative marks or objects to indicate which sex has greater access. If it is just one group (e.g. only men) then this step is not necessary.
Step 5
Once the social Venn diagram is complete, encourage participants to discuss what it shows (if not already identified through previous discussions).
Consider using the following questions as a guide:
• Why are some relationships perceived to be more or less important? • Why are certain actors more important for men or women? (If identified) • Are there differences between men, women and/or children within the household? • Why are some actors positively or negatively affecting people and their animals? • What changes in this network could improve yours and/or your animals’ lives? • What can you as an individual or group do to improve your relationships with these actors? • What have you learned because of participating in this activity?
Initiation Phase:
Step 6
The diagram should be documented through photos or recreated on paper. Copies should be made and distributed to the group for their records, future reference and/or action planning. Add a copy to your project action tracker.
Planning Phase:
Step 7
Have the community helper record any actions the group agrees to the community action plan. Record the community’s agreed actions and activities in your project action tracker and support the community by following up with any identified key stakeholders.
Facilitation notes: Social Network Mapping
Knowledgeable individuals can be consulted in advance to help identify key actors within the community, particularly governmental and NGO actors.
Use different coloured note cards or marker colours to represent the different categories of relationships listed above to facilitate diagram analysis upon completion.
Both men and women should be asked to participate, as they may have different relationships, value and access to/with actors. If it is not feasible or appropriate to conduct this activity with both men and women, conduct it separately.
Consider having a co-facilitator/note-taker for this activity so that important insights from discussions can be effectively captured.
The facilitator must focus the group on identifying primary types of individuals, groups, and key actors, rather than focus on actual names, as this will be different for every participant and will make it difficult for them to identify the relative importance or influence of these relationships in the next steps.
Facilitators should not control or insert their ideas into the diagram, but rather facilitate the process so that people design it themselves. Probing questions may be used to encourage people to think about the general categories of individuals, groups and actors to include.
Dominant personalities may take over during these discussions and the facilitator must make sure to involve people who are left out. Continue to seek out and encourage input from those who are not participating throughout the exercise. Ask if others agree with ideas of dominants, and consider assigning tasks to different persons throughout the exercise e.g. placement of cards, symbols etc.
Often community members do not know the names of key government or NGO actors. In this case, encourage participants to simply explain the nature of the relationship or activities undertaken by these actors and investigate them later.
Using paper cards or sticky notes is helpful as it allows participants to move cards around throughout the discussion. Consider using different colour papers or markers to represent different types of actors and create meaningful contrast and easier analysis upon completion of the activity.
In the rapport building phase, the community leaders and chiefs will likely be in attendance and, therefore, a clear and accurate picture of the social system may not be possible, as participants may not feel possible speaking freely. Once trust is established and the group size is smaller, the facilitator will come to understand the true social dynamics.
Next Steps
Plan to support the community to strengthen or develop relationships with key actors to support animal welfare improvements and address gaps in services.
Keep a list of key stakeholders identified as important to the lives of the participants. Arrange meetings with them to discuss collaborations or future implementation activities (e.g. service providers, government officials, NGOs).
Consider inviting identified relevant community leaders or active members of society to future meetings to help strengthen relationships and collaborations between the groups.
A daily activity schedule is a chart showing how animal-owning families spend their time, including the time of day that each activity takes place and the time it takes to complete each one. This exercise identifies important times of the day, for example times when people are busy working, when they spend time with their working animals, or when they are free to discuss their common problems. This activity can be used to initiate a discussion about the best times to plan animal welfare activities, to hold a community meeting or for you (the facilitator) to visit the community. Step-by-step guidance for conducting this activity is provided in relation to daily activity schedules for both people and animals.
Tool purpose:
Time needed:
• To understand which activities, take up the most and least time • To identify the best time to meet with individuals and community members and times when they are not available. • To identify who cares for the animals in each household and in what capacity. • To identify times when individuals are overburdened and why. • To identify potential opportunities for sharing or shifting workloads of men, women, and other family members to improve the well-being of people and animals.
1.5-2 hours
Materials needed:
Chart paper and markers or using sticks, stones, straw, local resources
Daily activity schedule of the animal-owning community
This chart (Figure T4A) explores and compares how animal owners, users and carers spend their work and leisure time. This exercise is a useful, non-threatening exercise that looks at real life experiences and helps people to understand the roles and responsibilities of different family members towards their animals. It can be used to analyse the factors that influence different people’s roles and activities, and to understand the problems and obstacles faced when dealing with animals.
Figure T4 Daily Activity Schedule of an animal-owning community
In this exercise (Figure T4a above), men, women and children listed all their activities between getting up at 5am and going to bed at 9pm.
Women start cleaning the animals’ shelter, preparing the morning meal and fetching water with the children between 5 and 7am.
Men and children pray between 5 and 7am.
Men take the animal out to work at 9am.
Women are involved in feeding, watering and cleaning up after animals several times a day, while men are involved with their animal only between 9am and 2pm and at 8pm for a final feed.
Children clean the animals’ shelter between 3 and 6pm.
Men are the main income generators and users of the animals, whilst women participate in alternative income generating activities at the market.
This initiated a discussion about the roles and responsibilities of family members in caring for the animals and how some responsibility might be shifted to men.
Daily Activity Schedule of the Animal-Owning Community
Step 1
Start by explaining the purpose of exercise to the participants and agree whose daily activities to chart first. This can be the animal owner/carer or members of the owner’s family. Agree whether to make a circular clock or a line chart to represent time. Decide whether to show time in hours or as parts of the day, such as morning, afternoon, and evening. The example above provides a numeric representation of time. Show daily activities using symbols placed at the appropriate time of day.
Step 2
Start a discussion about the activities that a person or a group of people normally do, from when they get up in the morning until they go to sleep. Ask participants to list the activities in ascending order from morning to night.
Key points might include:
• Free time and work time • Times when animals are fed, or the animal shelter is cleaned • When animals are taken for grazing • When animals are offered feed and water • When people groom or clean animals
Step 3
Ask when people have free time to take part in other activities, either individually or as a group. • How is other/spare time spent? Do they have spare time? • What are other income generating activities and how much time is spent on those? • What social activities should be included in the list?
Step 4
Once daily schedules are complete, discuss results with participants.
Consider these questions:
• How do participants feel about the way they use their time throughout the day? • Why are some people responsible for some tasks while others are responsible for others? • Which periods are busiest or most stressful? Why? • Which activities are most important for meeting the needs of the household? The animal? Why? • Are any activities felt to be very burdensome? Why? • Are there any ways in which some activities could be made easier?
If feasible, bring the two groups back together to discuss any differences in perceived division of daily activities of different people in the two charts.
Summarize the results of the activity and discussion and ask participants to reflect on what they learned through this activity.
Step 5
Once the activity is complete, take a photo or record of the chart on a piece of paper, ensuring the community has a copy for their records. A copy is retained by the facilitator for future reference or planning. Add any notes regarding when people are available (men, women, children, all) in your project action tracker.
Facilitator’s notes: Daily activity schedule – animal-owning community
Daily activity charts are best made by individuals and small groups, so divide up larger groups to make charts for different people, such as men, women and children.
Encourage men and women to create separate charts to enable comparison of perceptions of each other’s daily activities. This will help with identifying the best time to plan community visits with men, women and/or both.
Remember that you are not controlling the exercise. Give confidence to people so that they gradually take over the entire process themselves.
You might want to discuss how daily routines change depending on the time of the week or the season.
Next Steps
As part of rapport building stage in the initiation phase, the daily activity schedule might follow on with one of the following activities:
T1 Mapping to understand which resources and services are important to the community.
T5 Gender Roles and Responsibilities to understand men’s and women’s animal care-giving and use roles and responsibilities, and identify whether they desire changes in the division of labour.
T6 Seasonal Calendar to identify periods of scarcity and risk for the community.
T7 Historical Timeline to learn which major past events community members perceive to be significant to working animals and people
As part of a community needs assessment and shared vision, the daily activity schedule for the animal-owning community might accompany one or more of the following tools to get a full picture of community dynamics and needs for project planning:
T1 Mapping to understand which resources and services are important to the community.
T2 Mobility Map to understand where people spend most of their time and how long it takes to get places
T3 Venn Diagram (T3b Social Networking Venn Diagram) to identify key individuals, groups and actors perceived to be most important to people and their animals.
T5 Gender Roles and Responsibilities to understand men’s and women’s animal care-giving and use roles and responsibilities, and identify whether they desire changes in the division of labour.
The chart produced in this version of the daily activity schedule illustrates how working animals spend their time, during both work periods and rest periods. It looks at a daily routine from the animal’s point of view and identifies where improvements to welfare could be made, such as increasing the time available to animals for rest, play or grazing. The animal’s daily activity schedule differs from the community’s schedule as it looks in-depth at how only the animals’ time is spent during the day, rather than humans.
Tool purpose:
Time needed:
• To understand animals’ daily activities and promote understanding of ways it supports meeting their needs in terms of the five domains of welfare • To identify opportunities for improving animal welfare through husbandry and management practices
1.5-2 hours
Materials needed:
Chart paper and markers or using sticks, stones, straw, local resources
Approaches for Working With Communities: Community Development Approach, Community Engagement Approach
Behavioural Drivers (COM-B): Behaviour Change Diagnosis and Planning, Capability
Project Support: Participatory Learning and Action Tools, Needs Assessment
Specific Topics: Animal Husbandry and Management; Animal Welfare, Feelings and Needs
Daily activity schedule of the animal
Figure T4B Daily activity schedule of the working animal
This daily activity schedule for animals (Figure T4B, above) was used to initiate a discussion on animal welfare issues amongst rural workers, who use their equine animals to generate income by transporting goods and people to markets and tourist places. The animals’ day starts with their feeding trough being cleaned at 6am, followed by being fed at 6am. The animals are harnessed to carts at 8am and start their work at the market at 8:30am. Water is offered between 11:30am and midday, and again at 5pm when the animals return home. A second feeding is offered after finishing work 6pm From 7 to 8pm animals are provided free time to graze and roll. They are groomed between 8 and 9pm and the last feed is given between 9 and 10pm.
Daily Activity Schedule of the Animal
Step 1
Start by explaining the purpose of exercise and agree whether to make a circular clock or a line chart to represent time. Decide whether to show time in hours or as parts of the day, such as morning, afternoon, and evening.
Step 2
Start a discussion about the activities that animals are involved in from morning to night. Ask them to list all the activities in order, both with them and other users. Show daily activities using symbols placed at the appropriate time of day.
Step 3
Encourage participants to include some of the following activities in the animals’ daily activity schedule: • Resting and working time • When animals are taken for grazing • When animals are offered feed and water • When animals are groomed or cleaned • When animals can socialise with other animals • When animals can perform instinctive behaviours (e.g. rolling around)
Step 4
Once the animals’ activity schedule is complete, discuss results with participants.
Consider the following guiding questions:
• What do participants think their animals feel about the activities they do throughout the day? • When do you think animals feel most hungry/thirsty? • Do animals have time to satisfy and engage in natural behaviours? (In natural environment or with other animals e.g. rolling, grazing/roaming, socializing) • Which activities are most important for meeting the animals’ needs? Why? • Which periods are considered as heavy workload or strenuous? • Are there some activities that could be made easier/less strenuous for the animal?
Summarize the results of the activity and discussion and ask participants to reflect on what they learned through this activity.
Step 5
Once the activity is complete, take a photo or record of the chart on a piece of paper, ensuring the community has a copy for their records. A copy is retained by the facilitator for future reference or planning. Add any important notes to your project action tracker.
Facilitator’s notes: Daily activity schedule – animal-owning community
Animals at one place of work may have different work types, so divide groups by animals’ work type to produce the daily activity schedules.
Encourage men and women to create separate charts to enable comparison of perceptions of each other’s daily activities. This will help with identifying the best time to plan community visits with men, women and/or both.
Remember that you are not controlling the exercise. Give confidence to people so that they gradually take over the entire process themselves.
You might want to discuss how daily routines change depending on the time of the week or the season.
Next Steps
As part of rapport building stage in the initiation phase, the daily activity schedule might follow on with one of the following activities:
T1 Mapping to understand which resources and services are important to the community.
T5 Gender Roles and Responsibilities to understand men’s and women’s animal care-giving and use roles and responsibilities, and identify whether they desire changes in the division of labour.
T6 Seasonal Calendar to identify periods of scarcity and risk for the community.
T7 Historical Timeline to learn which major past events community members perceive to be significant to working animals and people
As part of a community needs assessment and shared vision, the daily activity schedule for the animal-owning community might accompany one or more of the following tools to get a full picture of community dynamics and needs for project planning:
T1 Mapping to understand which resources and services are important to the community.
T2 Mobility Map to understand where people spend most of their time and how long it takes to get places
T3 Venn Diagram (T3b Social Networking Venn Diagram) to identify key individuals, groups and actors perceived to be most important to people and their animals.
T5 Gender Roles and Responsibilities to understand men’s and women’s animal care-giving and use roles and responsibilities, and identify whether they desire changes in the division of labour.
This checklist is intended to assist projects in gender mainstreaming by providing a list of key considerations for mainstreaming gender within any project. It may be used as a framework to both design and evaluate projects in terms of the extent to which they include gender in their design, planning, implementation and monitoring and evaluation.
