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2.1.1 Raise awareness of animal welfare
Tools and resources helpful to supporting this step
2.1.2 Conduct participatory animal welfare transect walk
2.1.3 Conduct root cause analysis of animal welfare issues
Tools and resources helpful to supporting this step
2.1.1 Raise awareness of animal welfare
Initiate training of change agents in animal welfare principles and practices relevant to their animal improve their understanding of:
- the five domains of animal welfare, their animals’ related needs and behaviours which promote meeting them.
- the effects on an animal when their needs are not met.
- where these effects can be seen on the animal’s body or in its behaviour
- initiating conversations for change with their target peer group
PLA tools recommended to promote learning are recommended at the end of this section. If possible, it is recommended to conduct the above PLA activities with change agents and their peer groups in these early stages of the project, as developing compassion and understanding of animals’ needs, and implications of not meeting them for both animals and humans is helpful to generating compassion for their animals and motivation which can help ready them to make changes to improve animal welfare. These tools can help community members identify and analyse their perceptions and practices about animal welfare and discuss how these affect the welfare of their animals and their own lives [72]. In this way, opportunities for dialogue and mutual learning can create new understanding and create the motivation necessary to take action to improve animal welfare [72].
Alternatively, if peer groups can meet, change agents can use the PLA tools above once they are sufficiently trained in these concepts and the use of these tools. However, if their target peer groups are unable to come together, consider developing outreach materials and activities to support change agents in raising awareness one on one with members of their peer network. Draw on insights about the target groups collected during the project’s initiation phase related to what the peer group values and is concerned about as well as their general stages of change in relationship to improving animal welfare to tailor the framing and delivery of communications to different members of the animal owning community as needed.
In addition, CCA should be undertaking ongoing informal conversations with their peer group at this stage to further understand their readiness for change and support continued development of their motivation for change to improve their animals’ welfare generally. Relevant facilitator resources are recommended below.
In addition, consider using the. Societal Outreach and Campaigns Approach to support raising awareness of these topics at a broader scale, particularly if helpful to achieving greater reach and/or supporting future project expansion.
Whatever strategies and activities used to raise awareness and motivate people to promote their animals’ welfare at this stage should be designed with the understanding that the most effective agents of change are emotions, not facts [20]. Thus, it will be important to create experiences that enable them to feel the importance and benefits of promoting their animals’ welfare, rather than simply telling people what animal welfare is and why it is important. Understanding what different groups’ value is therefore important to creating opportunities which elicit the feelings that are more likely to motivate them to act [73].
Tools and resources helpful to supporting this step include:
PLA Tools
Thriving not just surviving
Animal Welfare Conversation Tool
‘If I were an animal’
Animal feelings analysis
Animal welfare practice gap analysisFacilitator Resources
Techniques for Supporting Progress through the Stages of Change
Guidance on Effective Outreach Messaging
Essential Communication Skills for Promoting Behaviour Change
Guidance on Listening for Change Talk
Guidance on Facilitating Conversations for Change
2.1.2 Conduct participatory animal welfare transect walk
Work with change agents to carry out a participatory welfare needs assessment (PWNA) of households in their targeted peer groups using the Animal Welfare Transect Walk tool. Undertaking a PWNA is recommended as it is a valuable means to further mentor and build the capacity of change agents to identify welfare issues, as well as assess their understanding of these concepts, and general capacity when engaging with their target peer group. In addition, this initial assessment can act as a baseline from which future improvements in animal welfare can be measured, and the animal welfare transect walk can be used in participatory monitoring of community members’ progress in improving animal welfare as the project progresses. During the transect walk, you and change agents will be able to identify the animal welfare issues present within their peer groups, further promote awareness around the concept of animal welfare by involving household members in the assessment process, as well as observe the perceptions of members of their target peer group related to their animals’ welfare issues and be able gain insights on peers’ general stage of behaviour change related to their animal’s welfare issues. Refer to the facilitator resource Guidance on Listening for Change Talk for further information. Take notes on these observations and general stages of change for each household during the activity and discuss in post activity debriefing discussions with change agents. A Project Action Tracker is provided in the facilitator resources to help you keep track of these key insights to support project planning and coordination.
