Module 3 | Part 3: Deciding How to Work

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3.1 Overview of Communities for Animals Approaches for Working with Communities
3.2 Considerations for Selecting an Approach for Working with Communities
Quiz 9: Approaches for Working with Communities

3.1 Overview of Communities for Animals Approaches for Working with Communities

The communities for animals’ resource provides step by step guidance for three different intensity approaches for working with communities to improve their animals’ welfare based on recommended best practices for promoting behaviour change and the highest level of community participation for lasting change.

The three approaches are further explained below:

The core of this approach is to build the capacity of the animal-owning community to act as a collective for sustainable improvement in the welfare of their animals. It requires time, effort and commitment from you and the community. This approach relies heavily on participatory learning and action (PLA) methods to facilitate an inquiry process whereby group members come to identify, understand, and prioritize their animal welfare issues, and discuss and agree on actions to take to address them. With your support, members of the group can work together to:

• Improve their understanding of animal welfare and their own animal husbandry and management practices
• Improve the quality, accessibility and availability of existing service providers in their area
• Make and/or negotiate collective purchases of animal related resources for improved cost savings
• Advocate for their needs with a unified voice
• Improve access and availability of financial resources if group savings and loan initiatives are undertaken

The existence of a strong, cohesive group is essential to achieving the motivation, knowledge and monitoring mechanisms for mutual learning and peer support for improving the lives of animals. These groups could be newly established or existing groups that can mainstream animal welfare issues and work on animal welfare needs improvement. Co-operation between owners also allows the group to do things that its members could not achieve as individuals, such as buying animal feed in bulk, and advocating for their needs, such as holding service-providers to account for the quality of service they provide. Collective action undertaken by groups is not only beneficial to group members but can potentially benefit individuals within the broader community e.g. promoting quality health services, and securing low cost feed. The CD approach relies on participatory learning and action processes and tools, which are well-aligned with supporting community groups’ progress through the stages of change to achieve and sustain animal welfare improvements on their own.

The CD approach can be used to complement the CE approach when:

• Community groups engaged through the CD approach are utilized to provide cross learning opportunities for CE approach sites e.g. Village-to-village visits, competitions.
• CE or SOC communities are linked with service providers linked with community groups in CD projects.
• Group members are encouraged to continue to act as change agents and agenda setters upon project exit, and model and encourage animal welfare improvements to peers.

In addition, this approach can support the societal outreach and campaigns approach, for example when community-based organizations formed through this approach are consulted to inform campaign development, pilot or communicate outreach messaging.

This approach does not require advanced facilitation skills and can be delivered through trained community change agents and therefore can support broader reach than the community development approach.

This approach relies heavily on using recommended tools and techniques in effective communication for behaviour change and adult learning theory. This involves consulting communities and listening to understand why they practice behaviours contributing to poor animal welfare and facilitating a process to support building their self-efficacy, knowledge, skills, and motivation to change their behaviours. Ideally, this approach seeks to improve the animal welfare issues and related animal husbandry and management practices prioritized for change by communities, who supports community members’ progress through the stages of change.

On the spectrum of participation, this approach promotes consultation, involvement, and collaboration with communities to support behaviour change for animal welfare improvements. To the extent this approach relies on organized events to raise awareness and build community capacity to improve animal welfare, communities are ideally involved to greatest extent feasible, regardless of whether issues and solutions were collaboratively identified e.g. involving community members in role plays, competitions, or other organized events such as theatre performances etc.

The semi-intensive approach can also be used to make maximum use of the intensive community development initiatives you may be doing, by extending some of benefits of the community development approach to groups in the communities where animals are experiencing poor welfare in areas located nearby groups formed through the community development approach. The aim here would be to create opportunities for cross-site learning between animal owners in intensive and semi-intensive groups, and linking with service providers with whom you are already working in the nearby intensive communities. This is particularly useful when you find you are unable to work intensively with all of the high-risk animals at the same time, either because your organization does not have the capacity or the animal owners are too scattered to initiate group formation for collective action. In particular, the CE approach can be used to complement the CD approach by:

• Supporting rapport building and sensitization during initiation phase. For example, working through change agents to permit greater understanding of the local context and community dynamics.
• Support sustainability of behaviour change upon withdrawal of project support by the facilitating organization, for example if community change agents continue to provide light touch support to peers to motivate and sustain animal welfare improvements.
• Tools and techniques common to this approach can be used by facilitators to support group members through the stages of change.

The extensive approach is best used where there are limits or constraints on the ability of you or your organization to work intensively with communities. This approach reaches target populations using broadcast media (TV, radio), outdoor media (billboards, posters), print media (leaflets/other written materials, newspapers), digital media (internet, mobile phone application) [21], or outreach campaigns and organized events e.g. community fairs, competitions, theatre performances, puppet shows. This approach can also be used to influence target groups indirectly by incorporating animal welfare improvement messages into the work of existing organizations in the area such as schools, religious groups, cooperatives, unions. The extensive approach may be used in areas with high or low animal density. However, welfare messaging is less effective than group formation in changing people’s behaviour towards their animals, so it is most suitable for situations where the risks to animal welfare and the livelihood vulnerability of owners are lower. While this approach typically falls at the lower end of the spectrum of participation with a goal of consulting to involving, participation can be improved by ensuring the animal owning community is involved beyond simply informing them, and ensuring they are consulted or collaborated with when designing and/or implementing such initiatives.

The SOC approach can also be used to complement the CE and CD approaches to:

• Rapport building and sensitization during the initiation phase.
• Promoting social norms to support desired behaviour change.

The aim when working with communities to improve animal welfare is to do so using the most participatory and empowering approach feasible, in recognition that the promotion of self-efficacy is essential to behaviour change and achieving and sustaining animal welfare improvements. As such, whenever feasible, the general recommendation for making the maximum welfare improvement to the animals in most need (or at highest risk of poor welfare), is to adopt a community development approach as it more participatory, empowering, and likely to result in lasting behavioural change and animal welfare improvements. While our recommendations are based on our experience across several countries and in many environments and livelihoods contexts, there will always be exceptions. For example, a change in local government policy or its implementation following a mass media campaign may have a significant impact on the welfare of animals in high-risk groups. In this case, it is possible for an extensive, indirect societal campaign to lead to improvement in the welfare of high-risk animals.

It should also be noted that in one geographical area, you can work with different groups of animals and their owners using different approaches. In addition, the approaches are not mutually exclusive, and can be used together to complement each other to enhance behaviour change and related animal welfare improvements. The decision on whether and how to work with a group of animal owners should be based on your best judgement and the strategic direction and capacity of your organization.
Each approach varies in terms of level of intensity of investment, level of community participation and potential for empowerment, as well as in their ability to successfully address the different drivers of behaviour. It is therefore important to carefully consider which approach is most appropriate for a given context, given the level of risk for poor welfare and potential livelihood vulnerability of the animal owning communities where applicable.

The following table provides an overview of the 3 approaches:

Table 4: Overview of Community-Based Welfare Intervention Approaches

3.2 Considerations for Selecting an Approach for Working with Communities

Once you have identified the animal populations and areas you wish to target, it is useful to understand the local context when how intensively you are able to engage with communities. The following table provides a sample of key considerations to consider in choosing the appropriate approach. If you’re unsure of which approach is right for you, this resource also includes a quiz to help you decide.

KEY CONSIDERATIONS FOR CHOOSING YOUR APPROACH

Table 5: Overview of Key Considerations for Choosing an Approach for Working with Communities

Link to References Cited

Quiz 9: Approaches for Working with Communities