Have the key characteristics and possible differences among the target groups been clearly identified by sex, age, type of work, income, ethnic origin, etc.?
2
Has a gender analysis been conducted to identify and understand?
a) The needs of male and female beneficiaries
b) The problems that both men and women face related to their animals’ husbandry and management/use (not just men or women only)
c) Gender roles in the community or home related equine care and use between men and women, boys, and girls (e.g. decision-making in relation to equine care, use and management, accessing of service providers, perception of service providers about women and men), etc.)
d) The gender relations (norms, customs, traditions, beliefs) in the community or home related to the division of labour and benefits amongst men and women, boys, and girls as they relate to their animals.
3
Have the views of both men and women community stakeholders been sought in a consultative process?
4
Is the outcome of gender analysis used to inform the design of project plans?
Project Planning/Strategy
5
Are there strategies in place to ensure that men and women can participate equally in the project activities? For example, if household chores and family care responsibilities are roles expected of women and girls, they tend to have less time to participate in project activities. Are these kinds of concerns considered when organizing activities?
6
Are there clear strategies in place to ensure that women and men will equally benefit from project activities?
7
Have any existing gender inequalities been identified amongst community stakeholders that could potentially affect their ability to meet their animals welfare needs/adopt desired behaviours?
a) If yes, are any gender transformative strategies built into the project to address this?
8
Is the promotion of gender equality included explicitly as one of the project strategies? e.g. ensuring gender equality in representation in messaging, community leadership roles, how men and women are treated and their views valued by the project.
9
In strengthening the capacity of the target groups, is there a consideration to avoid increasing the workload of the members of the household who have a greater labour burden? e.g. women, girls
Project Planning/Outputs & Outcomes
10
Do the outputs (and corresponding indicators) reflect priority concerns and respond to the needs of both men and women related to their animals’ welfare/their ability to meet their animals’ welfare needs?
11
Do the outcomes and outputs identify the intended target stakeholders by gender or other marginalized or vulnerable group requiring special consideration (e.g. migratory workers, religion, caste, race etc.)?
12
Do the outputs specify the ratio or number of target stakeholders by gender or other relevant marginalized social status?
Project Implementation/Activities
13
In training/education activities, are the numbers of boys, girls, women, and men who will be trained/educated clearly stated?
14
Is there proportionate budget allocation as well as staff/trainer time investment to ensure all genders interests, needs and roles are given adequate attention to facilitate their empowerment to improve animal welfare?
15
If there is a high chance that women will participate less and/or potentially not benefit equally as men, have quota been set for men’s and women’s participation under the outputs and activities?
16
Are communication channels identified that will effectively reach specific target groups, in particular women and girls, and any other marginalized groups?
17
If women and girls, or men and boys, cannot or will not speak freely in mixed groups, are separate events planned for women/girls only and men/boys only, or with facilitators of the same sex to promote equal participation?
18
During project implementation, do staff take opportunities to raise awareness on gender equality and demonstrate that the participation of women alongside men is beneficial to everyone?
19
Does the programme have support from, or cooperate with, gender experts or organizations with gender expertise, if it needs assistance in this respect?
Project Monitoring and Evaluation
20
Does the project collect any information or data that can be disaggregated by gender or other marginalized group to identify potential inequalities, constraints, and opportunities these groups face?
21
Are methods and tools provided to project staff to enable them to effectively measure and evaluate the nature and extent of impact and benefits for male and female project stakeholders and/or other marginalized groups?
22
Does the project collect feedback from male and female stakeholders (or other marginalized groups)? Are the timings for feedback and monitoring meetings convenient for the gender roles of male and female stakeholders? Are there female facilitators/evaluators/translators etc. to create a safe space and culturally/religious norms of the area?
T5 Gender Roles and Responsibilities Resources and Services
This adapted gender roles and responsibilities activity explores the division of labour and workload between men, women, boys and girls related to animal care and use [49]. All family members are usually responsible for looking after the animals in the household, although different people are responsible for different tasks and use animals for different purposes. Sometimes animal welfare interventions unintentionally target only men or only women. However, to improve all aspects of animal welfare and promote gender equality, both men, women and children who play a role in the lives of animals should be invited to participate in this activity. It can be helpful to conduct T4 Daily Activity Schedule prior to undertaking this activity so you can contextualize gender roles and responsibilities related to animal care and use understand within men’s and women’s broader daily activities and associated time and labour commitments.
Tool purpose:
Time needed:
• To understand men’s and women’s animal care-giving and use roles and responsibilities, and identify whether they desire changes in the division of labour. • To inform appropriate targeting of animal welfare extension messages, capacity building and training to relevant household members • As a useful entry point activity for involving men and women in an animal welfare improvement project and beginning to understand different opportunities and constraints men and women face in promoting animal welfare.
2 hours
Materials needed:
Markers, chart paper, post-it notes, cards or coloured powder/chalk, sticks, stones, beans or other locally available activities.
Keyword Search Tags
Project Phase: Initiation, Planning, Evaluation and Exit
Approaches for Working With Communities: Community Development Approach; Community Engagement; Social Outreach and Campaigns
Behavioural Drivers (COM-B): Behaviour Change Diagnosis and Planning, Opportunity
An animal-owning community in Halaba, Ethiopia, used this activity to explore differences in roles and responsibilities between men and women. The group of men and women started by identifying animal use and care activities together. The mixed group then divided into two smaller groups - one group of men and one group of women - to examine the distribution separately. The group used 10 pebbles to score the division of labour for each identified activity.
Figure T5A Animal-related men’s and women’s roles and responsibilities
Men and women viewed the differences in division of roles and responsibilities differently, as reflected in figure T5A. In many cases, men considered themselves to have more responsibility for caring for animals than women. For example, men claimed that they are the main seekers of service provision and health treatment (vaccinations) for animals. The main differences between men and women were:
Women have more responsibility for providing water and cleaning the animal’s shelter
Men have more responsibility for grooming, cleaning equipment, allowing the animals the play and roam freely
Men use animal’s more for incoming generating activities
Women came up with more animal use activities following the division of women’s and women’s groups
Once the mixed group of men and women were divided, women identified three more categories of animal usage (highlighted in red), which men were mostly responsible for, including transporting agriculture for household consumption (urban to rural), transporting agricultural inputs for household use and free transport of people around the community or to local events.
Participants discussed why some of the activities were only carried out by men or women and what effect this had on their animals. Men commented that women do more for the animals than they would have acknowledged before undertaking the activity and that there might be an opportunity for women to take on more responsibility. Women also expressed an interest in taking on more responsibility and suggested an opportunity for:
Men to share more of the water provision and shelter cleaning activities
Women to share more of the equipment cleaning and hoof care activities
Women to use the animals more for income-generating activities
Following the community activity, the facilitators examined the two charts side-by-side and identified an opportunity for training women on humane handling, which they had already provided to men and witnessed significant improvements. They noted this opportunity in the team action tracker and made a point of discussing interest with the group in the next community session.
Gender Roles and Responsibilities
Step 1
Ask the community helper to draw a large table, either on the ground or on chart paper. There should be three main columns: ‘activities’, ‘men’ and ‘women’. Please note: Additional columns can be added to include boys and girls (children) if desired.
Step 2
Ask participants about the activities and decisions men and women are responsible for related to the care and use of their animals. Have the community helper write them down on cards using words or drawings or use locally available materials representative of the activities identified. If this activity is being conducted about working animals, once all activities related to care have been identified, ask participants to identify any ways they use their animal, and have the community helper list these within the first column.
Include activities carried out on a daily, weekly, or monthly basis (e.g. seasonal, or periodic work such as festivals or special events), as well as key decisions important to the care and use of the animal
Step 3
Ask the group to indicate how the workload for each identified activity is divided or shared between men and women (and boys and girls if included), using up to ten seeds, stones, or marks/dots to score their relative contributions. You might start the conversation by asking the question: ‘Who is responsible for each activity?’
For example: A score of 10 = full responsibility; 0 = no responsibility. If men and women are both responsible for carrying out the activity, the pebbles would be divided equally (see figure T5A, in ‘care’ + ‘feeding’, men and women scored evenly).
Once the chart is complete, ask the community helper to circle the scores with large discrepancies between men’s and women’s responsibilities.
Step 4
Ask the community to discuss the results of the activity. The facilitator or supporting note taker should take notes on key insights that emerge from the discussion.
Consider using the following guiding questions to facilitate the discussion:
• Who is predominantly responsible for care? For use? How were these roles and responsibilities determined? • Referring to identified discrepancies circled in the chart, why are these activities predominantly done by men or women? • How would animal welfare improve if roles and responsibilities in animal care and usage were shared more between men and women within the household? • What would need to change to give them greater opportunities to share their roles and responsibilities in animal care and usage between men and women within the household?
If feasible, bring the two groups back together to discuss any differences in scoring of perceived roles and responsibilities of men and women in the two charts, along with any desired changes to roles and responsibilities identified by each group.
Summarize the results of the activity and discussion and ask participants to reflect on what they learned through this activity.
Step 5
Once the activity is complete, take a photo or record of the outputs on a piece of paper, ensuring the community has a copy for their records. A copy is retained by the facilitator for future reference or planning.
Take note of any of following identified during this activity within your project action tracker:
• Roles and responsibilities of men and women related to animal care and use – for tailoring communications and trainings as needed • Changes in gender roles and responsibilities identified by participants as having potential to improve animal welfare • Changes recommended by participants as necessary to creating greater opportunities for sharing roles in animal care and use to improve animal welfare. • Social and physical opportunities, capability, and/or motivational/self-belief drivers related to men’s and women’s animal care and use roles and responsibilities which you as a facilitator identified through discussions. • Key influencers/gatekeepers of gender roles and responsibilities mentioned by participants during discussions
As topics related to gender may be sensitive, facilitators are encouraged to gauge participant’s level of comfort to effectively facilitate group discussion.
The gender roles and responsibilities activity works best when carried out in small groups of men and women separately, with each group analysing the gendered division of labour/work for both male and female members of the household. Depending on what is culturally appropriate in the local context, the two groups may be brought back together at the end of the activity to review the results of each chart and discuss any differences if feasible.
This activity can highlight societal wide patriarchal assumptions and related social opportunities (e.g. social norms, peer support), physical opportunities (e.g. time, access to resources and services), as well as capability and motivational elements related to self-beliefs and societal values, which may either hamper or hinder certain animal care and use practices as a result of people’s gender. Listen for these within discussions and note them in the team action tracker if they emerge.
It is important to recognize that the interplay between social, economic, and/or other vulnerable statuses may result in members of the same gender group having different roles and responsibilities and levels of paid and unpaid, labour burdens (e.g. women of higher socioeconomic status may transfer their roles and responsibilities to women of lower socioeconomic status). It is important to enable these different experiences to be acknowledged and understood.
Discussions may identify potential (positive or negative) influencers or gate keepers that affect men and women’s roles and responsibilities related to animal care and use. Observe and listen to understand who influences gender roles and responsibilities (e.g. household member, social norms) and whether any changes in roles and responsibilities to improve animal welfare are desired. Take note of any identified key influencers for consideration in future involvement in the project as appropriate to supporting the desired changes in animal care and use roles and responsibilities. Key influencers may need to be engaged at the household level to influence household decisions, or to engaged to influence norms at the broader societal level.
Next Steps
As part of a community needs assessment and shared vision, the gender roles and responsibilities activity is useful to conduct when accompanied by one or more of the following tools to get a full picture of community dynamics for informing project planning:
T1 Mappingto understand which resources and services are important to the community.
T2 Mobility Mapto understand where people spend most of their time and how long it takes to get places.
T3 Venn Diagram (T3b Social Networking Venn Diagram) to identify key individuals, groups and actors perceived to be most important to people and their animals.
T4 Daily Activity Schedule (if not yet carried out) to understand broader labour burdens and the activities which are most time consuming.
T6 Seasonal Calendar to identify seasonal trends in resources, activities, and potential risks to animal owning communities.
Specific Topics: Outreach and Communications; Compassion/Empathy; Community Change Agents
2a. Promoting Effective Interpersonal Communication through Emotional Intelligence
The most important skills that can improve a community facilitator’s ability to be a catalyst for change and influence behaviour change are effective inter-personal communication skills, which are comprised by the skills people use to exchange information, feelings, and meaning through verbal and non-verbal messages.
Emotional intelligence (EI) is a foundational competency in effective inter-personal communication defined as the ability to recognize and manage our own feelings, and recognize and respond effectively to those of others [94]. Emotions are one of the aspects to lookout under automatic motivation as positive or negative feelings can either encourage or discourage a particular behaviour. Emotional intelligence can enable community facilitators to respond to challenging situations in ways which improve rather than hinder collaborations and better support communities’ in changing their behaviour.
EI is comprised of four competency domains related to understanding and managing one’s self (personal competencies), and relationships with others (social competencies) including: self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, and social skills. The figure below illustrates emotional intelligence in terms of these four competency domains, demonstrating how they influence each other and ultimately the community facilitators’ ability to be successful in their work [94, 95]. Emotional self-awareness is a precursor to the other three competencies, as the more we are aware of our feelings the easier they are to manage and in turn effectively interact with others.
RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE COMPETENCIES AND THE WORK OF COMMUNITY FACILITATORS - Diagram adapted from [95, 94, 96]
2b. Transactional Analysis - Using Human Psychology to Improve Communications
Effective interpersonal communication and relations can be improved through an understanding of the concept of transactional analysis (TA) [97]. Transactional analysis is psychological model developed by Eric Berne to make sense of how people interact with one another (referred to as transactions) based on their feelings influencing their actions [98]. TA has proven a useful method for increasing emotional intelligence by helping one become aware of one’s emotions, exert greater self- control which are essential to ensuring the effectiveness of communication and associated positive interactions with others [98].
The key assumptions of TA are as follows [99, 98]:
People are OK: all people are good and worthy when they enter the world.
All people can think: every person has the capacity to think, and are therefore responsible for the decisions they make.
All people can change: as everyone is responsible for their decisions, change is possible and decisions need not be determined by one's past.
Key Influences on Inter-personal Communications
1. Ego States
TA defines the different “ways of being” or “personalities” people adopt in their interactions with others, and refers to these as ego states. Our interpersonal communications can be classified as falling into one of the three following ego states: the child ego state, the parent ego state, and the adult ego state [98]. Each of these ego states are comprised of consistent feelings and behaviours, and these activate (unconsciously) in our interactions. By enabling you to identify which ego state is activated when interacting with others, TA can help better manage your emotions and respond in ways which promote collaboration and improve your ability to influence behaviour change in others. The three ego states of parent, adult, and child are further described below [100]:
Parent Ego State: the parent ego state is rooted in the past, and contains the attitudes, feelings, and behaviours taught/learned fromour parents or other significant authority figures. It involves responding as one of our parents would have: saying what they would have said, feeling what they would have felt, behaving how they would have behaved. It can take one of two forms: 1) the critical parent (criticizing, censoring, punishing authority-based judgments or rules e.g. “You should”, “You must”), and 2) the nurturing parent (protective, loving, and encouraging). The parent state can negatively hinder our interactions when experienced as being judgemental, dominant, punishing, condescending, smothering, overprotective or stifling. Other examples which may indicate the unhelpful parent ego state is activated include: impatient body language, anger, judgemental comments, criticisms, providing unsolicited advice, ordering others, raised eyebrows, arms folded across chest, blaming others.
The concepts of ego states and life positions are discussed below as they are key influencers on our inter-personal communications.
Adult Ego State: the adult ego state is the only ego state rooted in the present and contains the attitudes, feelings and behaviours we have learned to help us interpret reality based on our rational, objective appraisals. A person behaving or interacting with their adult ego will properly seek information and use their reasoning skills to evaluate it before making decisions. Interacting from the adult ego state is always the ideal as it promotes clear, effective communication because responses are logical and appropriate to the situation or present, and this ego state is able to keep the parent and child ego state under control. A good way to know if your adult ego state is activated is to examine whether your questions/comments are fuelled by compassion and curiosity, or irritable emotions, the desire to blame, criticize, and/or prove a point. Other example indicators the adult ego state is activated may include: being/feeling relaxed/composed, calm, open, reasoned statements, unemotional, thoughtful, leaning in to listen/look, clear confident tone, taking responsibility, focused on facts not opinions, discussing alternatives or results, seeking information, evaluating pros-and-cons, questioning: “why?, how?, who?, what?, where?, how?”
Child Ego State: the child ego state is rooted in the past, and contains the attitudes, feelings, and behaviours we feltin our childhood related to avoiding perceived painful experiences or pursuing pleasurable experiences. It involves responding instinctually in the present as we would have as a child seeking to meet its basic needs: saying what we would have said, feeling what we would have felt, and behaving how we would have behaved as a child. The child ego can present in one of two forms: 1) the adapted/rebellious child (defiant, complaining, compliant, and/or passive). 2) free child (curious, creative, spontaneous, affectionate and fun-loving). The child ego state may negatively hinder interactions when anger or despair dominates an individuals’ reasoning. Other indicators the unhelpful child ego state is activated may include: feeling/being resistant, defensive, uncompromising, withdrawn, disengaged, helpless, dejected, sullen, manipulative, subservient, obstructive, destructive, wanting one’s own way, feeling like a victim/persecuted, shoulder shrugging, irritable, monotone, fidgeting.
In TA, interactions are referred to as complementary when the ego states of the interacting parties are the same/sympathetic to one another (e.g. child-child, adult-adult, parent-parent). This means there is alignment between what an individual says and expects to receive as a response, and what they actually receive as a response, and results in more clear and effective communication [100]. Alternatively, when transactions occur between individuals communicating with each other from different ego states (e.g. parent-child, adult-parent etc.) they are referred to as crossed transactions, which can lead to breakdowns in communication, misunderstanding, and associated conflict.
Examples 1 (top) and 2 (middle)
Examples 3 (left) and 4 (right)
Examples of complementary transactions:
Parent-Parent (See Example 1): “What a terrible meeting!” - “One of the worst I’ve been to!”
Adult-Adult (See Example 2): “I noticed you weren’t able to take action since we last spoke, can we talk about what’s been going on for you?” - “You’re right, I’ve been really busy with illness in the family, however plan to take action now that things have calmed down”
Child-Child “I’m not going to try these recommendations as the people who made them don’t even understand our lives!” - “Yeah, I’m not going to bother trying any of them either.”
Examples of crossed transactions:
Parent-Child (See Example 3): “You should be careful or your animal won’t be able to continuing to earn money for you” - “What do you care?”
Adult-Child (See Example 4): “We haven’t spoken for a while and I’d be interested to hear your experiences trialling the solutions we discussed when we last met.” - “I feel like giving up as nothing is working!”
Adult-Parent: “I noticed you attended the training, what were key learnings for you?” - “They should have provided that training ages ago when we really needed it!”
The goal of TA is to have all parties involved converse in the idealized state of adult-adult because these are the only interactions informed by rational appraisals of reality in the present (vs feelings or learnings from the past), and thus result in clear and effective communication, decision making, and problem solving. However, as we go about our daily lives, we move from one ego state to another in reaction to different interactions without any thought, and our (perceived) ego state can also elicit different ego states in others that can either help or hinder communications and relations. Operating in the idealized adult-adult state can therefore be challenging, particularly when we are faced with emotionally difficult situations or interactions with people who have not yet developed an ability to manage their emotions and behaviours.
The following example illustrates how ego states inform the nature of our transactions:
When a community member feels like their needs are not being met e.g. does not feel understood, or like they are being judged by the community facilitator, their “child” ego state of mind may intervene to influence their interaction causing them act uncooperatively in defiance. This child ego state response may in turn arouse frustration in the facilitator, arousing an annoyed “parent” ego state response which can further break down relations as a sense of disdain takes over their interactions. This example illustrates how the parent and child ego states interact to create crossed transactions and undesirable outcomes. However with an understanding of TA, the community facilitator can identify ego states activated in themselves and others, and manage their emotions to effectively communicate from their adult ego state without undermining relations with community members that can hinder desired behaviour change and animal welfare improvements.
2. Life Positions
In addition to the ego states that define our personality state in any given moment, TA also defines “life positions” which are the basic beliefs about ourselves and others which act as the frame of reference through which we experience our interactions with others [101]. These beliefs refer to our sense of feeling “OK or “not-OK” about ourselves and those we’re interacting with, and ultimately influence the nature of our social interactions. In this context, being “OK” refers the innate value, goodness, worth, and equal right to live and meet needs we perceive ourselves and other parties in the interaction to have. The TA model assumes that everyone is born viewing themselves and others as “OK”; however it also recognizes our childhood experiences shape can change our perception of ourselves and/or others as “not OK”. Life positions therefore may change and adapt throughout life as we learn in develop, and can also be influenced by our/others’ states of being (ego states). As we interact with others, we take one of four life positions, which in turn result in one of four specific social interaction reactions or outcomes as illustrated in the below matrix and described further below [102, 99, 103, 101]:
Life Positions and their Influence on Social Interaction Outcomes adapted from Franklin Ernst’s OK Corral
I am not OK with me (-) (e.g. I don’t feel good/worthy/equal)
You’re OK with me (+) (e.g. I feel you are good/worthy/equal)
I am OK with Me (+) (e.g. I feel good/worthy/equal)
Helpless/One Down Position I’m not OK, You’re OK
Interaction Outcome: I get away from you
Healthy Position I’m OK, You’re OK
Interaction Outcome: I get on with you
Hopeless Position I’m not OK, You’re not OK
Interaction Outcome: I get nowhere with you
Better than You/One Up Position I’m OK, You’re not OK
Interaction Outcome: I get rid of you
You are not OK with me (-) (e.g. I don’t feel you are good/worthy/equal)
Healthy Position = I am OK, you are OK
This is the healthiest position, with people occupying this position holding the belief they and anyone else in the interaction are innately worthy and valuable. This position is grounded in the belief in one’s own abilities, and is characterized by mutual respect and seeing the best in the other person, thereby allowing parties to find a constructive approach to issues. This healthy position is expressed in the adult ego state, and results in the individual wanting to continue interacting with the other party (I get on with you).To adopt this way of thinking requires self-awareness and the ability to manage one’s emotions (automatic motivation). In addition, this position benefits from having positive beliefs about self (reflective motivation) e.g. confidence, self-esteem, self-efficacy, perceived competencies, sense of empowerment, and behavioural control. It also requires feeling one’s role and identity are valuable, even in the face of factors which may render one disadvantaged or marginalized. As such, this position may be a challenge for community members to adopt, particularly if they are marginalized and lack this self-belief. However, by communicating from this position using the adult ego state, community facilitators can demonstrate their belief in community members’ worth and value, which can contribute to improving community members’ own belief in their ability to make desired changes.
Better than you/One Up Position = I am OK, you are not OK
In this position the individual is at an advantage or feels superior or right (“I’m OK”) and projects anger, disgust, or disdain onto the person with whom they are interacting who they perceive to be wrong, inferior, or a scapegoat (“You’re not OK”). As a result of this projection of anger, blame, and/or criticism, the other party may get angry in response. This position can be expressed in the critical parent or rebellious child ego state, and results in an individual blaming or feeling hostile towards the other party (I get rid of you). When community facilitators operate from this position they can undermine community members’ self-efficacy when they don’t seek to understand community members’ lived experiences or recognize them as experts in their own lives and instead act as the expert or limit their meaningful participation, which can give the impression they don’t believe community members are capable of change or finding solutions to their own issues.
Helpless/One Down Position = I am not OK, you are OK
In this position, the individual feels disadvantaged, helpless and disempowered in comparison with others they are interacting with and may experience themselves as victims. This position is often expressed in the rebellious child ego, and creates a sense of wanting to withdraw from others in the interaction (e.g. I get away from you) due to not feeling as worthy as others in the interaction, often as a result of existing limiting self-beliefs (e.g. individuals who are marginalized or discriminated against may not believe they have anything valuable to contribute, or believe in their capability to affect change).
Hopeless Position = I am not OK, you are not OK
In this position, the individual perceives themselves and the other party as not good, worthy, or having equal rights. It is essentially a hopeless and frustrating situation where effective communication is very difficult. This position if often expressed in the rebellious child ego, and results in the individual feeling that their interactions with the other party are futile (I get nowhere with you). For example, individuals who have experienced discrimination may have developed limiting self beliefs as well as a lack of trust in others/social systems, which cause them to feel hopeless about working with others or trying to affect change.
In the previous example where the community member interacts from a child ego state and community facilitator from their parent ego-state, the community member perceived the interaction from a hopeless life position as they don’t feel “OK” about themselves or the community facilitator, which results in their child ego state influencing the community facilitator’s to perceive the interaction and respond from a Better than you/One up life position. As this example shows, it is important to understand how your ego state and life positions may be triggered when faced with emotional situations and interactions with community members, as well be aware their ego states, so you can manage your feelings, thoughts, and actions and respond in ways that not to hinder your influence and ability to collaborate. Additional examples of how TA can aid your role as a community facilitator include:
It is important for community facilitators to understand that different communities and social groups may respond or behave differently as a result of their unique social and cultural experiences and learnings influencing their ways of being (ego states) and relating (life positions). TA can help you understand, appreciate and accept this diversity amongst community members, and help reduce unconscious bias from hindering your efforts to promote inclusivity, diversity and equality, and achievement of desired behaviour change outcomes [104].
When one is exposed to situations where the welfare of animals or people is compromised, community facilitators can experience negative feelings such as anger and hostility which can be challenging to manage (e.g. child or parent ego state). When these negative emotions influence community facilitator’s perceptions of, or are directed towards community members, the ability be an effective community servant can be compromised as rapport and trust break down [104]. Being aware of how and when your ego state and life position influence your interactions in these situations can enable you to regain control of your feelings, thoughts and actions so you can respond appropriately from your adult ego state.
How to Apply Transactional Analysis in Practice
Two models which help to understand how our roles in social interaction, which are influenced by our ego states and life positions, can produce ineffective and effective communication are referred to as the Drama Triangle and Winner’s Triangle which are illustrated in the figures below.
The Drama Triangle is a model which describes conflicted or drama intense relationship transactions [105]. The drama triangle defines the three unconscious roles people take on (and can switch between) in stressful, emotional, or high conflict situations. When two people enter an interaction in one of the three roles on the drama triangle, their interactions will be characterized by drama, stress, conflict, or rescuing people from their responsibilities to solution problems for themselves. These interactions are unhelpful, and interfere with problem solving and effective communication. The three roles of the drama triangle which are further described below are Victim, Persecutor, and Rescuer; and people are likely to have a preference for playing one of these roles.
