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3.2 Monitoring, Reflecting & Learning

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3.2.1 Participatory monitoring of animal welfare and human behaviour change
3.2.2 Participatory review and reflection on monitoring results, community action plans, and lessons learned,  adapting as needed
HELPFUL TOOLS AND RESOURCES

3.2.1 Participatory monitoring of animal welfare and human behaviour change

Getting communities to monitor their progress is important to show tangible results for their efforts which in turn will encourage further support and effort for future improvements. This process helps indicate whether a community has all the resources it needs, how effectively the group/s are working together and whether they have something important they should share with other communities to disseminate information learned.

It is important to understand all the stages of change, anticipating that groups may be in pre-contemplation regarding some issues, and are likely to be in contemplation and preparation stages of change early on, developing into action and maintenance at the later stages of this process. Be aware though that behaviour can relapse backwards at any stage so refer to the facilitator resource 6.  Techniques for Supporting Progress through the Stages of Change for support with this.

Participatory monitoring of animal welfare and behaviour change enables group members to feel proud and good about themselves, therefore more likely to maintain the changes they’ve adopted. Repeating the Animal welfare transect walk (T22), at intervals of one, two or three months, enables the group to monitor changes in the welfare of their animals. Their scores for each animal welfare issue are recorded on the same monitoring chart each time.

Group members then sit together again to reflect on their findings, both positive and negative. Improvement in scores shows the effect of the actions they have taken to improve management of their animals and to prevent welfare problems from occurring. If there is no improvement, or if scores decrease, possible reasons for this need to be discussed. They may identify gaps in their current practices, decide if further actions or closer monitoring are needed and record all relevant details to refer to as they progress.

3.2.2 Participatory review and reflection on monitoring results, community action plans, and lessons learned,  adapting as needed

It is essential for the group to critically appraise the performance of both the individual members and the group collectively, for the animal welfare interventions to succeed. These positive, constructive appraisals translate action into learning which in turn translates into further action. The depth of reflection has a major effect on the quality of the action that follows.

Periodic tracking of progress can help group members to:

  • Build their interest in the intervention and their commitment to making it work.
  • Assess the roles of different stakeholders.
  • Understand the changing dynamics in their environment.
  • Generate increasing knowledge about actions that work or that are not effective in their community action plan, leading to corrective action or improvement.
  • Share responsibility for dealing with challenges.
  • Bring peer pressure and peer motivation to influence individual actions.
  • Trigger greater understanding, sensitivity, and care for their animals.

This will also enable you and your project to understand their situations and constraints more clearly. Two types of participatory monitoring are essential for the success of the action and reflection process:

  1. Monitoring of group activities to check that group members and other stakeholders are doing what they agreed to do in their action plan. It is recommended this be a regular activity conducted every group meeting.
  2. Monitoring of changes in animal welfare and related husbandry and management practices, which can be achieved by repeating the Animal welfare transect walk (T22).

During this process:

  • Organize regular group meetings to review individual and collective efforts towards welfare improvement.
  • Check and record the activities agreed in the community action plan to ensure that they are carried out.
  • Generate resources needed for implementation of the plan, through collective contribution and by forming links with other resource providers.
  • Initiate support for implementation of those activities that need external support.
  • Repeat the Animal welfare transect walk (T22) after one to three months, in the same way as the first time.
  • Analyse the results of the Animal welfare transect walk recording chart.
  • Take corrective action to keep the plan on track and/ or to develop new action points.

We have found when refinement of community action plans occurs, it commonly occurs in two ways. First, as the group increases its sensitivity towards its animals, the members choose to use a longer list of welfare changes that they want to measure, and they create more detailed scoring systems for these. They will do these themselves in time. If they do not, you should not introduce more complexity because it is important that the community decides what they feel is useful to measure. Both the animal-based indicators and those relating to resources or management practices increase in number and complexity. Second, group members start to come up with more root causes and the associated welfare-promoting actions that need to be encouraged, and they include these in their community action plan and recording system.

