This is a simple community visit record template for change agents (or staff), to support them with documenting their work. The template captures key insights and observations, progress, challenges, and follow-up actions. The intention is to enable community change agents to easily record and track the projects. These templates are samples and they can be adapted to fit your context.
Approaches for Working With Communities: Community Development Approach, Community Engagement Approach, Societal Outreach and Campaigns Approach
Project Support: Facilitator Resources, Documentation and Reporting
Specific Topics: Community Change Agents
Community meeting discussion notes should include the following suggested report structure. This can be further adapted depending on the need. Depending on the literacy level of community change agents, these contents can also be captured in audio or audio visual mechanisms.
Introduction
Background
Objective of the meeting/visit
Name, number and Composition of participants (gender – males/females participants)
Name of Community change agent(s) or Staff member who visited
Date and venue of the visit
Was it a home to home visit or a group visit or event (The place of visit/engagement (for example, a health centre or school, etc.)?)
Process and Approach
Methods used to actively engage participants (ensuring men’s and women’s active participation)
Participatory/C4A Tools used (if any)
Key Discussion Points and Actions
Emerging themes from the conversations
What decisions were taken, who will be responsible for carrying out the decision, and by what date?
Future as follow-up actions
Summary Action points documented by visiting Community Change Agent or Staff member
Key discussion Points
Action points by community members
Action points by the change agent/Brooke (follow up)
Observations and key reflections by visiting Community change agent or staff member(s)
Did the place and time work well for the conversations? Why/why not?
What went well? What did not go so well? Why? How can this be improved?
Any notable story of change that require follow up or documentation by Brooke/Partner
Animal body parts map, animal body issues map and animal-based welfare indicators map
A body map is a picture an animal showing the parts of its body, their functions, and the body areas affected by wounds or diseases. The map depicts either the whole body, or part of the body, as it is perceived by individuals or a community group. This tool can be used to map animal body parts and wounds or disease symptoms on the body, which can be useful in the concept of a project to gain an understanding of how people understand their animals’ bodies, and their perception of common welfare issues on animals’ bodies. It can also be used in the planning phase to map animal-based indictors of good and bad welfare status, which can help inform indicators used in participatory welfare assessments.
Tool purpose:
Time needed:
Body part mapping • To identify local names for parts of an animal’s body. • To uncover and discuss traditional beliefs about animal body parts. • To explore the different perceptions that people have about their animals’ body parts and their associated roles and functions. • To act as an educational tool that introduces participants to the roles and importance of different body parts.
Animal body issues map • To identify problems on animals’ bodies which they perceive as issues and their believed causes.
Animal-based welfare indicators map • To understand what people perceive to be good and bad indicators of welfare.
2 - 3 hours
Materials needed:
Sticks, coloured powder, chart paper, markers. Broken horse or donkey puzzle if available.
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
Project Support: Participatory Learning and Action Tools
Specific Topics: Animal Welfare, Feelings and Needs
T20a: Animal Body Parts Map
This basic animal body parts map allows participants to identify their animals’ body parts, providing an indication of how participants perceive their animals’ bodies.
Figure T20a Simple animal body parts map of a working horse
Ten members of working animal owning households produced the simple animal body map above. The animal owners named all known parts of the animal and provided the local names for each part.
T20b: Animal Body Issues Map
The animal body issues map is a natural follow-up activity to the body part and is useful for understanding what participants perceive as normal versus unhealthy. For example, in places where animals have similar welfare problems, such as being thin, owners often perceive thinness to be normal and do not identify it as a problem. In the example below, participants were encouraged to describe the issues - or problems - that affect each body part. The group drew the identified issues on the animal body map (T20b). They indicated their believed causes (when known) and added them to the map next to the associated issue.
Figure T20b Animal body issue map, indicating body issues and causes on a working horse
Through this exercise, the group identified the following wounds:
Nose due to nostrils being slit
Mouth due to where the bit rests
Eyes due to uncleanliness and dirt
Ears due to cutting
Back due to saddle wounds
Barrel due to friction from cart rope
Pastern/fetlock (above hoof) due to hobbling
Knee due to fall
Dock (tail area) due to cart ties
Rump from use of whip
T20c: Animal-based welfare indicators Map
The animal-based welfare indicators map is a useful follow up activity to the animal body parts map. This activity identifies what the animal-owning households perceive to be good and bad indicators of welfare on an animal’s body.
Figure T20C Animal body indicators map of a working horse
Figure T20C is an example of an animal-based welfare indicator map that was created by members of a working animal-owning community. Participants identified characteristics of what they believed a normal, healthy working animal should look like and wrote the identified healthy indicators next to the associated body parts identified in the first animal body mapping activity. They were then asked to identify unhealthy indicators of the same characteristics, and included those on the map. When participants initially completed the map, they only identified a few indicators associated with poor welfare. At this early phase of community engagement, participants had not yet been introduced to concepts of animal welfare, and the activity identified gaps in their knowledge; for example, they incorrectly identified the presence of frog in their working donkeys’ hoof as a poor indicator of health.
This exercise can be repeated and Figure 20c updated and revised to correct any inaccurate indicators after participants’ complete their first participatory animal welfare needs assessment (PWNA) (see recommended next steps T22 Animal Welfare Transect Walk), where they will learn how to identify good and bad animal welfare states related indicators. Once updated and accurate, this animal body map of welfare issues and indicators can then be used to inform action planning.
Animal Body Parts
Step 1
If the animal parts puzzle is available use this and ask participants to put it together, or alternatively ask them to sketch the body of their animal on the ground or on paper, and to identify the different body parts and the local names used for each body part.
Step 2
Once participants have identified all body parts, initiate a discussion on their perceptions of the role and function of each part. This discussion often creates an opportunity for facilitators to sensitize participants about which body parts are important to animals’ function, which is particularly relevant in relation to working animals.
Animal body issue map
Step 3
Follow step one above, then ask the group to identify issues they commonly perceive on the body of their animals. This may include wounds, symptoms of disease, or other problems with animal health or function which they observe. It is important to allow participants to identify what they perceive to be issues, rather than identify issues you as the facilitator perceive. Encourage participants to draw these issues on the body map or represent those using symbols next to the appropriate body part.
Animal-based welfare indicators map
Step 4
Using the animal body parts map (steps 1 and 2), ask participants how a normal, healthy animal should look. Starting the discussion with the question ‘What parts of the body do you look at when purchasing/adopting an animal?’ can be useful. Through this question, participants will typically start to identify what they perceive as indicators of good animal health or welfare as observed on an animal’s body. Ask them to write or draw symbols representing the indicator next to the associated body part on the map.
As a follow up question, ask participants what poor animal health or welfare would look like, or what they consider to be an indication of poor health or condition when purchasing an animal.
Through the discussion, differences in ideas about indicators will emerge and they will sensitize one another to reach agreement. At this stage, it is common for only a few indicators to be identified, especially related to poor animal welfare conditions. Some identified animal-based indicators may be incorrect, highlighting gaps in knowledge, perception about the animal body part and misguided beliefs of welfare. This is gives rise to opportunities for future sensitization on good and bad welfare states.