VictimRole: people who play this role feel oppressed, hopeless, and helpless. They may complain of unmet needs, and be unable to make decisions, solve problems, take pleasure in life, or achieve insight. The payoff for individuals who take this role is that they can avoid dealing with things that are unpleasant or difficult. The problem with the victim role is that individuals discount themselves, and typically seek out a persecutor and a rescuer who they think will save them but who in fact just disempowers them by perpetuating the victim’s negative feelings and/or creating dependency e.g. nothing is my fault, I’m not capable, poor me. The victim role is aligned with the hopeless (I am not OK, You are Not OK) or helpless/one down life positions (I am not OK, you are OK). Characteristics commonly associated with the victim role include: complaining, being helpless, withdrawing, catastrophizing, pretending to be incompetent.
RescuerRole: people who play this role tend to be enablers, will feel guilty if they don’t come to rescue, can be over-helpful, self-sacrificing. The payoff of this role is to be needed, wanted or liked. The problem with the rescuer role is that rescuing discounts others’ ability to think for themselves, keeps those in the victim role dependent, and gives the victim permission to fail e.g. you need me, let me help. The rescuer role is very prevalent amongst helping and caring professions, and is aligned with better than you/one up position (I am OK, you are not OK). Characteristics commonly associated with the rescuer role include: fixing, telling, giving solutions, taking over, martyrdom.
Persecutor Role: people who play this role tend to blame, criticise, and can be oppressive, controlling, rigid, authoritative, angry, and unpleasant. The payoff for persecutors is that they get what they want. However the issue with this role is that they tend to discount others’ value and integrity, don’t enable others to show their full potential, and keep the victim feeling oppressed by their demanding and inflexible behaviour. Persecutors will seek to control and criticize while failing to solve any problems or help anyone else solve the problem e.g. its all your fault, you got it wrong, and people tend to want to get away from them whenever they can. The persecutor role is aligned with the better than you/one up life position (I am OK, you are not OK). Characteristics commonly associated with the persecutor role include: criticizing, blaming, labelling, putting others down, feeling inadequate.
While the Drama triangle describes the above roles in their most extreme form, we often encounter milder versions of these roles in our work and personal lives. When people are caught up in a drama triangle, they will switch roles, and a rescuer may become a victim or a victim may become a rescuer, and these roles can change as the dynamics of the interactions change and develop.
As an alternative to the problematic drama triangle, the winner’s triangle was developed as a model for more productive social interactions that lead to a win-win situation for everyone involved [106].The roles within the winner’s triangle reflect the positive aspects of the three drama triangle roles and include: Assertive (vs. persecutor), Caring (vs. rescuer), and Vulnerable (vs. victim), which are further defined below [106, 107]:
Vulnerable Role: people who play this role may be suffering however express their real feelings, accept themselves, use their thinking and problem solving, and take action to care for themselves.
Caring Role: people who play this role have genuine concern for people which they demonstrate by: giving help when asked, trusting the other person has their own answers, accepting and encouraging others’ to think for themselves, actively listening (without trying to solve the problem), having clear boundaries, doing their share, and not doing things they don’t want to do (unless absolutely necessary). They are caring, understanding, and don’t need to be needed by others.
Assertive Role: people who play this role are aware of their own feelings, needs and wants, and act in their own best interests by: asking for what they want, saying no to what they don’t want, being flexible in order to get their own needs met, and don’t punish or others feel wrong. They often use “I” statements (vs. you statements), are non-judgemental, and accept others’ value and integrity.
The drama triangle can be transformed into the winner’s triangle through development of one’ self-awareness, managing one’s emotions, and communicate effectively [107]. Once we understand these drama patterns and become aware we are no longer operating in the adult ego state, we can break free and choose to step off the drama triangle and consciously seek to operate from our adult ego state.
As facilitators of behaviour change, it is therefore helpful to understand which role you tend to play on the Drama triangle. For example, as a community facilitator you may have a tendency to step on to the drama triangle in the role of rescuer, or potentially persecutor, and perceive community members as the victim who either are to blame for the welfare issues of their animals or who need your help to address observed welfare issues. Or you may perceive other community members or stakeholders within the role of persecutor, for example the animal health service provider who provides poor treatment and puts animals at risk may be perceived as the persecutor. These roles may then change if after your initial interactions, you find community members are not following your advice on how to improve animal welfare and are instead following the advice of the poorly trained animal health service provider. In this example, you may find yourself moving from rescuer to persecutor and start feeling negative feelings towards the animal owner. These feelings and associated responses and interactions are unhelpful to problem solving and achievement of the goal for improved animal welfare. Alternatively, if you perceived the animal health service provider in the role of persecutor, this would be similarly unhelpful to promoting a collaborative approach to addressing animal welfare issues.
When our professional interactions don’t seem authentic, or when we find ourselves confused or frustrated by conversations with others, we probably we have entered into one of the roles on the drama triangle. So how can you become free of all that could be holding you back so you can relate to people with congruence and authentic influence?
Use the following steps when interacting with community members to support effective inter-personal communication to promote collaboration and improve your ability to influence behaviour change:
Notice how you feel: the first thing to do when you feel a sense of confusion, irritation frustration, or helplessness is simply to notice this is actually happening. Ask yourself the following questions to improve your self-awareness:
Are we frustrated, confused, irritated, do we feel it's somebody else's fault?
Does that mean that we might be operating from a parent or child role?
Are we feeling “not ok” about ourselves or the other person?
Do we feel as if we're in our adult ego state?
Are we experiencing crossed transactions (where either our and/or another person’s non-adult ego state is operating).
Think about what might be happening for you, and also for the other person?
Listen - in order to communicate effectively we first need to listen (for additional guidance re to section on active listening below)
Move to your adult ego state
Soothe the child or parent ego state (yours or the other’s)
Enabling someone to move to their adult ego state so they can communicate from their best self is easily done by giving a few meaningful and positive comments e.g. empathetic responses or positive affirmations (for additional guidance refer to sections on empathy and active listening below). For example, you can say “That must be difficult for you”, “I understand how stressful that is for you”, “I know its frustrating when things don’t go as you believe they should” which helps the person then move back to their adult ego state so you can interact in a congruent adult-adult ego state.
Feel/show: it is important to authentically feel, and to show qualities of respect, vulnerability, authenticity, and empathy.
By understanding TA and being aware of the different ego states, you can learn not to respond based on unhelpful ways of being (e.g. from parent or child ego states, unhealthy life positions), and instead choose to respond consciously to improve communication, collaboration, and your ability to influence human behaviour change. TA therefore lends itself to strengthening emotional intelligence and inter-personal communication in the following ways:
Improves self-awareness through enabling identification and understanding of our/others’ emotional state and how this is influenced by/influences inter-personal interactions
Enables self-management as we can learn to keep our emotions under control once we are aware of them, thereby enabling us to choose to react consciously and in ways which are congruent with our values and objectives even in the face of challenges
Improves social awareness by enabling us to understand how others are feeling and why they reacting as they are,
Increases social skills by enabling us to respond effectively and with empathy, based on an understanding of our self and others, which also helps mitigate potential for conflict and break downs in interpersonal relations.
2c. Key Communication Skills
Empathy: Understanding Others’ Perspective
Empathy is a foundational skill which underpins emotional intelligence. The ability to communicate (send and receive messages) and lead by understanding others' thoughts, views, and feelings (being empathetic) is one of the most important means through which community facilitators enhance the quality of their interactions with community members to influence transformation and change.
Definition of Empathy: empathy is the ability to see things from another person’s point of view or from their frame of reference and feel what they feel. It involves understanding, being aware of, being sensitive to, and vicariously experiencing the feelings, thoughts, and experience of another person without making judgements [108]. In terms of communication, being empathetic involves communicating your sense of the other person’s experiences and feelings from your understanding of their perspective.
Benefits of Being Empathetic
Empathy involves being able to understand what a person is feeling in a given moment and also why their behaviours or actions make sense to them and we can use these insights to appropriately frame our communications with others, build trust and strengthen our relationships, and ultimately be more effective leading and inspiring desired change. The benefits of empathy are further described below:
Rapport Building: when facilitators express understanding of community members’ experience and feelings, and community members in turn feel they are accurately understood, accepted, and feel secure, rapport is built which is critical to a facilitator’s ability to influence behaviour change.
Improved Understanding and Awareness: responding with empathy provides community facilitators the opportunity to better organize and reflect back the meaning of the information community members are processing and communicating. This enables the facilitator to:
Demonstrate and check their own understanding of community members’ experiences and feelings, and
Evoke community members’ own reflections to support them in identifying problematic behaviours and solutions for themselves, as opposed to telling them or providing personal opinions or judgements which can cause defensiveness and a break down in relations. This is helpful to facilitating community members’ to move through the stages of change.
Guidance on Being Empathetic
Factors Influencing Empathy: People tend to be more empathetic toward some people and less so toward others [108]. As acommunity facilitator, it important to understand some of the factors that may influence your empathy so you can mitigate them and ensure your empathy is consistent across people you interact with. Factors influencing empathy include [108]:
How you perceive the other person
How you attribute the other individual's behaviours
What you blame for the other person's predicament
Your past experiences and expectations
You can mitigate these factors’ potential negative influence and improve your ability to be empathetic through an understanding and application of transactional analysis, particularly in relation to its assumptions, ego states, and life positions. Furthermore, the following points provide suggestions for how to be empathetic with others [109]:
Actively listen: effective listening must be active, which requires listening attentively to a speaker, understanding what they're saying, responding and reflecting on what's being said (refer to section below for guidance on active listening). It can also be demonstrated by providing appropriate feedback through body language e.g. nodding, smiling to encourage them continue, leaning forward, eye contact etc. Active listening encourages both the listener and speaker to remain actively engaged in the conversation.
Imagine yourself in the other person’s situation and accept their interpretation of it: By Imagining being in same situation as the person enables you to connect with their emotions and perspective and help ensure you don’t draw incorrect conclusions, comment and/or judge from your perspective without knowing the full details of what a person is experiencing e.g. “this is no big deal”, “you should try harder”, “you’re overreacting” etc. It is important to accept their interpretation of their experiences/situation without judging it, even if you do not agree and have a different interpretation.
Show care and concern: when someone tells you about their challenges or issues, show care and concern by asking how they are doing, if they would like your support, and/or let them know you are there to listen and support them in the ways you can/as appropriate.
Acknowledge the person’s feelings: it is important to validate people’s experiences and feelings as a means to build trust and rapport before working with them to address issues. Acknowledging means to recognize the importance of how they are feeling. Ensure you do no brush off or dismiss their feelings, avoid the topic, say something irrelevant, or attempt to move the conversation on before acknowledging and respecting how they feel.
Ask questions: ask people questionsto learn more about them and their lives and help encourage people to share more (refer to section below on open questions).
Don’t Rush the Conversation: a common mistake in community facilitation is trying to rush conversations to reach a certain end point or achieve a predetermined objective. When someone is sharing about their situation or issues, glossing over what they are feeling to rush towards the desired end point without acknowledging their feelings is invalidating and undermines the potential for collaboration. The more empathetic thing to do is connect with them based on their current emotional state by understanding their perspective and how they feel, and then seek to move them forward with questions. For example, a conversation like this may flow like this: “That sounds really frustrating” → “What happened that made it so difficult?” → “How are you feeling about it now?” → “What are your ideas about how to move forward?”. You can better build rapport by pacing the conversation and matching a person’s emotional state rather than trying to rush a conversation to a specific end point.
Don’t Judge: it is important to not to express judgement on an issue or person, nor form one before you understand the situation. Instead always give people the benefit of the doubt and understand they are doing the best they can and likely have their own justified reasons for their decisions, thoughts, and actions. It is also important to remember that all people have the ability to change and to uphold this belief regardless of their current actions.
Mirroring: mirroring is about connecting authentically with others by imitating their nonverbal signals as a means to build rapport e.g. their gestures, speech patterns, or attitude etc. The goal is not to copy someone’s mannerisms blindly but rather to adjust your behaviour to match their tone and vibe to create a sense of congruence with them.
Show emotional support: emotional support means giving people your trust, affirmation and encouragement (refer to section below on affirmations). Let them know that you will support them in whatever they choose to do and do not judge them. An example of a supportive statement is: “Knowing you, you always consider things very carefully. You know your situation best and I am supportive of whatever you choose to do.” Sometimes, what people are looking for is not answers or not solutions, but rather are looking for empathy and support.
In addition to the above, other things you can do to strengthen your empathy skills include [108]:
Work on listening to people without interrupting.
Pay attention to body language and other types of nonverbal communication.
Seek to learn more about how others feel to strengthen your connection with them.
Seek to identify your biases to understand and mitigate how they affect your perceptions of others.
Look for ways in which you are similar to others versus focusing on your differences.
Be willing to be vulnerable and open about how you feel.
Engage in new experiences to improve your understanding of how others in that situation may feel.
Examples of Responding with Empathy
Example Scenario: a community member expresses the following: “I’d like to meet my livestock’s welfare needs and am worried that I won’t be able to continue to rely them to earn a living if I don’t; but I don’t know what I can do given how busy I am and how limited my resources are. It’s overwhelming.”