Before undertaking the walk, ask change agents to develop indicators representative of all aspects of animal welfare using understanding from previously conducted animal welfare awareness raising activities.
Prompt them as needed to think about including relevant indicators for the following categories:
- animal body, behaviour, and feelings (including disease issues).
- management practices and behaviour of owners towards their animals.
- animal related resources and services.
Support change agents in undertaking this first transect walk by first modelling the activity, then observing them lead the activity, thereby enabling you to provide feedback to help them improve and support their learning through follow up reflection and learning debriefs once the activity is completed. If it is not possible to involve all the target peer group at the same time, change agents can follow up later to complete assessments with remaining households.
Review results with change agents to summarize the findings for each household’s animals within their peer group, as well as across all households of each change agent. Identify the welfare issues which scored red or bad condition for individual households and to generate a list of welfare issues to support targeted households in prioritizing welfare issues to address in the later steps. Results from the transect walk will enable change agents to assess the real welfare issues of animals within their target peer group, and scores for all households visited should be recorded to inform later planning discussions and support regular monitoring and assessment of progress. Be sure to keep a record of the transect walk results for your project’s records as well as leaving a copy with the change agent.
2.1.3 Conduct root cause analysis of animal welfare issues
To help your project and change agents better understand the context in which you are seeking to promote behavioural change, conduct a root cause analysis of identified animal welfare issues to gain an in-depth understanding of the problems using a participatory learning and action tools such as Problem Animal. Conducting a root cause analysis of welfare issues will give you deeper insights into the broader context and potential constraints and opportunities for making animal welfare improvements, as well as highlight potential opportunities for undertaking one health or one welfare initiatives. For example, root cause analysis can help you identify certain issues within the enabling environment which are either beyond the scope of the project or animal owning community to address, or which your project may wish to address to create an enabling environment for change agents and their target peer groups to improve animal welfare. Examples of this could include issues with lack of access or availability of quality affordable animal health services, lack of enabling policies making it difficult for animal health care workers to obtain animal pain medications, or lack of income generation opportunities making it difficult to afford sufficient appropriate nutritious feed for their animals.
Conduct the root cause analysis with change agents, a representative selection of members of the animal owning community, local service providers, and other key informants knowledgeable about the realities of animal husbandry and management within the communities you plan to work. The following insights from discussions with animal owning communities during the initiation phase provide useful insights on potential barriers and motivators to change can be helpful to refer to inform the root cause analysis:
- Their priority motivations/concerns both in their lives
- Their general level of awareness of animal welfare issues, and interest to change them.
- Their existing animal care, management and/or use practices associated with the animal welfare issues, who typically undertakes them, and what they like and do not like about them.
- Their access and availability of animal-related services and resources
Understanding the potential constraints animal owning communities may face to improving their animals’ welfare is essential to identifying what is feasible for CCAs to support their target groups in addressing to improve their animals’ welfare. It is recommended to keep of record of the root cause analysis.
Depending on your project/organization’s interests and capacity, you may wish to consider developing additional plans beyond CCA’s community engagement work with animal owning communities, to create an enabling environment necessary for achieving desired animal welfare improvements (e.g. strengthening animal health care systems, water infrastructure improvement projects, strengthening communities’ livelihoods and resilience). As there are likely to be many causal factors underlying animal welfare issues, consider focusing on the causal factors that are likely to have biggest impact on welfare, particularly those which are cross cutting across multiple animal welfare issues. It is also helpful to identify and share these results with other organizations or agencies with expertise on these issues and explore the potential for collaborating or partnering with them if feasible to take a more holistic approach to addressing animal welfare issues.
Tools and resources helpful to supporting this step include:
PLA Tools
T25 Problem animal
T22 Animal welfare transect walkFacilitator Resources
3. Guidance on Listening for Change Talk
20. Project Action Tracker