Step 5
The animal-based welfare indicators mapping activity may be revisited after conducting an initial participatory animal welfare needs assessment (PWNA) in the initiation/planning phase of the community project cycle (T22 Animal Transect Walk). Through the PWNA exercise, participants gain greater understanding of good and bad welfare states and associated animal-based indicators, which they can use to update, add to, and/or correct the indicators on their initial animal-based welfare indicators map (see figure T20c above).
At this time, the facilitator may ask probing questions about different body parts related to what was observed and learned through the transect walk in terms of indicators of problems and good welfare states. Encourage participants to create a comprehensive body map of animal-based parameters for assessing animal welfare relevant to their local context. These can then later be used to inform indicator selection for future transect walks to support monitor community-based action plans/for individual personal action plan and monitoring.
Facilitator's Notes
This tool has been adapted into a ‘Broken Horse’ jigsaw puzzle, where animal body parts are discussed by reconstructing a wooden jigsaw of an animal. This puzzle version of the exercise is good for starting discussions about animal welfare with children.
Next Steps
Issues and related causes identified through this exercise can provide a preliminary indication of perceived animal welfare issues during the initiation phase. Deeper analysis of root causes can be explored during the community action planning using T25 Problem animal and/or T26 Cause and effect analysis.
Ground truth animal welfare issues identified by participants during the mapping exercise, with animals’ actual observed body condition, which can highlight potential gaps in participants’ understanding of welfare issues.
Sensitize participants on good and bad welfare states and associated animal-based indicators.
Identify the most commonly observed animal welfare issues including animal-based indicators, resource related issues and environmental issues.
The animal welfare practice gap analysis is designed to explore current animal management practices and activities which contribute to animal welfare. This tool identifies gaps and reasons for the gaps in terms of the main drivers of behaviour change: capability, opportunity and motivation. It has been adapted from other tools specifically to put the animal at the centre of the analysis. The first steps are very similar to those in ‘If I were an animal’ (T17). Consider conducting this activity separately with owners, users and carers, including both men and women, or other relevant groups that are likely to have different priorities.
Tool purpose:
Time needed:
• To identify the gaps and causal factors contributing to people not meeting the welfare needs of their animals. • To identify actions people can take either individually or collectively to address gaps in animal husbandry and management practices to improve animal welfare. • To support gender analysis if conducted separately between men and women by identifying differences in factors contributing to gaps in practice. • To inform identification of community actions and/or behaviour change strategies to address the causes of people’s poor animal husbandry and management practices related to lack of capacity, resources and/or motivation. • When used repeatedly, results can inform monitoring by enabling assessment of perceived changes in participants’ animal welfare practices and underlying causal factors which constrain their adoption.
2 hours
Materials needed:
Chart paper, index cards or sticky notes, pens/markers, chalk, stones, pebbles, local materials (leaves, seeds, etc.)
Approaches for Working With Communities: Community Development Approach, Community Engagement Approach
Behavioural Drivers (COM-B): Behaviour Change Diagnosis and Planning, Motivation
Stages of Behaviour Change: Preparation Stage
Project Support: Participatory Learning and Action Tools, Needs Assessment, Gender Analysis, Monitoring and Evaluation
Specific Topics: Animal Husbandry and Management, Community Change Agents
Animal welfare practice gap analysis
Figure T21a Animal welfare practice gap analysis carried out by animal owners
A group of animal owners analysed their current animal management practices. They identified 10 practices that their animal would expect from them and scored the extent to which they currently carry out these practices. The highest ‘in practice’ scores were for timely veterinary treatment and free access to water. The group discussed the most common reasons for seeking veterinary treatment and how changes in current practices could reduce or eliminate the need for the treatment altogether. The lowest scores were for ‘shelter from the elements’ and ‘time to interact and play with other animals’. After a discussion, the group identified quick wins and collectively:
Purchased more nutritious and balanced feed by buying food in small groups instead of individually. This means spending less money, but also having better quality feed.
Identified a location to make a rolling-pit for the animals to use after work that was cleared so it was safe for the animals; it was also near a place where the users could have tea and socialise together.
Identified 5 new water points and cleaned abandoned tyres to use as water troughs.
The group agreed to make these good practices a daily habit and to monitor each other’s progress against their individual action plans.
Start by encouraging participants to see the world from their animals’ point of view. Ask what expectations their animals have of them to have a happy and healthy life and experience a positive mental state. If they are struggling with this concept, ask them what they need as humans to be happy and healthy, then extend the question to their animals. At this point, the group should start identifying expectations animals have of their owners. Ask the community helper to write the expectations on cards for everyone to see or use representative drawings.
When participants have finished identifying their animals’ expectations of them, it is the facilitator’s responsibility to ensure that all welfare components have been considered. Use the following guiding questions as needed to facilitate participants to identify their animals’ expectations of them in terms of any of the following domains of welfare [Five Domains] which they have not yet considered:
• Health - What do animals need/expect of owners to be healthy? (Disease prevention, timely treatment, proper fitting equipment) • Nutrition - What do animals need/expect of owners for good nutrition? (feeding & watering) • Environment - What do animals need/expect of owners in their environment? (Comfort, rest, temperature, shelter) • Behaviour - What do animals need/expect of owners to express their natural behaviours? (Freedom of movement, social interaction with other animals)
Please note: The facilitator should group/organise similar expectations into one category and explain the reason for the grouping (only if the anticipated effects of the expectation not being met are the same). For example, if the community identified ‘free access to water’ and ‘clean water’, consider consolidating the two examples into one ‘free access to clean water’ category.
Once the list is complete, ask the community helper to record the group-identified expectations on cards using words, symbols, or local materials.
Step 2
Next, ask the helper to draw a grid or matrix on the ground using coloured powder, chalk, or a stick, with at least 5 columns in the matrix to start. Place the group-identified practices (cards in step 1b) along the first column.
Label the second column ‘in practice’ (like the matrix in step 1a).
Step 3
Facilitate the group to fill in the second column of the matrix labelled ‘in practice’, by asking participants to what extent their animals’ expectations are fulfilled by each of the identified practices. Scoring from 0 to 10 (0 = not in practice, 10 = completely in practice).
Any remaining stones (out of ten) can be kept aside or in the first column, next to the identified practice.
Step 4
Ask the group to identify at least 4 of the most important factors contributing to gaps in their animals’ expectations and current practices. Have the helper write the factors on a card using words or symbols.
They may identify factors (causes) such as:
Place the cards with the factors as column headers along top of the matrix, adding more columns to the matrix if necessary.
Step 5
Ask participants to use the remaining stones (out of ten) to score the gap factors (causes). For example, if one of the expectations was ‘timely veterinary treatment’, five stones out of ten may have been used for ‘in practice’. The remaining five stones would need to be divided amongst the different causes of gaps in practice e.g. two stones for ‘lack of knowledge’ and three stones for ‘not a priority’.
Please note: Coming to an agreement on how the factors (causes) should be scored will raise a debate amongst the group. These discussions create shared learning opportunities, as participants learn from one another as they discuss and agree on final scores. As a facilitator, you should allow and encourage this discussion without inserting your ideas.
Step 6
Once all the causes of gaps in practice have been scored and the matrix is complete, ask a community member to help summarize the results with the group.