Examples of empathetic responses:
“You rely on your animals and care about their wellbeing, and face challenges in meeting their needs which leaves you feeling very overwhelmed and not sure what to do.”
“It is understandable that you are worried about your animals and your livelihood which depends on them, and feel a sense of powerlessness.”
“There’s a looming uncertainty and risk if you don’t meet your animals’ welfare needs, and it feels like there’s a wall in front of you which prevents you from being able to take action to improve their welfare.”
“So, on the one hand, you want to take action and improve your animals’ welfare, but on the other, you worry you won’t be able to do anything even though you have the desire to.”
Applying Empathy to Improve Communications
When you are communicating it is important to adapt your communication to what will be most effective for the interaction from the perspective of the person you are engaging with. The following two step sequence outline how you can take the concept of empathy and apply it to your communication practices [110]:
Attribution: attribution is the act of gathering information concerning where your audience or recipient is and how they will best receive your message. You can do this by seeking to understand the perspective of the person receiving your communication and see the world from their eyes and understand how they feel. This will enable you to make some “attributions” about where they are, what they want, and how they may need something conveyed to them.
Accommodation: once you have taken into account the perspective of the person receiving your communication, you will then need to accommodate their perspective and feelings by adapting your behaviour and communication to their perspective. Adapting to a context and speaking empathically doesn’t mean you have to tell people whatever they want, but rather when you know where people are at, you can be more effective in compelling them into a different future. To help you adapt your communications to be empathetic, consider the following questions from the perspective of your audience [110]:
What communication do they need to hear (e.g. choosing the right words that make the most sense in the situation to fit their perspective)?
How do they need to hear it?
Where do they need to hear it?
What is the style they need to hear it in?
Why they are interested in hearing it in the first place?
Active Listening - open ended questions, affirmations, reflective listening, summarizing
The core skill associated with effective communication is active listening which includes: asking open questions, and providing affirmations, reflections and summaries. This can be remembered by the acronym OARS.
Listening is different to hearing what someone says. It is a very active process and can achieve the empathy, deep curiosity and exploration of someone’s perspective needed in the change process. This can also be vital to overcome any challenges regarding the interpersonal relationship between listener and speaker.
OPEN QUESTIONS
Open questions are questions that encourage more than a yes or no answer. They elicit understanding, encourage talking and facilitate abstract thinking skills.
The goal: use more open than closed questions.
Open Question Examples:
“How are you today?”
“What’s made you speak to me about this?”
“Can you tell me more about that?”
“Why do you want to make this change?”
Additional tips for framing open-ended questions to be authentic and situationally appropriate:
During initial discussions, ask questions which first seek to identify a person’s own understanding of situation/problem e.g. ask what they know about the issue. This will enable you to focus your discussion with them on areas where they may lack understanding or awareness.
Remain curious to learn and focus on evoking more change talk through open ended questions and reflections.
Keep in mind which stage of change a person is in at a given point in time, and tailor your questions depending on their stage of change/how they respond. For example you can tailor questions or elicit change talk in pre-contemplation, contemplation stage, or tailor questions to evoke ideas about how to plan/solutions in preparation stage. How to use open ended questions within the four facilitation processes for facilitating progress through the stages are described below:
Process of Engagement: use open ended questions when starting to build a foundational relationship to gain sense of what is important to community members and help build rapport
Process of Focusing: after rapport has been built, use open ended questions to begin identifying the priority issues community members are interested in to set a clear direction for working together moving forward.
Process of Evoking: use open ended questions here to elicit change talk change talk and draw out their own reasons and motivations for change.
Process of Planning: once community members are aware of the issue and have expressed a desire to change to behaviour, use open ended questions to ask about what they think they can do/what solutions they can implement to achieve desired change.
AFFIRMATIONS
Affirming means to actively listen for a client’s positive strengths, skills, values, efforts, accomplishments, aspirations and traits, and to reflect those to the client.
The goal: be in a mind-set of consciously ‘looking out for’ these positive qualities, and, if genuinely appreciated, to reflect them back to community members.
Affirmation Examples:
“You came up with a lot of great ideas to address your animal’s welfare needs. Great brainstorming today.”
“It’s important to you to be a good animal owner.”
“You are the kind of person who takes their responsibilities seriously, and want to do the right thing.”
“You’re investing a lot of effort and really trying to make this change.”
Additional tips on giving affirmations:
Affirmations should be framed in terms of “You” and never include the word “I”. This is because “I” reflects your opinion rather than affirms an innate quality or strength in the person e.g. “You clearly have through about this care a lot” vs. “I think you care a lot.”
Focus affirmations on reflecting a person’s efforts rather than their results as a means to encourage and motivate them and promote their self efficacy and confidence.
Avoid using words like good, bad, great etc. when making affirmations as they imply judgement. When such positive words are used they act more like praise rather than affirmations e.g. “It is good you are supporting your animals” (praise) vs. “Caring for your animals is important to you” (affirming).
Focus affirmations on positive aspects as a means to express empathy for what and why they want to change e.g. focusing on their strengths, efforts, who they are as a person/animal owner etc.
REFLECTIONS
Reflections are statements rather than questions, and are based on having listened to what someone said, and making a guess as to what they meant. Often a question statement can be turned into a reflection by removing the inflection at the end and any query words at the beginning. Reflections can be simple or complex. Try to use complex reflections at least half of the time.
The goal:
Remember that what we think a speaker means may not be correct, and that we must ‘hypothesis test’ our thoughts with reflections to ensure common purpose
Reflect more often than you ask questions.
Reflection Examples: Consider the statement: “If I was happier monitoring my animal’s welfare, I would do it”. Possible reflections include:
“You would like to be more confident in monitoring your animal’s welfare.”
“You feel unsure about whether you’re monitoring your animal’s welfare correctly.”
“Observing your animals’ welfare issues is upsetting for you.”
SUMMARIES
A summary is a special type of reflection that brings together content from two or more statements made by someone. They encourage us to listen very carefully to what a person says throughout a session, and, when offered, show a person that you remember and value what they say. They also give the person we are speaking with an opportunity to point out if we have missed something important in the discussion, so they can fill in the gaps.
The goal: listen attentively to a person’s thoughts and feelings throughout, ready to use a ‘basket of reflections’ to thoughtfully collect, link or transition client statements as needed. For example, you may wish to form a collecting summary to bring together all the reasons for change someone has offered in an interaction.
Summary Example:
“So one thing you hope will be different a year from now is that you will have some better buildings on the farm, that will help make your daily routine easier and be more positive for the cows. You’ve been finding it easier to keep on top of the shelter cleaning recently, and you’d like that to continue. You also said you’d like to learn a little more about nutritional feed composition. What else comes to mind when you think of where you’d like things to be a year from now?”
A seasonal calendar is used to plot changes over the annual cycle. This tool provides a visual representation of seasonally varying phenomenon, such as production activities, illness and disease, migration patterns and much more [48]. This is a useful exercise to carry out with a community as part of a needs assessment and shared vision, which identifies mitigating action. This tool enables people to analyse changes across seasons in the lives of animals as well as their owners, users and/or carers, as well as how these changes may be linked to each other.
Tool purpose:
Time needed:
• To identify periods of availability and scarcity (water, food, income) to target programme activities • To identify periods of lowest and highest risk (disease, poor health, poor body condition) to target programme activities • To identify potential linkages or causal factors related to the livelihoods of animals’ owners, users and carers
1.5 - 2 hours
Materials needed:
Chart paper and markers or sticks, stones, straw, leaves, beans, seeds, pulses, coloured sand or chalk powder and/or any other locally available materials to represent each aspect in the chart
Keyword Search Tags
Project Phase: Initiation Phase
Approaches for Working With Communities: Community Development Approach, Community Engagement Approach
Behavioural Drivers (COM-B): Opportunity
Project Support: Participatory Learning and Action Tools, Needs Assessment
Specific Topics: Animal Health and Services; Livelihoods; Vulnerability/Resilience, Animal Welfare, Feelings, and Needs
Seasonal calendar of the lives of animals, their owners, users and carers
The seasonal calendar can include many aspects of life. For example, it may highlight changes in animal welfare according to seasonal variations in workloads or availability of feed, which may also be associated with changes in household income and/or expenditure. It can help the community to decide actions to improve animal welfare and plan ahead to prevent welfare from getting worse in difficult seasons, as well plan alternative livelihood strategies for times when their working animals will not be required, required less or for different purposes. Each important aspect is identified and defined by the community.
Different criteria is agreed by the community to illustrate seasonal variations in:
festivals, religious ceremonies, important local events
household income
household expenditures
consumption of animal feed and fodder, grazing or other resources
seasonal prevalence or incidence of animal diseases
general health status of people in animal-owning households
the general body condition or welfare status of animals
availability of water and/or other important natural resources
availability of work or employment and other livelihood related activities
work load of animals and humans e.g. periods of heavy work or periods of relative ease
migration patterns of animal-owning families
Figure T6 Seasonal calendar created by a group of animal owners in Thies, Senegal
The example above was conducted with a community, whose livelihoods depend on animals, especially during periods of agricultural harvest. Men and women primarily rely on animals to support their livelihoods, but have additional sources of income throughout the year. From this calendar, we come to understand:
There are four seasons: Winter/Rainy or Monsoon season, Autumn/Harvest time, Spring/Dry Season, and Summer/Lean Season (1st row)
Two major festivals take place (2nd row) in December and January/February
Water (4th row), harvesting (3rd row) and fodder availability (5th row) are extremely low or non-existent during the dry season (Aug-Sept) and highest during the rainy season (Oct-Dec).
Animal-related (7th row) and non-animal related (8th row) income varies between men and women, with women bringing in more non-animal-related income (8th row) throughout the year and men bringing in more animal-related income (7th row) generally.
Both income (7th & 8th rows) and household expenditure (9th row) go up during festival months.
There appears to be a relationship between animal body condition (10th row), availability of feed/fodder (5th row) and disease prevalence in animals (9th row):
Animal body condition is worse and disease prevalence (9th row) higher during summer season (Jun - July), when there is low water availability, no fodder.
Human health is also worse during the winter months (July-Sept). The issue of diseases (11th row), discussions focused on the most disease prone periods. For more details, during this exercise the communities indicated that from July to January, there is usually an outbreak of seasonal diseases like Malaria, during the rainy season (July-August-September), and; seasonal flu from October to January. Communities indicated that the fatigue accumulated during the harvesting season (3rd row) and water availability (4th row) are some of the aggravating factors.
As far as expenses (9th row) are concerned, there are fewer expenses related to household care just after the harvests. In fact, during this period consumption is mainly derived from the harvest, and expenditure concerns other aspects such as education and health. Sometime afterwards, expenditure increases due to the reduction in food stocks and the need to prepare for the next season (seeds, inputs, etc.). Taking care of the animals during this period also requires expenditure due to the scarcity of grasses.
Seasonal Calendar of the Lives of Animals and Communities
Step 1
a) Start a discussion by asking participants about the local calendar and seasonal landmarks, for example dry or rainy seasons, before or after festival periods or religious ceremonies. b) Ask the helper to draw a matrix on the ground or large piece of chart paper and list the identified seasons on the horizontal (top) axis including the months in which they fall. c) On the first line of the vertical axis, add the identified seasonal landmarks (1a). Instead of words, the group may identify unique characteristics of each season and depict these using a symbol or drawing.
Step 2
a) Move on to a discussion about the present season and their main work during this season. Add the work to the vertical axis. Then ask about: b) Other work during the year c) Income generated from the main work d) Income generated from the other work e) general house expenditures throughout the year f) Big issues related to animals and humans, such as: • Animal illness/disease • Human illness/disease • Availability of water/feed/fodder, etc.
Step 3
Decide with the group how they will display the situation. Encourage participants depict seasonal changes using locally available materials. You may also use symbols or simply write words on cards.
For example:
• Higher income levels can be shown by placing a lot of seeds/money on the month in which this occurs, while a decrease in income the next month is shown with just a few seeds. - Figure T6 used dots, or you can use dollar signs ($) for income, whereby five dots or $$$$$ = high income and a single dot or $ = low income (Rows 7, 8, 9)
• On the same note, you can use the dots to represent abundance or scarcity. Abundance can be represented by 5 dots whereas a single 1 dot represents scarcity; and those in between can show relative references to abundance or scarcity. - Figure T6 used 5 dots for periods of high-water availability, 3 dots for average water availability and 1 dot for periods of water scarcity (Row 4).
• You can also use by shading Dark colours to represent periods of abundance and light colours periods of scarcity.
Step 4
Explore the relationships between different seasonal events, activities and problems for animals and humans, especially those that show changes at the same time. The availability of resources either in the form of fodder or water availability or income or spending shows you what kind of physical opportunities are available to create an enabling environment for people to change their behaviour towards their animal’s welfare.
Also discuss any similarities between the well-being of animals and humans throughout the seasons. Once the calendar is complete, discuss the results of the activity with the group.
Step 5
Record the community’s analysis and responses in your project action tracker. Leave the seasonal calendar with the community and take a copy/picture for your records. Follow up with the community later when you start action planning together.
Facilitation Notes
In exceptional cases, where there are more than 20 people in the group, consider dividing participants into smaller groups to compare the seasonal changes amongst different groups of people. Encourage people to arrange themselves into the smaller groups with those they feel share greatest similarities (e.g. men / women, owners / users).