Holding meetings for reflection and learning, lead the group in collectively looking at their activities, to find out whether they were carried out as agreed and whether they led to the desired change in a welfare issue. Have group members sit together to reflect on findings from their participatory monitoring, both positive and negative. The group will find that some issues can be resolved quickly (e.g. within three months), while others take longer, and some will not change despite the group’s action. This stimulates further discussion, which can be further supported through root cause analysis on these specific issues, using the Problem animal tool (T25) or Animal welfare cause and effect analysis (T26). This second level of root cause analysis is an essential step in the process of solving the more difficult or long-term welfare problems facing animals. In addition, the Animal Welfare Practice Gap Analysis (T21) may be useful to use here as it can enable the group to assess its’ progress against initial results of activity if previously conducted, explore the extent to which they have been able to change their animal care practices to meet their animals’ needs, and highlight potential constraints they may be facing in adopting these new practices.

If improving the quality of animal health service providers was an issue the group prioritized to address, implementing the Community Score Card (T35) activity anew and comparing results can help inform the group’s reflection and learning as it will enable them to evaluate changes from initial results. To aid reflection and learning and development of collective actions the following facilitator resources are useful: Dependency Analysis (T12), Income, expenditure, and credit analysis (T13), Group inter-loaning analysis (T14). In addition, the Cost Benefit analysis (T15) can generate motivation to act by enabling communities to weigh the costs and benefits of action vs inaction for both animals and people.

In addition, it can also be useful to the group’s reflection and learning to ask the group to look back further, comparing the situation before they started to implement their community action plan with the situation now. Using the Before and Now Analysis (T11b) tool can support this process. The group analyses which actions have been most effective and which less effective and the reasons why. This helps participants to learn, to change their interventions if necessary and to plan for continuing action. Matrix ranking (T9) can be used to compare the relative success of the activities taken up. During this part of the analysis, it is also useful to discuss the achievements and difficulties faced while working together as a group, with reasons for these, and how any difficulties were overcome. The resource 14. Overview of Community Group Formation Process, Challenges, and Factors Influencing Group Success has a section on Common Challenges and Solutions Related to Community-based Organizations/ Governance which can support this process. When groups are faced with complex problems, they have yet to be able to solution, consider using Open Ended Story Telling (T24c) to help them to brainstorm possible solutions to the complex issue they are facing.

Community groups will go through an iterative planning process adapting their action plans throughout the course of the project. Upon achievement of desired results, encourage the group to decide whether to initiate community action planning to address new priorities or issues. In this case, support the group to identify new priorities and enable all participants to progress through the stages of change for any new behaviours they decide they wish to adopt to improve welfare issues. This is one of the key measures that can show that a group has become successful in institutionalizing behaviour change and taking collective and individual actions to see improvement in animal welfare in their communities/members. When groups add new issues and behaviours to their plan this is also an indicator of a successful group.

You are likely to find that in the early stages the animal-owning group needs a lot of support and capacity-building, which relies heavily on your skill as a facilitator. As the group becomes more familiar with animal welfare issues and confident in solving them, they will drive this action-reflection-action cycle themselves. This is a sure sign of the success of your work. This is also the stage where you start to discuss how long they will need your support as a facilitator and over what period you should withdraw from the group. Planning for your eventual withdrawal is essential to support the growth of a self-reliant group and not increase its dependency on you. In our experience it takes the group 12 months to reach this stage, and a further 12 to 18 months of strengthening until you finally withdraw.

Throughout these discussions, record any key insights in your Project Action Tracker for use in reflecting and adapting your own project plans and strategies as needed to support the group’s continued progress. Update your Behaviour Change Planning Table and refer to Guidance on Identifying Effective Behaviour Change Strategies as appropriate to supporting your adaptive management process based on lessons learned from these monitoring, learning and reflection processes.