Use the following guiding questions to facilitate a discussion amongst participants:
• Where gaps in practices exist, what are the specific skills, knowledge and/or resources preventing participants from meeting their animals’ needs?
• What are the effects of the animal husbandry and management practice gaps on both animals and animal-owning households? If the group has already completed T17 ‘If I were an animal’, ask them to come up with some of the effects that they identified in this activity.
• Which practices do you perceive as most important to ensuring the welfare of your animals? Please note: This question can provide an opportunity to raise awareness of how practices often considered less important can still have significant impacts on animal’s welfare.
• What actions can participants take, either individually or collectively, to address these gaps and mitigate the negative effects on animals and animal-owning households?
• What technical support is required to support participants in acting?
Step 7
If participants have identified specific actions to address gaps, have the helper record the actions and specific activities in the community action plan. Make sure to include who will monitor it and a realistic timeline. Add any opportunities to capacity build or project plan into your project action tracker.
Facilitator’s notes: Animal welfare practice gap analysis
It is helpful for participants to have a general understanding of animal welfare and related animal husbandry and management best practices when undertaking this activity. Consider conducting one or more of the following activities as time permits to raise awareness of animal welfare needs prior to conducting this exercise:
T17 ‘If I were an animal’: raises awareness of what animals’ need and how they depend on people experience positive welfare states
T18 Thriving not surviving: promotes understanding of the five domains of animal welfare and how people can promote positive welfare states
T19: Animal feelings analysis: helps promote understanding of animal feelings and related physical expressions and behaviours indicative of those feelings.
T20 Animal body mapping: helps identify animal-based indicators of welfare status which can be used in the transect walk, and can serve as a useful sensitization exercise improve understanding of indicators of good and bad animal welfare.
If individual participants come up with a below standard practice (e.g. watering 2 x per day when free access is best practice), the facilitator can use this as an opportunity for them sensitize each other by reaching consensus.
This exercise can take considerable time, so discuss this in advance with the group. If the activity takes more than two hours, consider action planning in the next session.
Encourage everyone to express their own views and avoid bringing in your own examples while the matrix is being populated. Do not allow it to become a facilitator-driven exercise.
Consider having a designated note taker to document the insights (e.g. info on knowledge, skills, beliefs, resources) that emerge from participants’ discussions during this activity.
It is common for participants to identify only a few main effects on animals (step 6), especially when animals are not viewed as sentient beings. It is the facilitator’s role to use this as an opportunity to promote understanding of animals’ experience of these gaps.
T15 Cost benefit analysis when motivational factors have been identified as reasons for participants’ not meeting the expectations of their animals or when no consequences have been agreed by the community to address gaps
The facilitating organization may consider one or both of the following actions to address the identified gaps:
Capacity building trainings to promote knowledge and skills related to implementing animal husbandry and management practices that promote animal welfare:
Humane handling techniques
Proper feeding methods
Basic wound management
Benefits of grooming
Benefits of stable care
In-depth assessment or care practice research to identify:
Who needs to practice and who influences the desired behaviour
To identify main barriers to adoption of the promoted behaviour
Sustainable livelihood and/or community development-related projects to improve access and availability of resources important to animal welfare
Approaches for Working With Communities: Community Engagement Approach
Project Support: Facilitator Resources, Documentation and Reporting
Specific Topics: Community Change Agents
It is important for the community change agent to plan beforehand when going to the community. This provides them with the framework to effectively engage the community and document the process, while also indicating the action points for future follow ups. The table below is an example of a template that the community change agents can prepare beforehand when going to the community. One of the roles of the community change agents is to organize the community. The process of organizing the community entails.
Step 1: Mobilizing and orienting the community
Step 2: Building the relationships, trust, credibility, and a sense of ownership with the community through planning.
Step 3: Inviting the community to fully participate
Then, in step 4: Form the community action group (CAG).
The table matrix below can be used to plan for community mobilization by the community change agents.
Date
Venue
Activity
Objectives
Resources required
Responsible person
Indicators
After community mobilization, the change agents need to plan with the community orientation/engagement process. The table below can provide a guide on how the community change agents can plan for the community engagement/orientation process in advance.
Community planning
The goal of the community planning__________________
OBJECTIVES
BARRIERS/ OPPORTUNITIES
STRATEGIES
ACTIVITIES
PEOPLE RESPONSIBLE
RESOURCES
TIMELINE
INDICATORS OFSUCCESS
What do we want to achieve specifically related to the animal welfare issue
What challenge do we think we will face in trying to achieve this result?
How are we going to achieve our goal?
What are we going to do to achieve the result?(Activities)
Who is responsible for each activity (ADD HERE NAMES OF PERSON[S])
What resources do we need to achieve the result?
When? How long is needed for each activity?(From____ to_____)
How will we know when we have achieved the result?(Measurable, observable outcomes)
At a personal level, the community change agents can use the below template (adopt as necessary) to plan for their activities, either in the community or at the household level.
An adaptation of a traditional transect walk [48], this animal welfare transect walk can be used as part of a participatory animal welfare needs assessment of the welfare status of animals. It encourages participants to make direct observations of the animals themselves by looking at the animals, the resources in their environment and the owner’s, user’s, carer’s handling and management practices. This is a useful tool for exploring animal welfare conditions and the realities of resources available to animals within a community.
The findings from this exercise, coupled with analysis from the contributing root causes for any welfare problems (T21, T25and/or T26) can be used to prepare animal welfare improvement plans for individual or groups of animals. It can also be used to monitor changes in animal welfare over time if conducted at different points in time, and recorded observations compared to assess change.
Tool purpose:
Time needed:
• To identify which animals are in the best/worst condition and have the best/worst welfare. • To identify the most common animal welfare problems within the community • To understand which welfare issues owners, users, carers prioritize. • To inform community action planning and target capacity building activities to address community-identified priority welfare issues. • To identify which owners, users, carers may be good candidates to target as animal welfare champions in the community, when used in conjunction with the results from T1. Using these two tools together should identify individuals with the highest potential to be exemplary champions and potential mentors to others.
5-10 minutes for each animal in the walk + 1 hour for discussion
Materials needed:
Sheets of paper, pen, coloured markers (red, yellow, green)
Project Support: Participatory Learning and Action Tools, Needs Assessment, Monitoring and Evaluation
Specific Topics: Animal Welfare, Feelings, and Needs, Animal Husbandry and Management; Community Change Agentsnts / Resilience
Animal welfare transect walk
The animal welfare transect walk gives a more complete and detailed view of animal welfare because the animals are present for the group to examine, whereas the previousanimal welfare mapping exercise (T1) or body mapping exercise (T20), only gives an overall ‘bird’s-eye’ view of the animal conditions in a community, as described by their owners without the animals present. In this way, the transect walk can strengthen or triangulate the information from these mapping exercises.
An animal-owning community carried out an animal welfare transect walk using a green, yellow, red traffic light system to score 25 animal welfare indicators that they had identified during their previous discussions and exercises, including 5 that directly relate to owner and carer behaviour (environmental factors). In this example, environmental factors were included because participants’ had a good understanding of animal welfare issues at the activity was carried out. However, it is also possible to modify this tool by using only animal condition indicators, which may be helpful in when participants have not yet gained a good understanding of factors contributing to good animal welfare.