It may be helpful to have more than one facilitator to support/facilitate small group work and discussions, especially if there are many participants.
Before starting this exercise, discuss the calendar focus areas (which specific aspects will be examined) and how it will be used to analyse how the welfare of working animals and their related livelihoods and well-being change in different seasons. Also, how certain changes may be linked or cause challenges in their capacity to care for their animals.
Be clear that the aim of the activity is to discuss how seasonality affects animal welfare and people’s livelihoods and identify challenging seasons. In this way, participants’ expectations can best be managed, and potential frustrations or perceptions that facilitators are more interested in animals’ well-being than people, can be mitigated. This is particularly important given that some changes in livelihoods and well-being may be identified, but it may be beyond the capacity of the project to address them.
New facilitators might look into historical weather and food security reports (FEWS NET) to gain an understanding of seasonal challenges that the community might be facing before meeting with the group, which will help with identifying dry/lean, rainy/fruitful seasons and historical water shortages.
Next Steps
Seasonal calendars during the rapport building stage might accompany or be created alongside one or more of the following tools:
T3 Venn Diagram (T3a Resources and Services Venn Diagram) to understand identify animal-related resource and service providers animal-owning communities rely on most and their level of satisfaction with each one
T4 Daily Activity Schedule to understand how people and animals in animal-owning communities spend their time
QUICK LINKS T2 Mobility Map Resources and Services T2 Location of Services and Resources T2 Facilitator's NOTES T2 NEXT STEPS
T7: Historical Timeline Resources and Services
The historical timeline is an excellent tool to start building rapport with a community. This activity can provide both the facilitator and participants with insight into how participants perceive their past and which events they perceive as most important. It generates discussions and understanding of how past events have contributed to shaping, either positively or negatively, conditions in the present. This tool has been adapted to the context of animal welfare [50], and can be used to create a timeline of animals’ history in the community, including events such as their introduction to the community, changes in the way they are used, disease outbreaks, and external factors or events that affect their lives and the community members who depend on them. This tool works well when carried out with community elders.
The value of this exercise lies in the discussions that take place during the process of developing the timeline, rather than recalling or remembering every event. Discussions can highlight important issues in the lives of animals and their owners, help identify critical drivers of change and root causes of the current situation. Discussions can uncover patterns of reoccurring events and their perceived impacts. Finally, the historical timeline can act as a retrospective learning activity to bring participants’ attention to significant events, occurrences or changes that happened, and promote awareness and commitment to sustained change.
Tool purpose:
Time needed:
• Generate understanding of major past events community members perceive to be significant to the lives of animals and people. • To understand changes over time regarding working animals, their use, the livelihoods of community members who depend on them, and/or recurrent shocks or trends which influence the vulnerability of communities and their animal • Can identify key policy focus areas, or key government stakeholders or potential project partners helpful to addressing issues of shared interest.
2-3 hours
Materials needed:
Cards, pens/markers
Keyword Search Tags
Project Phase: Initiation Phase
Approaches for Working With Communities: Community Development Approach
Specific Topics: Animal Husbandry and Management; Livelihoods, Vulnerability/Resilience
Historical Timeline
The historical timeline (figure T7) begins in 1950 when the first Community Leader was elected. The first animal (ox) was purchased by Omar in 1969 and the second animals (donkeys) were purchased by Asim in 1980. This exercise was done as part of the initial interaction with the community during the rapport building phase and generated an interesting discussion on animal ownership and use in the village.
Historical Timeline
Step 1
Draw a line on the ground and show that one end represents the beginning point in lifetime of the eldest participant and the other end represents the present. Ask what is current and what is past, letting participants define the past.
Begin the discussion by asking participants to identify significant events in their community and write them on cards. They should identify whatever they feel is significant without any constraints at this stage.
Step 2
Ask participants to identify which of the significant events are important to their lives and the lives of their animals. Which events that have shaped the lives of working animals, their use of them, or the related benefits they obtain from them?
Have participants organise all identified events in chronological order. Start with the earliest event at the top, gradually adding all later events until they reach the present at the end line.
Please note: Recalling specific dates and times can be challenging. It is more important to have the events in chronological order. Encourage participants to think about the events in relation to each other or in relation to other well-known local or national events. This will enable them to work out the sequencing of events along the timeline, without wasting time agreeing on precise dates.
Then identify significant milestones or events to add to timeline (both positive and negative) related to the history of working animals in their community.
Consider using the following to guide the discussions:
• When were the first working animals introduced? • Environmental catastrophes e.g. earthquake, hurricane, tsunami, and/or floods • Introduction or occurrence of disease epidemics/outbreaks, human or animal (e.g. cholera) • Availability of services and/or resources within the community e.g. water point construction, health centre construction, animal health service providers • Introduction of new technologies e.g. animal traction, animal cart/harness design, mechanized transport, or machinery (e.g. tractors, ploughs) • Introduction of new practices e.g. building household or communal animal shelters, soil or water conservation practices, improved farming practices, food/feed storage • Introduction of new income generating activities e.g. construction jobs, renting animals, selling goods/services, sale of home-grown food production • Major seasonal changes (e.g. longer dry/rainy season) • Hard times when animal owners had to sell animals or other assets to survive • Periods of political change, major conflicts, civil unrest, war
Consider asking:
• Which actors or stakeholders were involved in the major developments or events? • Are there any other key milestones or turning points which, you feel shaped these events, either positively or negatively?
Place added events within the timeline in relation to the first event (or beginning of the timeline). Give participants time to respond individually.
Step 3
Once all events have been identified, ask participants to confirm that everything has been captured. Make necessary adjustments until participants are satisfied that the timeline represents the perceived history of their lives and lives of their animals.
Step 4
Discuss events that participants are interested in and inquire about events that you are particularly interested in better understanding.
If this activity was conducted separately with men and women, rather than collectively, bring the groups back together to compare the two timelines as appropriate to local context.
Use the following questions to help guide the discussion:
• Did any of these events lead to or cause another? • Which of these events were major obstacles or opportunities to improving the lives of working animals and people who depend on them? • How were the obstacles overcome? • Are any obstacles, issues, or challenges recurring? • Are there any other noticeable recurrent patterns of events?
If comparing the timelines between two groups (e.g. men and women), ask participants whether there any similarities and differences in events on each timeline or perceived significance of events similarities? If yes, why? You may do this together if contextually appropriate. If done collectively between men and women, you might ask which events are most significant for men and women.
Alternatively, you can compare the two results yourself and follow up with men and women participants independent of the group scenario to gain a deeper understanding of significant differences.
Step 5
As a final step, ask participants what activities and events, if any, are planned to enhance their lives or the lives of their animals?
Step 6
Once the timeline is complete, take a photo or record of the chart on a piece of paper, ensuring the community has a copy for their records. A copy is retained by the facilitator for future reference or planning. Add any notes or interesting points to your project action tracker.
Facilitation Notes
Aim to include a broad cross-section of animal-owning household members from the community, across multiple generations.
If it is not possible or locally appropriate to do the exercise collectively with both sexes, consider conducting the exercise separately with men and women. Each may recall different events due to the impacts these events had on their lives.
If possible, invite 10-20 people to participant in this exercise.
Do not lead participants into identifying events that are not important to them. While asking probing questions, emphasize including only events that they perceive to be important. Events should not be included simply because you inquired about them.
Encourage participants not to spend too much time engaged in a discussion about the exact date of events, or precisely defining timeline intervals. Make it clear that discussion on the order of events is more important.
The timeline tool can be challenging to facilitate. Maintain the focus and get broad participation. Carefully manage controversy and mitigate arguments should they arise.
Participants may find it difficult to relay events in a chronological order. People often use a local time frame that may be different from a traditional calendar year. Use your judgement to enable them to articulate time in a way in which you can both relate.
Disagreements may arise through discussions on controversial past events. Try to:
Mitigate potential disagreements and blame by keeping participants focused on facts; who did what and when they occurred.
Not to force a conclusion, as there may be different interpretations.
Have participants add their differing interpretations to the timeline.
Ask participants to explain the event from their perspective.
Include multiple timelines to reflect differing views of a single event/actor. Views can be further reflected on in subsequent discussions at the end of the exercise.
Next Steps
In order to better understand the lives and context of the animal owning community during the initiation phase, consider using the following tools in addition to the historical timeline:
T1 Mapping to understand the community’s perceived welfare issues.
T11 Change Analysis (T11a Changing Trend Analysis)to know how change happened from past to present
T4 Daily Activity Schedule to know when best to meet with men and women or children; to understand differing roles.
T6 Seasonal Calendar to identify periods of scarcity, highest risk and when animal body condition and/or resources supporting animal health and welfare are the best/worst.
Approaches for Working With Communities: Community Development Approach, Community Engagement Approach, Societal Outreach and Campaigns Approach
Stages of Behaviour Change: Contemplation Stage
Project Support: Facilitator Resources, Training
Specific Topics: Outreach and Communications; Community Change Agents
When someone is contemplating making a change, there is balance between their reasons for and against change, and people often experience a period characterised by ambivalence where they weigh the advantages and disadvantages of change to help them make a decision. Resolving this ambivalence and tipping the balance in favour of change can be achieved by strengthening a person’s language about their reasons to change, referred to as change talk, and softening their language in favour of the status quo, referred to as sustain talk. The purpose of this facilitator resource is to enable you to recognize and understand the difference between change talk and sustain talk. Your ability to recognize change talk and sustain talk is a necessary first step to enabling you to effectively facilitate conversations about change as needed to evoke and strengthen community members’ rationales for change (change talk), and overcome their arguments for not changing (sustain talk).
Ambivalence
Ambivalence is the state of experiencing conflicting beliefs, feelings or emotions simultaneously, which can stop people’s progress towards change. When someone is in a state of ambivalence, they will often have very good reasons for change and very good reasons against change. The language community members use (change talk and sustain talk) will indicate whether they are in this contemplation, or ambivalent stage of change.
If someone is simply not yet ready to change or does not believe there is a problem, this is different than ambivalence. In such situations you may instead encounter resistance talk, indicating they are in the pre-contemplation stage of change. For example, someone may say “I don’t believe this is a big a problem and don’t see the need to change.”
Change Talk
The acronym “DARN CAT” is useful to use to understand the types of change talk we hear. When someone is preparing to change, “DARN talk occurs, which is described with examples in the table below [111].
Types of Change Language
Change Talk Examples
Desire Statements about preference for change.
“I’d like my animals not to be lame regularly.”“I want to...” “I would like to...” “I wish…“
Ability Statements about capability.
“I guess I could pick out my animal’s feet more regularly.”“I could…”, “I can...”, “I might be able to…“
Reasons Specific arguments for change
“I want my animals to have good welfare.”“I would probably feel less stress if my animal’s welfare improved”“My animal needs to feel better as my family’s livelihood depends on it.”
Need Statements about feeling obliged to change.
“I must spend less time and money seeking treatments from animal health service providers.” “I ought to…”, “I have to…“, “I really should…”
When someone is close to resolving their ambivalencein favour of change, CAT talk appears which is described with examples in the table below.
Types of Change Language
Change Talk Example Statements
Commitment Statements about their willingness to change.
“I have good reasons to improve my animal’s welfare.”“I am going to ... “, “I promise…”, “I intend to... “
Action Statements about their readiness to take action.
“I’m willing to talk to an animal health service provider about this.” “I am ready to ... “ “I will start tomorrow…”
Taking steps Statements about action taken.
“I’ve started attending community meetings where this topic is discussed.”“I actually went out and…”, “This week I started...”
Sustain Talk
Any language that can act to promote change also has an equal and opposite partner in favour of staying the same: sustain talk. You will be able to identify sustain talk when a person verbalizes their reasons not changing. The table below outlines the types of sustain talk with examples.
Types of Sustain Language
Sustain Talk Example Statements
Desire Statements about preference for staying the same/not changing.
“I don’t want to spend that long trying to prevent issues.”
Ability Statements about not having capability.
“I’ve tried, and I don’t think I can check my animal’s feet that often.” “I can’t afford to seek treatment for my animal.”
Reasons Specific arguments against change
“If I try to manage this issue I just create a problem somewhere else.”
Need Statements about not feeling an obligation to change.
“I’ve got to focus my time on other things.”
Commitment Statements about their unwillingness or lack of commitment to change.
“I’m just not going to care for my animal’s feet - that’s final.”
Action Statements about not wanting to take action.
“I’m prepared to accept the risks of keeping my animals this way.”
Taking steps Statements about actions no taken.
“I threw away that information sheet earlier this week.”
This PLA tool can support identification of community priorities related to a variety of topics, and you are encouraged to adapt the tool as needed to address topics relevant to your project.
Step-by-step guidance for conducting this activity is provided related to the following three topics:
T8a: Pairwise Ranking and Scoring of Animal Welfare Issues
T8b: Pairwise Ranking and Scoring of Animal Health Service Providers
T8c: Pairwise Ranking and Scoring of Animal Diseases
T8a: Pairwise Ranking and Scoring of Animal Welfare Issues
This tool uses a matrix to make direct comparisons between issues, such as beating, over-loading, poor feeding practices, etc. It is used to prioritize welfare issues for taking action, which can be a useful next step after participatory welfare needs assessment (See T22 Animal Welfare Transect Walk) has been carried out. This tool is similar to T9 Matrix Ranking and Scoringin that it prioritizes issues important to communities, however does so in a quicker and simpler way, without explicitly including criteria participants use when prioritizing issues. However, reasons for particular preferences can still emerge during discussions as participants decide on their priorities. As such, this tool may be used instead of, or before a more in-depth matrix ranking and scoring activity.