Tools and resources helpful to supporting this step include:

PLA tools
Matrix ranking (T9)
Before and Now Analysis (T11b)
Dependency Analysis (T12)
Group Inter-Loaning Analysis (T14)
Cost benefit Analysis (T15)
Animal Welfare Practice Gap Analysis (T21)
Animal welfare transect walk (T22)
Income, Expenditure & Credit Analysis (T13)
Open ended story telling (T24c)
Problem animal tool (T25)
Animal welfare cause and effect analysis (T26)
Community Score Card (T35)

Facilitator Resources
6. Techniques for supporting progress through stages of change
14. Overview of Community Group Formation Process, and Common Challenges and Factors Influencing Group Success
12. Behaviour Change Planning Table
13. Guidance on Identifying Effective Behaviour Change Strategies Based on COM-B diagnosis
20. Project Action Tracker

Link to References Cited

Return to Approach

T26 Animal Welfare Cause and Effect Analysis

QUICK LINKS
T26 resources and services
t26 Activity
T26 Facilitator Notes
T26 Next Steps

T26: Animal Welfare Cause and Effect Analysis

The animal welfare cause and effect analysis is sometimes called a problem tree, in which causes are depicted as roots of the tree and effects as branches. This adapted version of the tool provides a visual representation of the relationship between the causes of specific priority animal welfare issues, and the effects of the issues on both people and animals [48]. This tool has proven to be one of the most important and effective participatory tools in this toolkit, as the improved understanding and awareness that results from discussions and outputs of this activity have effectively motivated participants to take action to prevent animal welfare issues, as well as respond to them when they do occur. In particular, the effect analysis portion of this tool can be a key motivator of behaviour change. Consider conducting a pairwise ranking (T8) or matrix ranking and scoring (T9) prior to this one to identify the priority welfare issues.

Tool purpose:Time needed:
• To identify and promote participant understanding of the root causes of a specific priority animal welfare issue and their implications for humans and animals.
• To generate participants’ motivation to take action or change their behaviour, either collectively or individually, to prevent or respond to animal welfare issues
• To identify root causes of animal welfare issues and potential implications on the livelihoods and well-being of animal-owning households.		1.5 - 2 hours
Materials needed:
Cards, pens, markers, coloured powder, chalk, sticks, tree leaves, coloured cards or other locally available materials

Keyword Search Tags

Project Phase:
Planning Phase, Implementation 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, Capability, Motivation

Stages of Behaviour Change:
Contemplation Stage,  Preparation Stage

Project Support: Participatory Learning and Action Tools, Needs Assessment, Gender Analysis

Specific Topics: Animal Welfare, Feelings, and Needs; Livelihoods; Compassion / Empathy

Animal welfare cause and effect analysis (or problem tree)

The animal welfare cause and effect analysis is used to analyze an animal welfare issue or problem by identifying the complex contributing factors and any relationships between the factors, as well as their effects on animal-owning households and animals alike. In the context of working animals, this tool has been used to help identify the causes of priority welfare problems such as wounds and overloading, and to discuss the effects of these welfare issues on animals and the people who depend on them. For example, discussing the causes of wounds on specific parts of a working animal’s body may highlight causal factors such as the size and structure a harness or saddle, or the design of a cart or carriage. Effects on the animal could include pain, weight loss and reduced working capacity. Effects of the animal’s wounds on the owner could include less income (from reduced work and increased expenditure on treatment) or lower status in the community.

T26a Animal Welfare Cause and Effect Analysis diagram for an Animal-Owning Community

T26a Animal Welfare Cause and Effect Analysis diagram for an Animal-Owning Community

The above animal welfare cause and effect analysis was produced by a group of working animal owners in a rural community. They were particularly concerned about reducing and preventing wounds on their animals’ backs. Four major causes were initially identified: whipping by users, beating by children, bad road conditions and improper harness fitting. These causes were then continuously analysed to better understand why they were happening, until the underlying root causes were identified. The effects of back wounds on the animals were then discussed and identified as decreased energy, low appetite, pain and increased risk of infection. The resulting effects on the household were decreased income, increased expenditure on treatment and always feeling stressed and worried about where money would come from and whether the animal would recover.

This activity motivated the group to take action on the root causes that were within their influence.