Figure T22a Animal welfare transect walk recording sheet using traffic light signals
After the walk, the owners sat down together and analysed the score for each individual animal by summarizing the vertical columns on their recording sheet. In this example, Ahmad’s animal was found to be in the worst condition, with 11 red (‘bad’) and 2 amber (‘medium’) marks, followed by Walia’s animal which had 6 red and 2 amber welfare issues. After looking at all the individual animals, the group then summarized the horizontal rows to find out which welfare issues were most common in their village. Shelter cleanliness was the biggest issue in the community, with five of eight animals marked red. The group followed this exercise with a root cause analysis (consider using T25andT26) and inserted the results in the community action plan for action by individual owners and collectively.
Animal Welfare Transect Walk Using Traffic Light Signals
Step 1
Explain the purpose of the animal welfare transect walk to the group and involve all participants in the process of decision-making about which indicators of good and poor animal welfare are going to be observed. Create a safe learning environment at the start of this activity if this tool is being used as entry at Initiation phase to nurture positive motivation for further engagement.
To facilitate discussion and identification of observable animal welfare indicators, consider referring to the outputs of one or more of the following tools if already conducted:
Depending on participants’ understanding of animal welfare issues at the time this activity is carried out, it may be appropriate to focus only on indicators of animal body condition and consider adding indicators related to environmental/owner practices as the tool is used repeatedly and community participants’ understanding of animal welfare improves.
Alternatively, as the facilitator, you have an important role here: to check that the list represents all aspects of animal welfare as sometimes we find that the owners’ checklist only contains signs of physical welfare. If you notice this, it may be helpful to ask probing questions to encourage them to think about observable indicators of their animals’ welfare in terms of the five domains of animal welfare (e.g. nutrition, health, environment, behaviour, and mental state). After the group has finalized their list, sit together with them and check whether all aspects of welfare are covered.
Discuss the agreed animal welfare indicators thoroughly with all members of the group as well as the animal owners and carers from each household visited and agree a score for each one.
Step 2
Once the group has decided which observations to make, agree how the observations and discussions will be captured or recorded and who will take responsibility for this. Ask the community to decide what symbols will be used to record the result of each observation.
Examples include:
• Traffic light signals: good/best animal condition shown with green dot, moderate issues with animal condition with amber/yellow dot, worst condition with a red dot. Sometimes just red and green are used. • A tick/check mark might be used for good and a cross for bad. • Instead of a traffic light system, numerical scores might be assigned. For example: Red/cross = 0, Yellow/amber = 1, Green/tick/check = 2. If only red/green are used, then Red = 0 and Green = 1.
Step 3
Decide whose animals will be visited and the route of the transect walk. Fix a time when the group will go on the walk. It is essential that the owner and family of each animal visited are present when the group is visiting his or her animal and the surroundings.
Step 4
The community group should walk the route together, visiting all the households where animals are kept and the surrounding areas to look at each animal carefully. The group will often wish to make additions and alterations to the agreed observations. Any animal welfare issues which have emerged from other tools and exercises may also be discussed with the group during the walk.
Step 5
After returning from the walk, ask the group to summarize and analyse their record sheets:
• Have the participants add up the scores or numbers of red, yellow/amber, and green dots vertically to give a summary of the welfare problems of the animals. This can be used by the group to formulate individual action plans for owners. • Adding up the scores or dots horizontally will give a score for the whole community or group for that welfare parameter and add identified welfare issues to the “issues” column of the Community Action Plan. • Come to a consensus on the animal welfare successes and problems and discuss possible contributing factors. Discussion questions might include: - What welfare indicators are most in need of improvement and which are best performing? What are the reasons? - Why did some participants score higher than others? What are they doing differently than others who had lower scores? - What are the implications of these welfare issues on their animals’ physical and mental state, and on the lives of different household members? For example, do these welfare issues impact women, men, boys, or girls differently? - What could feasibly be done to improve their animals’ current welfare situation and replicate successes?
Record any identified ‘actions to be taken’ in the relevant column of the community action plan and have participants agree on a frequency to animal welfare transect walk activity to monitor progress (monthly, quarterly, etc.).
Facilitation Notes
If there are large numbers of animals, carry out the same exercise over several days so that all animals or a representative number of animals and households are covered.
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.
If this exercise is planned to be undertaken in the project initiation phase or to support rapport building, it is imperative to create a safe and learning environment and build understanding about why scoring is part of the exercise.
It is helpful for participants to have a general understanding of animal welfare and related animal husbandry and management best practices prior to conducting this exercise. Consider conducting the following activities to raise awareness of animal welfare, feelings and needs, and help inform the identification of animal welfare related indicators to use during the transect walk:
T17 ‘If I were an animal’: raises awareness of what animals’ need and how they depend on people experience positive welfare states
T19 Animal feelings analysis: helps promote understanding of animal feelings and related physical expressions and behaviours indicative of those feelings.
T20 Animal body mapping: helps identify animal-based indicators of welfare status which can be used in the transect walk, and can serve as a useful sensitization exercise improve understanding of indicators of good and bad animal welfare.
Decide with the community in advance whose animals will be visited and the route of the transect walk. Fix a time when the group will go on the walk. It is essential that the owner and family of each animal visited are present when the group is visiting his or her animal and surroundings.
Animal welfare transect walks may be repeated at regular intervals and the results compared with previous walks. This enables participants to monitor and evaluate changes in the welfare status of individual animals, and changes management practices and availability of animal-related resources.
Next Steps
Once the participatory animal welfare needs assessment is complete, you can prioritize issues to address using one of the following tools:
Alternatively or in addition, you can explore the causes and effects of welfare issues by following the transect walk up with one of the following activities
Below is an overview of the community action planning process covered by steps within the planning phase of the community development approach:
Figure 37: Overview of the Community Action Planning Process
Beginning with a participatory welfare needs assessment (PWNA) helps put the animal itself to the centre of the group’s analysis by looking at the present welfare status of their animal/s. This process sensitizes owners to their animals’ needs and feelings and the ways in which these are expressed through an animal’s behaviour or body language.
Use the methods in this section to conduct and record data for a baseline assessment to determine:
The percentage of people who (do not) practice the promoted behaviours.
The existing pre-conditions (identified barriers/motivators) for practicing the desired behaviour (e.g. people’s knowledge, availability of resources).
Animal welfare indicators if an animal welfare assessment was not conducted at the start of the project initiation phase.
Having recorded a baseline of where animal welfare and associated husbandry and management practices are before any intervention enables assessment of the extent of behaviour change during monitoring and evaluation.
2.1.1 Analyse animal welfare needs and identify indicators for assessing the extent their needs are being met
The focus of this step is to support the group in building a common understanding of welfare based on the five domains. It will also enable them to recognize how aspects of good welfare and poor welfare are expressed by animals’ appearance and behaviour by facilitating the group’s analysis of how animals feel and what they need for their well-being.
In this section you will facilitate the group to:
Identify the needs of animals.
Analyse how far the animals’ needs are being met by everyone involved with their care regime.
Analyse the effects on animals when their basic needs are not fulfilled.
Identify the physical and behavioural signs of each need.