Tool purpose:
Time needed:
• To support animal owning communities in identifying the animal welfare issues they feel are the biggest priorities to address
1.5-2 hours
Materials needed:
Coloured powder, chalk, stick, tree leaves, coloured cards; chart paper and markets, or other locally available materials to represent identified criteria.
Keyword Search Tags
Project Phase: Planning Phase
Approaches for Working With Communities: Community Development Approach, Community Engagement Approach
Specific Topics: Animal Welfare, Feelings, and Needs
Pair-wise ranking and scoring of animal welfare issues
T8A Pairwise ranking and scoring of animal welfare issues in Faisalabad, Pakistan
A group of animal owners in a Brick kiln community in Faisalabad, Pakistan, ranked animal welfare issues identified in their locality according to the level of prioritization. The identified lack of available shade/shelter, inadequate provision of water, inadequate provision of mixed feed, overloading, beating and lack of timely treatment. Inadequate provision of water (score 5) and inadequate provision of mixed feed (score 4) were seen as the first and second important animal welfare issues, respectively. Participants agreed to discuss ways to address these priority issues in their next group meeting.
Pair-wise ranking and scoring of animal welfare issues
Step 1
Start by explaining the purpose of the exercise.
Ask one or two community helpers to create a matrix on the ground or chart paper. Have a minimum of six (6) rows and columns, with room to add more should the community identify more than five animal welfare issues. Have one of the community helpers draw a line from the top left diagonal corner to the bottom right diagonal corner. Cross out the boxes below the diagonal line to avoid duplication.
At the same time, ask the community to identify animal welfare issues that are common in the area. Have another community helper record them on cards. Use representative names, symbols, abbreviations, or locally available materials to depict the issues, such as different tree leaves. Make two sets of symbols for each identified issue. Place one set of names/symbols in the first column, from top to bottom. Then place the second set of names/symbols in the top row, from left to right.
Please note: It is the facilitator’s job to help the community reduce the number of animal welfare issues to a maximum of six to eight (6-8) that are most common to the community should they come up with a long list.
Please note: Ensure that you have multiple copies of the symbols to prepare for the prioritisation.
Step 2
One by one, compare each name/symbol in the columns with each symbol in the rows. Encourage participants to discuss which animal welfare issues they would prioritise over the other and ask why. Have the community members place the preferred name/symbol in the relevant box in the matrix.
Please note: Coming to an agreement on the priority animal welfare issues may cause some debate amongst participants. These discussions are important as they generate understanding of the rationale underlying participant’s prioritisation of issues. As a facilitator, allow and encourage this discussion without inserting your ideas. Ask the community helper to record the reasons for their prioritisation.
Step 3
Count the number of times each option appears in the matrix. Add them up and record totals at the bottom of the matrix using seeds, pebbles, or numbers (scoring). Then make a list of the options with the most prioritised animal welfare issue ranked first.
Once complete, consider using the following questions to generate a discussion about the results:
• Does everyone agree on the prioritised issues? • What is the impact of the prioritised issues on animal-owning households? (e.g. livelihoods) • What can be done to improve the prioritised animal welfare issues? • Who needs to do what? • What opportunities exist for participants to address the priority animal welfare issues and/or improve their current animal husbandry and management practices?
Step 4
Summarize the results of the activity and have the community helper add any actions and activities to the community action plan. Agree on a date and time for the next session.
The matrix should be left with the community. Make a copy or take a photograph for your reference for future discussions and further action planning. Add a copy to your project action tracker.
Facilitator’s notes: Pair-wise ranking & scoring of animal welfare issues
If the number of items to be compared is too large, this exercise can become boring for participants. In this case, help participants to reduce the list by focusing on a smaller number of prioritised items.
Make sure the animal welfare issues are very clear and precise. For example, if the community identifies water, clarify whether the issue of water is about water provision, water access/availability, water distance, etc.
The discussions that people have about why they choose one option over another are just as important as the result. It is important to allow these discussions to happen. Take notes on the criteria participants use to decide on their priorities.
Some diseases and conditions may be identified as a major animal welfare issue in the community, such as colic. These may also be included in the issues list.
This activity might identify potential influencers. Consider involving them in to future sessions to help strengthen the identified opportunities for change.
Next steps
Use understandings gained about what motivates animal-owning communities to inform the design of projects and/or strategies
Priority issues agreed by the group for further exploration and/or action may be revisited during community action planning and included in relevant sections of the community action plan (e.g. issues and action sections)
T26 Animal Welfare Cause and Effect Analysis to identify and promote understanding of the root causes of priority animal welfare issues and related implications for people and animals
T8b: Pairwise Ranking and Scoring of Animal Health Service Providers
This tool uses a matrix to make direct comparisons between animal diseases common to a community. It is used to prioritize animal diseases to address, which can be a useful next step after participatory welfare needs assessment (See T22 Animal Welfare Transect Walk) has been carried out. This tool is similar toT9 Matrix Ranking and Scoringin that it prioritizes diseases important to communities, however does so in a quicker and simpler way, without explicitly including criteria participants use when prioritizing issues. However, reasons for particular preferences can still emerge during discussions as participants decide on their priorities. As such, this tool may be used instead of, or before a more in-depth matrix ranking and scoring activity.
Tool purpose:
Time needed:
• To support animal owning communities in identifying and prioritizing animal diseases to address.
2 hours
Materials needed:
Coloured powder, chalk, stick, tree leaves, coloured cards; chart paper and markets, or other locally available materials to represent identified criteria
The matrix below compares common diseases in working animals and identifies which of them are perceived to be the biggest problem by the community. This activity helps people to understand the common diseases in their community and local area and can be used to inform the T26 Animal Welfare Cause and Effect Analysis.
T8B Pairwise scoring and ranking of animal diseases
A group of animal owners identified, compared and ranked six diseases, using tree leaves as symbols for respiratory problems, surra (trypanosomiasis – biting flies), worm infestation, ectoparasites, wounds and tetanus. This showed that tetanus was seen by the group to be the biggest welfare problem, followed by surra. Though worm infestation was initially identified as one of the most important diseases, it was found to be less important than other diseases during pair-wise comparisons. This tool was used to inform action planning and followed up with a T15 Cost-Benefit Analysis. The community decided to take up community-led vaccination of their animals against tetanus.
Pair-wise ranking and scoring of animal diseases
Step 1
Start by explaining that the purpose of the exercise.
Ask one or two community helpers to create a matrix on the ground using coloured powder, chalk, or a stick or on chart paper using markers. Have a minimum of six (6) rows and columns, with room to add more should the community identify more than five diseases. Have one of the community helpers draw a line from the top left diagonal corner to the bottom right diagonal corner. Cross out the boxes below the diagonal line to avoid duplication (see Figure T8b).
At the same time, start by asking the community to identify diseases that are commonly found in the area. Have another community helper record them on cards. Use representative names, symbols, abbreviations, or locally available materials to depict the diseases, such as different tree leaves. Make two sets of symbols for each identified disease. Place one set of names/symbols in the first column, from top to bottom. Then place the second set of names/symbols in the top row, from left to right.
Please note: Depending on the context, the participants may call refer to the diseases by local names and identify them by sign, symptom, effect and/or seasonality. The facilitator should have a good basic knowledge of diseases in the area to identify them.
Please note: It is the facilitator’s job to help the community reduce the number of diseases to a maximum of eight (8) should they come up with a long list.
Step 2
One by one, compare each name/symbol in the columns with each symbol in the rows. Encourage participants to discuss which disease they would prioritise over the other and ask why. If a second facilitator is available, have him/her record the reasons for their prioritisation. If one is not available, remember to later record the reasons after the session.
Please note: Coming to an agreement on the priority diseases may cause some debate amongst participants.
These discussions are important as they generate understanding of the rationale underlying participant’s prioritisation of diseases. As a facilitator, allow and encourage this discussion without inserting your ideas. Have the community members place the preferred name/symbol in the relevant box on the matrix
Step 3
Count the number of times each option appears in the matrix. Add them up and record totals at the bottom of the matrix using seeds, pebbles, or numbers (scoring). Then make a list of the options with the most prioritised disease ranked first.
Once complete, consider using the following questions to generate a discussion about the results:
• Does everyone agree on the prioritised diseases? • What is the impact of the prioritised diseases on animal-owning households? (e.g. livelihoods) • If they have not been identified through the activity, ask what are current disease prevention and treatment practices? • What can be done to prevent the prioritised diseases?
Step 4
Summarize the results of the activity and have the community helper add any actions and activities to the community action plan. Agree on a date and time for the next session.
The matrix should be left with the community. Make a copy or take a photograph for your reference for future discussions and further action planning. Add a copy to your project action tracker.
Facilitator’s notes: Pair-wise ranking
If the number of diseases to be compared is too long, this exercise can be boring. In this case, help participants to reduce the list of by focusing on a smaller number of prioritised diseases.
The discussions that people have about why they choose one option over another are just as important as the result. It is important to allow these discussions to happen. Take notes on the criteria participants use to decide on their priorities.
Participants may not know the scientific names of diseases and will have local names for them. The facilitator should have basic knowledge of animal diseases when participants come up with signs, symptoms, effects and seasonality in order to identify them.
Next Steps
Use understandings gained about what motivates animal owning communities’ to inform the design of projects and/or strategies
Priority diseases agreed by the group for further exploration and/or action may be revisited during community action planning and/or included in relevant sections of the community action plan (e.g. issues and action sections)
T8c: Pairwise Ranking and Scoring of Animal Diseases
This activity uses a matrix to make direct comparisons between resource and service providers. This tool is similar to matrix ranking and scoring (T9), as it prioritizes animal related resources and service providers important to communities, however does so in a quick and simple way, without including criteria participants use when prioritizing. However, reasons for their particular preferences can emerge during discussions between participants when priorities are debated.
Tool purpose:
Time needed:
• To support animal owning communities in identifying and prioritizing the local resource and service providers important to their animals’ welfare • To identify types of resource and service providers the project can engage to support animal welfare improvements • To generate peer-peer discussion and learning about the importance of different animal-related resources and services to their animals’ welfare in a process of self-sensitization towards understanding animal welfare needs
1.5-2 hours
Materials needed:
Coloured powder, chalk, stick, tree leaves, coloured cards or other locally available materials to represent diseases, items and service providers
Keyword Search Tags
Project Phase: Planning Phase
Approaches for Working With Communities: Community Development Approach, Community Engagement Approach
Project Support: Participatory Learning and Action Tools, Needs Assessment
Specific Topics: Animal Health and Services
Pair-wise ranking and scoring of animal-related resource & service providers
Pair-wise ranking and scoring may be used to analyze several aspects of resource and service providers, such as the importance of each on the welfare of animals, ranking of the quality, cost or availability of different providers (for example the veterinarians, animal health workers, feed, fodder and equipment sellers, etc.) or ranking several providers of the same service, such as the animal health workers in one locality.
T8c Pairwise ranking of resources and service providers in Halaba, Ethiopia
A group of animal owners scored and ranked animal-related resource and service providers in Halaba, Ethiopia, according to who they found most important for the welfare of their animal. They started by identifying the animal-related resource and service providers, including the farrier, the animal health service provider, the saddle maker, the shelter provider, the harness maker and the feed seller. The shelter provider, with whom they rent shelter space, was seen as the most important, as their animals are at risk at being attacked by hyenas at night. The shelter is important for preventing injury or death of animals. The second most priority animal-related service provider was the feed seller, as there is not enough available land and grass for grazing during the year since the area is highly prone to drought.
Pair-wise ranking and scoring of animal-related resource and service providers
Step 1
Start by explaining that the purpose of the exercise.
Ask one or two community helpers to create a matrix on the ground using coloured powder, chalk, or a stick or on chart paper using markers. Have a minimum of six (6) rows and columns, with room to add more should the community identify more than five criteria. Have one of the community helpers draw a line from the top left diagonal corner to the bottom right diagonal corner. Cross out the boxes below the diagonal line to avoid duplication (see Figure T8C).
At the same time, start by asking the community to identify the animal-related resource and service providers that are important for animals’ welfare. Have another community helper record them on cards or post-it notes. Use representative symbols, abbreviations, or locally available materials to depict the resource and service providers, such as different tree leaves. Make two sets of symbols for each identified resource and service provider. Place one set of symbols in the first column, from top to bottom. Then place the second set of symbols in the top row, from left to right.
Please note: It is the facilitator’s job to help the community reduce the number of resource and service providers to a maximum of eight (8) should they come up with a long list.
Please note: Ensure that you have multiple copies of the symbols to prepare for the prioritisation.
Step 2
One by one, compare each symbol in the columns with each symbol in the rows. Encourage participants to discuss which resource or service provider they would prioritise over the other and ask why. If a second facilitator is available, have him/her record the reasons for their prioritisation. If one is not available, remember to later record the reasons after the session.
Please note: Coming to an agreement on the priority resource and service providers may cause some debate amongst participants. These discussions are important as they generate understanding of the rationale underlying participant’s prioritisation of resource and service providers. As a facilitator, allow and encourage this discussion without inserting your ideas.