This included:

  • Petitioning the local government for road repairs between nearby communities and major transport routes
  • Promoting more humane handling amongst members of their household to prevent wounds from whipping and beating
  • Making their own welfare-friendly harnesses from recycled materials

Animal Welfare Cause & Effect Analysis
Step 1Ask participants to identify the animal welfare issues they feel are a priority and select one issue to explore in depth with this exercise. Consider referring to animal welfare issues and priorities previously identified using T25 Problem Animal, T8 Pairwise Ranking or T9 Matrix Ranking and Scoring, if available. Make sure that the issue is not broad, such as ‘wounds’ generally.
Step 2Have the community helper draw a circle on the ground or on a large piece of paper and ask him/her to draw or write the priority welfare issue in the middle of the circle using a symbol, picture, or word.
Step 3Begin the discussion by asking the group what they perceive to be the major factors that cause this problem. As main causes are identified, each cause is added below the priority issue, using symbols, pictures, or words, and connected to the problem with arrows.
Step 4Once all initial causal factors have been identified, start with one causal factor, and have participants identify the sub-causal factors by asking them why that causal factor happens? Show this sub-cause below the major cause it is associated with, connecting it with an arrow (see Figure T26). Continue asking why each sub-cause happens and continue adding sub-causes - spreading out like the roots of tree - until the group reaches a stage where no further sub-causes can be found. As a rule, these probing using “why” questions may need to be asked 3-5 times per cause, before the root cause is finally identified.

Please note: It is common for participants to discuss, and debate causes. These discussions often create shared learning opportunities, whereby participants learn from one another as they discuss and seek agreement on the true causal factors. As a facilitator, you should allow and encourage this discussion without inserting your ideas. However, you may need to ask probing questions or take the time to teach participants about the real causal factors if they get stuck or their lack of understanding prevents them from identifying true root causes. You may also need to intervene if they struggle to resolve their differences in beliefs themselves.
Step 5Once all the root causes of the welfare issue have been identified, facilitate the same process to analyse the effects of the welfare issue on the animal and the animal-owning household. Start by having the helper add two circles above the welfare issue: one representing the animal and the other representing the animal-owning household.
Step 6Ask participants to identify the effect of the welfare problem on the animal. As effects on the animal are identified, linkages to the animal-owning household will naturally emerge and the discussion can quickly turn to effects on the household.

Please note: The facilitator should allow the discussion to flow naturally, ensuring full exploration of effects on the animal AND household. It is common for participants to identify only a few main effects on the animal, especially in contexts where animals are not viewed as sentient beings. Here, the facilitator’s role is to ask probing questions to promote discussion around the animal’s feelings and experience of the welfare issue. It may be helpful to frame questions in terms of, “If you had this issue, how would you feel?”

Please note: When discussing the effects on the animal-owning household, encourage participants to consider potential effects on all household members, including men, women, and children. Ask: do the identified household effects effect all household members equally? Make sure effects on different household members are accounted for on the diagram.
Step 7When the diagram is complete, ask participants to reflect on what they have discussed and mapped. Some discussion questions may include:
Support the community to identify possible solutions if needed, either in this session or in a follow up session as time and resources permit.
Step 8Once complete, take a photo or record the outputs on a piece of paper. Ensure that the community has a copy for their records and facilitator has a copy for future reference or planning.

Finally, have the community record any root causes and activities to address the causes in the community action plan. Make sure to include any resources/materials needed to achieve this, including who will monitor it and a realistic timeline. Record the actions, activities, and proposed linkages into your project action tracker, and support the community by linking them to any necessary stakeholders.

Facilitation Notes

  • The facilitator should have a good knowledge of animal welfare and be able to recommend solutions to address issues, including community-based collective action ideas. Participants may ask for advice on actions to address root causes.
  • Decide the group dynamics ahead of time and whether it would be best carried out with men and women (or other subgroups) separately or in a mixed group. This will depend on your rapport with the community, culture and local gender dynamics. This is important when their roles and responsibilities related to animals differ, and/or they use/depend on animals differently, as their perceptions and concerns may differ.
    • If conducted separately between men and women, consider bringing the two groups back together at the end of the activity to review the results of each chart and resolve any discrepancies if time allows and culturally appropriate.
    • If it is not appropriate to conduct this activity with men and women together in the local context, or if it could prohibit participation and freedom of discussion, consider conducting this activity separately.
  • This exercise can take considerable time, so discuss this in advance with the group and agree a suitable time to set aside for doing it.
  • Avoid using your own examples; encourage everyone to express their individual views.
  • This exercise requires patience from the facilitator in order for deepest causal factors to emerge from the discussion. Allow time for participants to discuss their experiences.