Organize a group meeting and facilitate the group to identify animal welfare needs and what it looks like when these needs are not met. To start the process of discussing animal needs, consider using Animal body mapping (T20) where the group identify welfare issues and their perceived causes on a drawing of their animals’ bodies and discuss what they perceive to be good and bad indicators of welfare. The Thriving not surviving (T18), and Animal feeling analysis (T19) tools can help to examine how the animal may experience life and how people can influence those emotions both positively and negatively. ‘If I were an animal’ (T17) may then help the community to determine to what extent animal needs are being met within the community and can support identification of welfare issues, indicators they can use and any knowledge gaps.
A list of an animal’s welfare needs will be developed by the group during these exercises and information to assist this process can also be found in the Animal Welfare and Communities Learning Module Part 1: Understanding animal welfare. These tools help to move people from looking at solely animal-related resources and services to observing the animal directly and seeing what animals can tell them about their own needs. They put the animal at the centre of analysis. Support group members in coming to common agreement on what they perceive to be good animal welfare and animal husbandry and management practices within their local context.
To support this process, consider populating a five domains framework with their animals’ needs and the equivalent human behaviours that would support meeting them, like the example provided in the facilitator resource 9. Example of Five Domains of Animal Welfare for Donkeys Linked with Human Behaviours. It is important to support the group in defining a list that represents all aspects of animal welfare not just those signs of physical welfare. Ask probing questions to encourage them to think about observable indicators of their animals’ welfare in terms of the five domains of animal welfare (e.g. nutrition, health, environment, behaviour, and mental state).
Next the group need to agree on how these animal- and resource or behaviour-based indicators will be scored to enable assessment of animal welfare and monitoring of changes. Participants write or draw the indicators as a list that can be used for assessing their own animals. The group then comes to a consensus on how each indicator will be scored and decide the exact definition for each score. Refer to the Animal Welfare Transect Walk (T22) instructions for determining scoring. The simplest scoring uses a traffic light system, over time communities will often shift to a more complex numerical system as the group builds experience and confidence assessing their animals’ welfare.
2.1.2 Conduct participatory welfare needs assessment to understand the welfare status of animals within the community
Facilitate the group to assess the welfare status of an animal, by looking at the physical condition of its body and observation of its behaviour. The Animal feeling analysis (T19) and Animal body mapping (T20) tools are helpful here. Identify things that may directly or indirectly affect the welfare of their animals (also refer to previous community needs assessment section 1.2). These include management practices, owner behaviour, resources, stakeholders and the environment, the Animal welfare practice gap analysis (T21) will assist here.
With the group, assess the level or severity of various welfare problems and their contributing factors. Conduct another Animal welfare transect walk (T22) now the community has greater awareness of how to assess animal welfare. This transect can be undertaken by men, women or both together, this process allows exploration of animal welfare conditions and assesses the realities of resources available within the community. The process of joint analysis leads to individual as well as collective action and increases understanding of the need for change and helps support people’s progress through the stages of change from pre-contemplation to the preparation stage.
Once completed, convene the group to sit together and summarise the findings on a chart to draw conclusions. If the walk has been carried out on more than one day, it is useful to hold a group discussion at the end of each day, with a final meeting on the last day of the exercise. The group summarizes the findings for each individual animal and for all the animals together. In particular, the group draws out the indicators that scored red (bad condition), for individual animals and for the village all together. This will generate a list of welfare issues for prioritizing during the next step of community action planning. As community members score themselves during the participatory welfare needs assessment, community facilitators can probe and listen for change talk to gauge different individual’s stages of change.
Tools and resources helpful to supporting this step include:
Three pile sorting, use cards to enable a member of an animal owning community to sort and discuss animal management and work practices according to whether they are seen as good, bad, or neutral for animal welfare.
Tool purpose:
Time needed:
• To explore participants’ understanding and perspectives on any animal welfare issue, care and management practices (including harmful practices) and to provide a starting point for problem analysis and action. • To analyse perceptions about animal diseases and their symptoms, causes and prevention.
1 hour 30 minutes
Materials needed:
Chart paper, note cards, markers or other locally available resources, and a set of cards showing animal welfare.
Approaches for Working With Communities: Community Development Approach, Community Engagement Approach, Societal Outreach and Campaigns Approach
Stages of Change: Pre-contemplation Stage, contemplation
Project Support: Participatory Learning and Action Tools, Needs Assessment
Specific Topics: Animal Husbandry and Management, Animal Handling
Three pile sorting
Step 1
For this exercise you need to prepare beforehand.
Make a set of cards showing animal welfare or management practices which can be interpreted as good, bad, or in-between (neutral). These should be based on problems previously identified by the community during exercises such as ‘If I were an animal’ (T17), Animal body mapping (T20) or Animal welfare practice gap analysis (T21). Common negative practices which could be illustrated on the cards include beating animals, overloading, not offering water, incorrect feeding, and lack of care for wounds
Step 2
Organize participants into groups of no more than seven and ask each group to form a circle. Give a set of cards to each circle and ask for two or three volunteers to sit in the centre of the circle and sort the cards together. They should place each card in one of three piles: representing good welfare or management practices, bad welfare, or management practices, and in-between or neutral practices (or practices where there is uncertainty or disagreement).
Step 3
After the cards have been sorted, ask the volunteers to arrange them so that each card is visible to the whole group (see figure T23 below- Place holder). Encourage debate between participants to challenge their choices and analyse all aspects of their decision. Enable participants to understand why a particular practice may be better or worse for animal welfare.
Step 4
Ask the group to identify which of the animal welfare issues or management practices are occurring in their own village, especially the ones they have identified as bad. This discussion can be used to enable participants to identify priority welfare problems and to propose potential solutions or action to be taken.
Step 5
Document the discussions and share back 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.
Figure T23 a sample pile sorting process
Facilitation Notes
It is important that you enable the group to bring their own perceptions and use their local terms for management practices, diseases, pain, and animal suffering.
The game can also be played using photographs representing the existing situations in the village. This needs advance preparation.
Notice and document why certain practices are said to be harmful or are perceived as positive or neutral while they affect animal welfare. It is important to also note their misconceptions about the practices, diseases, etc. and their stages of change (pre-contemplation – being unaware or contemplation stages – struggling with their decisional balance to determine them as good, bad or neutral) with regard to the different care and management and animal diseases.
Another variation is to ask participants to sort cards according to different types of animal welfare issue they have experienced, such as i) issues directly related to animals ii) issues related to service providers and other stakeholders and iii) issues related to animal owners, users, and carers.
Project Phase: Planning Phase, Implementation Phase, Exit and Evaluation Phase
Approaches for Working With Communities: Community Development Approach
Stages of Behaviour Change: Preparation Stage, Action Stage, Maintenance Stage
Project Support: Facilitator Resources, Documentation and Reporting
Specific Topics: Group Formation/Strengthening
The community will go through a process of identifying the different animal welfare issues, prioritizing them, and using the template provided below to document the results of their reflections and decisions.