Have the community members place the preferred symbol in the relevant box on the matrix.
Step 3
Count the number of times each option appears in the matrix. Add them up and record totals at the bottom of the matrix using seeds, pebbles, or numbers (scoring). Then make a list of the options with the most-preferred option ranked first.
Once complete, consider using the following questions to generate a discussion about the results:
• Does everyone agree on the prioritised resource and service providers? • Are you satisfied with the available resource and service provision?
Summarize the results of the activity and agree a time to schedule a follow-up session to undertake next steps as relevant to the context.
Step 4
The matrix should be left with the community. Make a copy or take a photograph for your reference for future discussions and action planning. Add a copy to your project action tracker.
Facilitator’s notes: Pair-wise ranking
If the number of items being compared is too long, this exercise can be boring for participants. In this case, assist participants in reducing the list by focusing on a smaller number of prioritised service providers.
The discussions that people have about why they choose one option over another are just as important as the result. It is important to allow these discussions to happen. Consider asking a second facilitator to join you in order to capture the information that comes from the discussion or document them yourself after your community visit.
Depending on the context, , consider carrying out this activity separately between men and women or different groups of people in the project’s planning phase (e.g. owners, users, carers) and compare the results. Differences in the roles people play in animals’ lives and/or how they depend on their animals can influence how people prioritise choices. Discuss any differences in their responses and reasons for those differences.
This activity might identify potential local service provider influencers. Consider involving them in to future sessions to help strengthen the identified opportunities for change.
Next Steps
T9 Matrix Ranking and Scoring to deeply analyze the resource and service providers based on selected criteria to understand the barriers
T15 Cost-Benefit Analysis to explore the risks and opportunities of using one service or resource provider over another
Specific Topics: Outreach and Communications; Community Change Agents
Much of the work of community facilitators relies on their ability to effectively facilitate conversations and motivate communities to adopt desired change. A guided conversational facilitation technique for engaging stakeholders, clarifying their strengths and aspirations, evoking their own motivations for change, and promoting their autonomy in decision making is called Motivational Interviewing (MI). This facilitator resource outlines the spirit, processes and key principles of MI ensure conversations about change are effectively facilitated and that communities’ preferences, needs and values remain at the heart of all conversations.
The Spirit of Facilitating Conversations about Change
In order to be effective in facilitating conversations about change, it is first necessary to have the right mind-set or way of being, referred to a “spirit” in MI. The following section outlines the key elements of the spirit of MI which are required to effectively facilitating conversations about change, which are represented by the acronym “CAPE” [57]:
Compassion: Actively promoting community members’ welfare and needs.
Acceptance: Viewing your community members’ as people with absolute worth and autonomy, and engaging with empathy and affirmations.
Partnership: Viewing your interaction with community members as an active collaboration between experts.
Evocation: Viewing community members as people with their own good reasons and strength to change. Your role as a community facilitator is to guide them there.
It is important to consciously strive to embody this spirit and draw upon these four elements whenever facilitating conversations about change with community members.
Key Principles of Facilitating Conversations about Change
In addition to embodying the element of spirit, it is important to follow the four guiding principles below to effectively facilitate conversations about change [57, 112]:
Listen with empathy: Effective listening skills are essential to understand what will motivate a person to change, as well as the pros and cons of their situation. Seek to understand their values, needs, abilities, motivations, and potential barriers to changing their behaviour, and communicate respect and acceptance of where the person is in their change process.
Understand a person’s motivations: It is a person’s own reasons for change, rather than the community facilitators, that will ultimately result in behaviour change. By approaching a person’s interests, concerns and values with curiosity and openly exploring their motivations for change, community facilitators will get a better understanding of community members’ motivations and potential barriers to change.
Empower the person: Empowering people involves exploring their own ideas about how they can make changes to improve their animal’s welfare and drawing on their personal knowledge about what has succeeded in the past. It is the role of the community facilitator to elicit hope and support and encourage a person’s belief in the possibility of change, and their capacity to reach their goals. Work with them to identify achievable steps towards change an
Resist the righting reflex: The righting reflex describes the common urge amongst community workers to fix what is wrong (with a person, situation, or animal). It involves giving unsolicited advice e.g. “you should…”, or advice without eliciting more about the person’s perspective. At its core, it is a helping response driven by a desire to be of service, promote positive change, and support others; however it is often unhelpful in situations where people are uncertain about changing. When we give in to the righting reflecting, we often inadvertently reinforce a person’s argument to maintain the status quo. This is because most people resist persuasion when they are uncertain about change, and instead respond by recalling their reasons for maintaining the behaviour. Community facilitator’s ability to suppress their initial righting reflex is essential enabling them to explore and evoke a person’s own motivations for change.
Guidance on Providing Advice and Feedback: Ask-Offer-Ask
It is important to always remember that community members have the most expertise in their lived experience, and that any engagement with them needs to be in the spirit of partnership (vs. acting like the expert or parent or in their lives). When providing information, advice or feedback to support others’ change process and avoid falling into the unhelpful righting reflex trap, it is recommended to use the Ask-Offer-Ask model as described below:
Before providing your advice, information or feedback to community members, first ASK what they already know or what do they want to know about? e.g. “You know your situation best, how are you managing this issue right now?”, What are your thoughts on…? “What you know about….?”, “What would you like to know about?”, “Is there any information I can help you with?”, “What might be helpful?”
Exploring prior knowledge and what community members are interested in knowing more about shows respect for community members as experts on themselves. Further, it avoids telling them what they already know, which can also save time. Asking about what they’re interested to know helps you find out what they most need and want to know. You can then use reflections to show you have listened to what they have said before moving on to offering your expertise.
Ask permission to offer your advice, only then OFFER your advice/information, suggestion e.g. “Would it be alright if we talked about…?”, “I have some ideas about…, would you be happy for me to share them?”, “Would you like to know about…?”
Consider the following when offering your expertise:
Offer your input in a neutral way, and avoid scolding, instructing, telling them what to do, giving long lectures, or saying things like “you should…”.
Prioritize what you offer: what does the person most want/need to know? Start with what they want to know. Even if you have information you want to share, but don’t lead with what you think is most important.
Be clear: avoid jargon and use everyday language
Offer small amounts of information/advice and then check how it is received, making sure to provide them with time to reflect.
Support their personal choice/ agency: Acknowledge people’s freedom to disagree or ignore your input. Giving them the choice not to take your advice provides them with freedom and autonomy, and they are in turn more likely to listen and take your advice. e.g. “You might disagree with this idea”, “…but, of course it’s up to you…”, “I don’t know whether this is relevant to your situation…”, “This may or may not interest you…”, “I wonder what you will think of this…?”
Asking permission shows respect and increases their willingness to hear your thoughts/advice/information/feedback. Collaboration and shared focus are key.
Once you have provided advice or information, ASK community members what they think about it and what it means to them by:
Using open questions e.g. “What do you think?”, “What does that mean to you?”, “What are your thoughts on this?”, “How does that sit with your knowledge of this?”
Use reflections to reflect back the reaction you observed in them
Allow them time to process and respond to the information.
Asking what community members think of your input respects them as experts on activating their change. It also will enable you to check their understanding, identify potential needs for further discussion, or enable you to adapt your engagement as needed to further support their change process.
To effectively provide advice and overcome our righting reflex requires skills in active listening and empathy. Refer to the facilitator resource Essential Communication Skills for Promoting Behaviour Change for guidance on active listening and empathy.
The Process for Facilitating Conversations about Change
In addition to having the right mind-set or spirit and communication skills to facilitate conversations about change, you also need to know how to go about it. The following section outlines the four processes or sequential steps to follow to facilitate conversations about change[57]. However, it should be noted, that while these processes are generally followed in the order shown, in the course of a conversation, the processes are not necessarily fixed and any stage might recur, or the steps might overlap and flow into each other.
Step 1 - Engage: during this step, the goal is to create a collaborative working relationship with community members based on mutual trust and respect. To do this, community members need to feel that they are comfortably and actively participating in the discussion.
During the engage process, focus on:
Understanding why community members want to work with you. What do they want?
Understanding how important community members’ goals for their animals’ welfare may be. What are their challenges and motivators for improving animal welfare issue(s)?
Being welcoming, empathetic, and understanding.
Establish and explore expectations around how community members think you can help.
Offering hope, and presenting a positive, honest picture of possible changes.
Consider the following questions to support your effectiveness in having conversations seeking to engage community members in a collaborative working relationship:
How comfortable is this person talking to me?
How supportive and helpful am I being?
Do I understand this person's perspective and concerns?
How comfortable do I feel in this conversation?
Does this feel like a collaborative interaction?
Step 2 - Focus: during this step, the goal is to build a conversation that is purposefully moving towards change. Ensure consistency between your ideas and those of community members in terms by finding one (or more) goals or outcomes that create a direction that you and community member(s) agree on. The following three elements can help bring about focus, and may influence one another:
Community members may have problems they are interested in discussing with you
The context can inform the topic of focus e.g. veterinary visit, welfare inspection
Your own expertise may similarly provide insights on potential topics of focus as while community members may have ideas of their own, others may become apparent to you in course of your discussion with them.
Consider the following questions to support your effectiveness in having conversations with community members to bring about focus in goals for working together:
Do I have different aspirations for change for this person?
What goals for change does this person really have?
Are we working together for a common purpose?
Does it feel like we are moving together, not in a different direction?
Do I have a clear sense of where we are going?
Step 3 - Evoke: the goal of this step is to elicit community members’ own motivation to change whereby they talk themselves into change. To do this requires learning to recognise and evoke change talk, and strengthen it when it occurs (refer to facilitator resources 3. Guidance on Listening for Change Talk, and 2c. Key Communication Skills for further guidance)
Examples of change-oriented questions related to level of importance or confidence that can help evoke change talk include, but are not limited to:
If you could magically change one thing right now by snapping your fingers, what would it be? How could you do it?
What have you achieved so far?
How important is it for you to….?
What are the down sides of how things are now?
If you choose to continue on without making a change, how do you think your life might look like this time next year?
How could you implement this change?
What’s the worst thing that could happen if you make this change?
What’s the best possible outcome?
Use the following tips to strengthen change talk once you hear it:
Consider the following questions to support your effectiveness in having conversations seeking to evoke community members’ own reasons for change:
Is my righting reflex being activated and causing me to be the one arguing for change?
Is their reluctance to change more about lack of confidence or that they don’t feel making a change is important?
What arguments for change am I hearing?
Am I directing the conversation too far or fast in a particular direction?
What are this person's own reasons for change?
Step 4 - Plan: the goal of conversations in this step is to have conversations about action, whilst carefully promoting community members’ autonomy and decision making. The planning step occurs when community members begin thinking and talking more about how they could change and when, and less about why and whether to change, for example, when community members:
Consider the following questions to support your effectiveness in having conversations with community members about planning for change:
What would be a reasonable next step towards change?
Am I remembering to evoke rather than prescribe a plan?
What would help this person move forward?
Am I offering needed information or advice with permission?
Am I retaining a sense of quiet curiosity about what will work best for the person?
Facilitating Conversations about Change with Groups instead of Individuals
The guidance outlined above applies when working with individuals or groups. However, when having conversations with groups of community members, applying MI’s spirit, principles process, and key communication skills (discussed in the facilitator resource Essential Communication Skills for Promoting Behaviour Change) can be further tailored to support group discussions in the following ways:
Affirm peoples' efforts to come together
Giving people a chance to have a choice (listening to them)
Reflect change talk as people contribute back to the wider group to inspire more collective change talk
Ask permission to give information
Evoke Questions from the group
Draw upon their expertise and experiences
Acknowledge their choices/agency/autonomy
Summarize the group consensus
Support the group to prioritize options and choices
General Best Practices and Rules of Thumb
Key best practices and rules of thumb to remember about the spirit, principles, and process of facilitating conversations about change (MI) include:
Effective Way of Being(MI consistent - DO)
Infective Way of Being(MI inconsistent - AVOID)
I have some expertise, and community members are the experts of themselves.
I am the expert on how and why community members’ should change.
I find out what information community members want and need.
I collect information about problems.
I match information to client needs and strengths.
I rectify gaps in knowledge.
Community members can tell me what kind of information is helpful.
Frightening information can be helpful.
Advice that champions community members’ needs and autonomy can be helpful
I just need to tell them clearly what to do.
Avoid the following common pit-falls in facilitating conversations about change:
Assuming providing our expertise will fix community members’ problems by providing our expertise and assuming this will solve the problem.
Overestimating how much information and advice communities need.
Thinking that frightening information is helpful and will motivate people to change.
Facilitating conversations about change (MI) is about evoking peoples' own motivations for change rather than trying to instil it.
Have interest in, and make an effort to understand the internal perspective of community members with whom you engage.
The use of MI techniques outlined in this resource are done 'for' and 'with' people.
Actively prioritise community members’ needs and promote their well-being. Improving animal welfare should not come at the expense of community members’ needs or well-being but rather be aligned with them.
Value and trust in the inherent potential and worth of community members with whom you interact.
Seek to acknowledge the efforts and strengths of community members.
Honour and respect community members’ autonomy, and their right and capability to direct their own lives, learning, motivation and behaviour based on their understanding of their own situations.