Next Steps

  • The cause and effect analysis is useful for action planning, especially when combined with:
  • If the group is struggling to understand that animals have feelings and identify them as sentient beings, consider conducting the T19 Animal feeling analysis again.
  • If monitoring identifies that the solutions to root causes are unable to be adopted or behaviours go unchanged, conduct a T15 Cost benefit analysis to explore the cost of continuing negative behaviours or practices and benefits of positive behaviour change.
  • Follow up with resource or service providers needed to help the group carry out their activities. Revisit the activities in the next meeting to monitor progress and if further support is required.
  • Results may also be useful to informing inform project planning and/or identify potential for partnerships to support:
    • Identification of community capacity building support to address the root causes of priority animal welfare issues
    • Addressing priority root causes which may be external to communities’ e.g. changes in policy
    • Identification of potential livelihood or human wellbeing indicators which could be used in monitoring to assess changes in people’s lives as a result of actions taken to improve animal welfare.

Link to References Cited

T32 Animal Welfare Conversation Tool

Animal welfare conversation tool involves an open discussion about what animal welfare is and why it is important. The discussion starts by understanding how men and women and other community members view animal welfare, what they need to provide to their animals to ensure improved welfare and identifying the actors responsible for animal welfare. 

Tool purpose:Time needed:
• To improve understanding of animal welfare needs in terms of health, nutrition, behaviour, and environment.
• To raise awareness and promote discussion about animal welfare issues  
• Understand community members’ attitudes, belief systems, perspectives and current accuracy of knowledge about animal welfare, including indicators they feel are important to their ability to understand their animals’ welfare needs		1.5 hours
Materials needed:
Cards, pens, markers, coloured powder, chalk, sticks, tree leaves, coloured cards, pictures different animal welfare conditions and or other locally available materials.

Keyword Search Tags

Project Phase:
 Initiation Phase, Planning Phase

Approaches for Working With Communities: Community Development Approach, Community Engagement Approach

Behavioural Drivers (COM-B):
Capability

Stages of Behaviour Change:
Pre-contemplation Stage

Project Support: Participatory Learning and Action Tools

Specific Topics: Animal Husbandry and Management; Animal Welfare, Feelings and Needs; Community Change Agents, Outreach and Communications, Compassion and Empathy, Animal Handling

Many factors constrain community members’ ability to improve the welfare of their animals. These may include, the Socioeconomic, cultural, and environmental conditions such as attitudes towards animals, community members’ knowledge and skills about giving care for animals, and resources and services determine the welfare status of working  animals. Addressing these issues requires engaging community groups in active dialogues and social learning to discuss their animal welfare needs and to find solutions together to improve animal welfare.  Figures T32 a, b, and c were images used to facilitate discussions about horse welfare needs in a community using this tool.

T32a Example of an animal with poor body condition.
T32b Animal welfare umbrella representing domains of animal welfare important to meeting animals’ welfare needs

Animal welfare umbrella reinforces the fact that animals rely on people, everyone in a household, to provide care for them. In the same way, all household members rely upon healthy and happy animals to increase household members' wellbeing.

T32c Example of meeting animals’ welfare needs
Animal Welfare Conversation Tool
Step 1Explain the purpose of the community conversations on animal welfare. Ask community groups if they have questions before proceeding.

After introducing the focus of the community conversations, facilitate a discussion about what community members describe as animal welfare.

You can prompt the discussion with the pictures in figure T32a above by asking the community members to discuss in pairs.  Ensure men and women participate in the discussions separately to ensure their views don’t overshadow each other’s. Obtain feedback from a few men and women participants on the below questions:

·       What can you see from the animal in image T32a?
·       What do you think this animal is feeling? Do you think the animal is cared for? Why or why not?
·       How might this image reflect the lives of animals in this community?