Facilitation Notes:
The table can be filled after
· After communities identify and ranked them in order of importance, pick the prioritized animal welfare issue. Document the identified major root causes and let them discuss and identify the actions/behaviours or solutions. Such actions need to be owned by the community members to tackle them at community/group level or at each group member’s household level. Ensure appropriate participatory process of exploration, learning and reflection takes place before coming into agreement and developing/populating the community action plan. The developed action plan needs to be monitored, and members should be encouraged to be accountable and also express challenges they encountered.
It is important to note that some of the proposed actions may have been tried out previously by the equine owners with minimal or no success, hence the facilitator should probe further to ensure participants reflect through any previous actions and what was the gap and settle on the actions with greater chances of realising the changes anticipated.
· This document will serve as a living document to plan action as well as to continue to re-prioritize actions to be taken by the group on their own or in conjunction with other external stakeholders that will support them to execute the actions they have identified. It is thus important for facilitator’s to frequently remind community members to review developed action plans and report back or adapt them based on emerging needs and changes.
· *one prioritized issue can have more than one action; so add rows to identify and each action can be monitored by different stakeholders and have different success indicators
· * Actions – could include a specific behaviour/actions they agreed to take individually and/or collectively.
· *frequency could include community members checking/supporting each other as part of peer support to provide practical or/and emotional support to one another
· Timeline – when the identified action is done and when it needs to be reported
· *who is responsible is taking the action and they need to report back when the group meets again/in the group meetings; this could also be used as a behaviour change technique of monitoring each other’s practice of a desired behaviour
2.2.1 Understand and prioritise animal welfare issues based on participatory welfare needs assessment
This step brings the community together around a common goal and builds their confidence in their own ability to bring about positive change in their animals’ lives by working together as a group. Develop the community’s key concerns about the welfare of their animals to identify which they would like to address, and to unite them around a common activity or goal (‘entry point’).
The group identified the welfare issues affecting their animals through a participatory animal welfare needs assessment. Their next task is to decide which problems are the most serious or important to change, by ranking issues according to their importance. This helps the group members to set a realistic agenda for their own actions within limited financial and other resources. Remember to appreciate that no group is homogenous, for example there will be gender-based differences in control and access to resources (Gender control analysis (T10)), group dependency on external actors (Dependency analysis (T12)) and differing income/ expenditure to consider (Income, expenditure, and credit analysis (T13)). People will only be motivated to act when they identify such issues themselves and then discuss and formulate them into clearly expressed needs for both animals and people, along with a common vision of the expected improved situation.
You can facilitate the group to rank these welfare issues according to their priorities for acting, by using simple discussion or by writing the issues on separate cards and agreeing an order of preference (also known as Preference ranking). Alternatively, you may use Pair-wise ranking and scoring (T8) or Matrix ranking and scoring (T9). In our experience many groups use a combination of tools e.g. pairwise preference ranking followed by matrix ranking. It is important that issues are prioritized according to the preferences of the animal owning community members themselves, rather than according to the priorities of your supporting agency. If the group does not have ownership of decisions, action will not follow.
The list of animal welfare issues is often a long one and the group cannot act on all of them at the same time. It may be useful to sort the list into problems that need immediate action (within one month) and those that are medium-term goals (action to be taken within about one year) or long-term goals (two years or more).
2.2.2 Identify root causes of prioritised animal welfare issues
To help the community better understand the context in which you are seeking to promote behavioural change to improve animal welfare, facilitate them in undertaking 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 (T25), Animal Welfare Cause and Effect Analysis (T26), and Animal Welfare Practice Gap Analysis (T21). Conducting a root cause analysis of welfare issues will help the group understand and identify the underlying causes for their priority welfare issues. For example, there might be seasonal variations in capacity of some individuals to earn money, such as migrant workers in brick kilns who may have only occasional work when the brick kiln season ends (six-month periods) which means financial resources are extremely limited throughout much of the year.
It is useful to consider the effects of contributing factors on the owner and their family, as well as on the animal, as this can provide a motivator to act. Through these activity discussions, you will gain deeper insights into the broader context and potential constraints and opportunities communities face in making animal welfare improvements, as well as highlight potential opportunities for undertaking one health or one welfare initiatives.
It is important that you are patient and encourage the group to reflect carefully and to analyze the causes or contributing factors in detail. If the discussion is pushed too fast, people may not have time to come out with the real underlying causes. For example, wounds do not usually resolve if just cleaned, the root cause of the wound may be more complex, but it is important the group are encouraged to work out these more complex root causes together. You as the facilitator can support this process by probing the group to dig deeper to identify the deeper causal factors by repeatedly asking what causes each cause identified, until no further causes can be identified, and they arrive at the underlying root cause. This process also helps us to understand how people view the root causes and their belief system about possibility of behavior change, and it will be important to listen to listen for change talk during this discussion to better understand what stage of change the group may be in. Refer to the facilitator resource 6. Techniques for Supporting Progress through the Stages of Behavior Change for further guidance on how to support group members change process. Understanding the root causes may also help identify key stakeholders who need to be engaged with the project and community, or who may need to act or adopt changes for animal welfare to improve. Use the Project Action Tracker resource to keep records of important insights and findings to inform your project planning. For example, communities’ priority issues, their root causes, including any capability, motivation or opportunity related preconditions that need to be in place for communities to be able to address the welfare issue which they/you may have identified through discussions, as well as any potential needs or opportunities to engage other key stakeholders in the project.
2.2.3 Develop shared community vision for improving animal welfare and community action plan to address prioritized issues
The community action plan serves as an open community ‘contract’ for action, it notes who will take which action and when, helping people to take responsibility for addressing problems in a systematic way and building in accountability. It also brings agreement on the support that they need to implement the plan: from you, the project, and other external institutions or stakeholders. This process will be repeated when they decide to work on the next prioritized issue. To ensure accountability, and aid transparency and sustainability of the project, this plan should also cover your withdrawal (where applicable depending on the duration of the project) and hand over of any relevant elements, this is to ensure the process is undertaken effectively and supports the continued success of the community action.
Before undertaking action planning, revisit the group’s agreement on what good animal welfare and husbandry and management practices are considering previous Animal welfare transect walk (T22) results. Encourage consideration of improving welfare across multiple domains because this will have greater cumulative welfare impact than improving welfare in only one domain. Facilitate discussions using Community Animal Welfare Visioning (T30) to identify their collective vision for what they would like the community’s animal welfare to look like in their local context. Use this vision to guide community action planning and the identification of what needs to change for them to achieve their vision.
WHAT ABOUT INCURABLE WELFARE ISSUES?
It is important to appreciate that some welfare issues cannot be improved, such as chronic conditions or incurable disease. In these instances, it would be helpful to discuss with the group what could be done to prevent these welfare issues in the future, and how these conditions may be managed for those animals affected. Consider inviting relevant animal health and welfare experts to these discussions to share relevant information and expertise as needed to promote informed discussion and ensure any preventative measures identified do no harm.
Once the group has agreed on the root causes for each key problem encourage community members to record the specific behaviours which need to change and then develop a community action plan for implementing these changes. Support the group in creating an action for each root cause, encouraging them to think about what practices they need to change for their priority animal welfare issues to be addressed, and what needs to be in place for them to adopt the desired practices. The Animal welfare practice gap analysis (T21) can be helpful to use here, as can the Story Telling: Animal Welfare Before and After Story (T24b) which can help to identify the steps or change in behavior they can take to improve their animals’ welfare. Depending upon the group size and dynamics, everyone may wish to work together or to break into smaller sub-groups to identify possible actions to address their priority animal welfare issues, with sub-groups brought back together to discuss and comment on each other’s’ work and offer suggestions for changes. Check all priority issues have been covered.