Using the picture in figure T32b, ask the community members to discuss this image in pairs and answer the following questions
·       What can you see from this image (T32b)?
·       What is happening to the animal in the image? What do you understand from each of the 4 domains?
·       How does the image reflect the animal welfare situation in this community? (General reflections/understanding on animal welfare within their community using the image)
Step 2Facilitate a discussion around the responses received on what giving care means to men, women and youth. Take note of any additional resources people think that the animal needs. Discussion questions can include:
Obtain feedback from a few men and women participants:

• In which of the images (T32a or T32b or both) do they think the animal is cared for? Why?
• What is giving care to animals mean?
• Is it important to help your animals feel good? Why?
• What does an animal need to be happy, healthy, and productive for your family?
• When your animal is not feeling good, how does this affect you and your family members?
• What does animal welfare mean to you?
• What do you do to care for your animals?
• What are the social or cultural values related to giving care to animals? Is there any saying or expression in your community related to animal care giving?
Step 3The next step is to take the community through a discussion which will enhance their understanding of what is needed for their animals to have a good basic level of welfare. The examples provided here can be used as a guide for the facilitator to discuss the most relevant animal welfare issues in the specific community. Use figure T32c above to facilitate the discussion using the discussion questions below:

• Thinking about your animals, what do they need from you to be happy, healthy, and productive?.
• What care do animals need? Who gives this care in your household, within your community, or at your place of work?
• What can you see being provided to animals in this image? Are these important? Why? Why not?

These questions will help identify the resources people think their animals need, and who the household members are who influence their animals’ welfare.
Step 4After image T32c has been discussed, follow up by asking:
“Do all animals in your household need the same things or feel the same way?”
Prompt the discussion to make sure you have asked questions about:
•       Healthcare
•       Feed and water
•       Behaviour (human – animal interaction and behavioural interaction among animals)
•       Shelter/shade (depending on your context)
Step 5After the discussion has progressed, handout the 'animal welfare umbrella', Figure T32b.
Explain to the group that this image helps to convey that giving care to animals involves consideration of their health, nutrition, behavioural, and environmental needs. It is important to acknowledge that all animals need this care, and that good animal care benefits the animals as well as people.
Ask participants to discuss in pairs:
•       To what extent are you currently able to provide each of these things for your animals?
•       Which of these things do you find it easiest to provide for your animals? Why?
•       Which of these things is it difficult for you to provide for your animals? Why?
•       What things on this image didn’t you know animals needed? Are any of these things new ideas for you?
 
After the discussions, ask for feedback from both female and male participants. The question below can be used to prompt feedback:
'What did you learn from the picture and the discussion?'
Ask a few participants to share their responses and write them on a flip chart.
Step 6Use the responses from step 5 to highlight human animal relationships.
   •       Ask the participants to share what they think are the benefits to the animal owners and their livelihoods when the animals are provided with care as depicted in T32b?
 
Summarise by sharing with the group that whilst animals rely on people to provide them with the things they need, doing this well means that animals are better able to help us with the things that we need from them. If our animals are happy and healthy, they can better help us at work, at home, and in our community.
Step 7Once the discussions are complete,take a photo or record the outputs on a piece of paper. Ensure that the community has a copy for their records and facilitator has a copy for future reference or planning.

Facilitation Notes

  • Identify the local term for animal welfare and consistently use the term throughout the discussion. Pay attention to differences in terms among men, women, and youth, and agree on one term.
  • Pay attention to differences in perspectives/understanding among men, women, and youth about animal welfare. Listen actively and probe as necessary.
  • Depending on the conversation topic, you can substitute other images or stories to facilitate the discussion.
  • You can also use this tool by focusing on one domain in one meeting (using separate meetings to discuss each of the domains) (Figure 32b) and repeating steps 4 – 7. E.g. focusing one session on behaviour you can encourage the community participants to reflect on their interaction with their animals including focusing a discussion on their observations of good and bad animal handling practices, and the impacts of these practices on both the animal and its owner/carers/handers, users and service providers. This is provided that communities are willing to meet frequently and/or prefer to focus on one animal welfare domain at a given time and have deeper conversations, reflection and learning.  

Next Steps

Continue building on these initial conversations about animal welfare by supporting community members to identify their priority animal welfare issues and the individuals responsible for meeting their animals’ different welfare needs using tool T33: Community Animal Welfare Needs Analysis.

Tool adapted from [71]

Link to References Cited