ATTENTION!
Involving men, women and children at every stage of the planning process, either together or separately, can ensure better and more sustainable results in the long term. This is because each can often play an integral role in improving their animals' welfare.
The major contributors to the community action plan should be the animal owners’ group (men, women, and children), because the plan is designed to reflect their interests. However, if issues with animal health or resource service provision have been identified as a priority issue/root cause of animal welfare issues during the community action planning process, it can be helpful to meet with local service providers and communities in separate sessions to come up with indicators/criteria of good quality service. Use these sessions to evaluate service providers where service providers self-evaluate themselves, and communities separately also evaluate them. Come back together to review synthesized anonymised results. This process gives an opportunity for assessing present situations, and challenging assumptions and perceptions of the current quality of service. During this process it should be possible to identify potential ways the community can work together to improve. Consider using Community Score Card (T35) tool to support these discussions.
One of the core competencies required for this is to have strong facilitation skills to smooth discussions during joint sessions and enable a secure, productive, transparent, and accountable discussion, reflection, planning and monitoring process. Sometimes a simple plan may be prepared by the group, based on one or two (maximum of three) very urgent issues for immediate action, or those of particular interest to the members. As the group becomes more confident they may wish to produce a more comprehensive action plan. Whatever the size of the plan, it must be specific. The plan should include:
The welfare issue identified.
Change indicators identified and how they will be monitored
The cause(s) of each issue (based on the root cause analysis).
Action to be taken against each root cause – such as identifying what behaviour or practices need to adopt
Who will undertake each action (clear roles and responsibilities)?
When to perform each action (time frame).
Who will monitor that the action is really taken as agreed?
Any resources or support required to implement these actions
Community action planning leads to two types of action:
Individual action by each member of the group to benefit their own animal. These individual actions, or changes in behaviour, are decided collectively by the group and are monitored by the group.
Collective action by the whole group to solution common animal welfare issues that could otherwise not be solved as effectively through individual action, and which benefit all the animals belonging to group members (e.g. organizing vaccinations or bulk feed purchases at reduced costs, advocating for improving access and/or availability of animal related resources and/or services).
While one of the main benefits of group formation is the potential for collection action, motivation to work together to address their shared interests may not be sufficient in the early stages of group formation, particularly if resource investment is required and the group does not know each other well. It is normal for it to take time for community members to form a cohesive group that is willing and able to work together. However, consider using the following tools which can be helpful in identifying the need and motivation for collective action: Dependency analysis (T12), and Income credit and expenditure analysis (T13). Where costs may be high, forming a savings group or working together for collective purchases or production may help lower costs and make resources for accessible/available for caring for their animals.
It is vital to discuss how implementation of the action plan will be measured and monitored. Monitoring is most effective when group members agree to monitor each other. This brings in peer pressure and peer encouragement for action. As each step in the action plan succeeds, the community facilitators can lead a process of action and reflection to generate further incremental steps towards practical, sustainable improvement in animal welfare. Encourage the group to discuss past experiences or previous efforts made to tackle issues, so that their lessons learned can contribute to any new plan.
Tools and resources helpful to supporting this step include:
Storytelling and guided testimonials can be used to connect with communities and encourage individuals to act. Stories are entertaining, are easy to remember, and allow people to identify with the characters. Stories can move people to action by inspiring and showing solutions to a problem. For the purposes of this guide, this tool has been adapted to animal welfare related stories.
T24a: Closed-Ended Story
A closed-Ended Story is an account of an event (true or imaginary) that is intended to promote a specific animal welfare behaviour to solve a particular animal welfare problem.
Tool purpose:
Time needed:
• To support communities to act on animal welfare issues, by promoting a specific behaviour. • Provide communities with solutions to different animal welfare issues they face in the community.
1.5 - 2 hours.
Materials needed:
pre-preparation of a closed ended story, handouts of the story, flip chart paper
Stages of Behaviour Change: Contemplation Stage, Preparation
Project Support: Participatory Learning and Action Tools
Specific Topics: Community Change Agents
The following are examples of closed ended stories which were created to encourage donkey owners to adopt the desired behaviours of cleaning and drying their animals’ pack saddles before using them with animals (Example 1) and cleaning their donkey’s hooves after work (Example 2). Refer to steps below for instructions on crafting closed ended stories relevant to your own context, using these example stories for reference.
Closed Ended Story Example 1: Caring for animal equipment before use
Bibek was the owner of a donkey who carried bricks by pack in the brick kilns in Nepal. Each day, Bibek would prepare the animal for work. First offering some food and water. Next, looking over his animal and brushing off the excess dust from its body. One day Bibek noticed his donkey flinching in response to the brushing. When Bibek looked more closely at his animal, he noticed a few red, raw wounds. The hairs around those wounds were dirty and matted. It took a few attempts to get the pack saddle on his donkey. Bibek could tell his donkey did not want to wear the saddle, it kept moving away. But they had to go now or risk losing money!
Bibek felt pressure and forced the saddle on. He wished it were not so hard! During a tea break, Bibek asked other workers whether their animals had wounds. They all said yes. The wounds were hard to see during work because they were hidden by the pack saddles. At the end of the day, Bibek took off the sweaty pack saddle and dropped it to the dusty earth. The donkey was left to wander, flies swarming around the sweat and open wounds.
Bibek went to the local shop. Other men were having tea outside the shop, with their donkeys tied up nearby. Bibek noticed these donkeys did not have any wounds. Yet, everyone in this area of Nepal must work in the brick kilns. How did their donkeys not have wounds, when all the donkeys in his village did? He greeted the men and said, 'your donkeys look very good, they have no wounds.' The men explained that there was a time when all their animals had wounds. One day, Hari, a man in their village, made changes to the pack saddles they all used. Hari was also trained in first aid and because of this he understood the importance of keeping the pack saddle clean and dry each day and keeping the donkey's coat clean too. This kept away the flies and reduced any infection.
Because of this, Bibek said 'wow, I would like to meet Hari!' And so, they arranged to meet. After their meeting, Hari supported Bibek's community to make changes to the pack saddles. And why it is important to keep clean the sweaty saddles and animals. Slowly the wounds reduced and went from all the donkeys. Ever since seeing that change, Bibek felt so happy to realise he had helped his whole community and their animals all because he started a discussion about why other donkeys did not have wounds.
Closed Ended Story Example 2: Hoof Cleaning
Amina lives in rural Kenya. She is married and has two daughters. Amina recently began working as a water vendor in the nearby market and entirely relies on her two donkeys for her livelihood. Amina is part of a women's group. Everyone in the group uses donkeys to make an income. Amina looks forward to their meetings. It is so nice to talk about life with others! Her daughters, Neema and Zawadi are responsible for the donkeys before and after the market trips. Neema did not like the donkeys. To her, they are big and strong. Neema had seen the donkeys together. Sometimes the donkeys were calm but sometimes they look to be fighting! It made Lela afraid. Neema is happy to clean the stable, fetch food and water when the donkeys are away but because she is scared, she does not want to go near the donkeys.
Amina had learned at her recent group meeting the importance of picking the dirt and debris out of her donkey’s hooves 1-2 times per day, especially after journeys. Excited with her new knowledge, she told Neema to clean out their donkey’s hooves twice a day, especially after journeys. This made Neema feel very bad. She thought ‘how can I do this when I am afraid of our donkeys?’ Neema told her mother how she felt. Amina then realised she was not sure how to do this new task either and it made her nervous too. Amina knew a man, Baraka who always talked about his donkeys. He values them, they look in great condition and are easy to work with. Shani wondered what his secret was. She asked Baraka to join one of her woman’s group meetings and demonstrate how to clean out her donkey’s hooves so that everyone was able, and nobody was afraid. She brought Neema and Zawadi to the meeting.
Baraka demonstrated how to safely approach the donkey and how to gently ask the donkey to lift its leg. ‘Who would like to try now?’ Baraka asked. He knew from Amina that Neema was afraid. Baraka wanted to show Neema how to work with a donkey gently, safely, and confidently. Baraka said, ‘how about you Neema? I can help you learn that donkeys are very nice and can be easy to work with – you just need to learn how.’ Neema thought to herself that Baraka had made cleaning out the hooves look so easy! Maybe he was a magician! She found the courage to try. Baraka explained how donkeys like to be approached and how to restrain them safely for husbandry tasks. He shows Neema how to ask the animal to lift its leg. Then he showed her how to clean out the hooves. First the front legs, then the back. Baraka explained to Neema that it was perfectly normal to be nervous around donkeys. Once you learn how to move around them and ask them gently to do things, working with a donkey can be very nice.
Baraka checked in on Amina’s family a few weeks later. Ever since his demonstration and mentoring, everyone in the family can gently, safely, and confidently lift the legs and clean out the hooves of the family’s donkeys twice a day. However, Neema always wants to be the one to clean the hooves. She is not afraid anymore and feels proud doing the task and of her donkeys.
Closed-Ended Story
Step 1
You need to prepare a story beforehand. Refer to the closed ended story examples provided above for ideas when adapting your own to suit the context and issues relevant to the community. Consider the following guidelines in developing their own context specific story:
• A closed ended story should aim to identify animal welfare issue and associated problem behaviour. • Highlight the impacts on the animal and its feelings because of the problem, consider including elements about societal perceptions of the problem (and these could be framed positively to encourage desired behaviour (e.g., neighbours’ frown on the poor condition of animal and judge owner), or be reflective of the reflect reality even if negative and a barrier to change), • The Story should link to the consequences for people/owners/target actors whenever feasible, and include the subject identifying problem/developing awareness, reflecting on problem and their role in it, weighing pros and cons of change which should reflect local perceptions. • The story could be crafted in a way that it is used to raise doubts about current beliefs/practices which are hindering willingness to act, and then contemplating potential solutions, deciding, and preparing a course of action, and reflecting on benefits of having made the change. • The story should have a final verdict at the end where all the details are wrapped up and leave the reader knowing how it ends.
Step 2
Ask participants how many of them have recently heard or told a story. What kinds of stories? Where did they hear or tell them? Then explain that in this session, they will talk about one type of story, the closed-ended story, sharing the definition of a closed-ended story with community participants so they are clear on what it is.
Explain to the participants that you will now read a closed-ended story. You may wish to distribute handouts of the story if helpful.
Step 3
Discuss the story in small groups or in plenary by posing questions that promote reflection, learning and action in relation to the story you read. The following questions are provided for general guidance; however, you are encouraged to adapt them and create your own to ensure relevance to your story:
• What was the main problem in the story? • What happened to animal in this story? What symptoms did the animal have? • What did the subject(s) think cause the problem/symptoms? • What did others in the story think about the issue and/or express about tissue? • What was the solution to the problem? • What did we learn from this story? • Do you know anyone who has ever had a similar problem? And how did they solve it? • How could this issue be prevented or resolved in your context? • Could the problem be addressed by doing something like what was done in this story? • What would you do in this scenario? • What commitments to action can you make from the lessons gathered from this story?
Step 4
Record any key insights from the community’s analysis and responses in your project action trackerwhich may be relevant to your project planning and implementation (e.g., community members’ stages of change and identified to support their progress, potential barriers, and motivators to change etc.), and consider adding any key actions communities identify to take within theircommunity action plan as appropriate.
Facilitation Notes
You are encouraged to craft a story that is relevant to your context and which community members can easily relate with and refer to the example stories provided for ideas on how to design a story that promotes reflection, learning and action.
It is recommended to review the example reflection and learning questions provided within the steps and adapt them as needed to ensure they reflect your own story prior to undertaking this activity to save time and ensure the activity runs smoothly and generates effective discussion when implemented.
Consider asking both men and women, and other relevant social or marginalized groups to provide their reflections on stories separately. Different participants may draw different conclusions from the same story that is ok as this reflects their different views and lived experiences of the topic discussed. This is important as it will provide insights on different groups perspectives which can help you better understand these groups and how best to work different groups and tailor your interventions to support them in improving their animals’ welfare.
Next Steps
The tool can be supplemented with T24b. Animal Welfare Before and After Story, to support with determining the next steps to take in addressing the animal welfare situation.
T24b: Animal Welfare Before and After Story
This tool uses a ‘before and after’ story to stimulate discussion about how to change from a situation of poor animal welfare to a situation where welfare is improved.
The Animal welfare story with a gap uses a pair of pictures, to show a ‘before’ situation relating to a working animal and the other showing an ‘after’ scenario where the animal’s welfare has improved.
Tool purpose:
Time needed:
• To elicit discussions on animal welfare issues; showing the situation as it was and how it has improved. • To Understand the Steps to a Desired Change • To help the community come up with strategies for improving animal welfare issues by identifying the steps that would need to be taken to achieve what is represented in the improved picture.
2 hours.
Materials needed:
large paper, note cards, markers, and pre-prepared pictures of animals before and after welfare issue has been resolved.
Stages of Behaviour Change: Contemplation Stage, Preparation
Project Support: Participatory Learning and Action Tools
Specific Topics: Animal Welfare, Feelings and Needs; Animal Husbandry and Management; Animal Handling; Community Change Agents
The illustration below shows a community engaging using the animal welfare before and after story. The discussions include comparison of two different set of welfare situations presented in pictures. The participants are discussing both drawings and filling in the gap in the story by identifying the steps that would need to be taken to achieve what is represented in the improved picture.
Figure T24b Community members discussing welfare.
Animal Welfare Before and After Story
Step 1
For this exercise you need to prepare the pictures beforehand: use drawings or photographs of existing animal management situations or practices in the community.
Step 2
Divide the participants into several small groups and give each group the same set of ‘before’ and ‘after’ pictures. Ask each group to begin by considering the ‘before’ picture, such as a picture of a animal with wounds, and to discuss why the situation has occurred. Next, ask each group to discuss the ‘after’ scene of the improved situation, such as an animal with fewer or no wounds. Then ask the groups what steps they think they might take to get from the ‘before’ to the ‘after’ scenario (in other words how they would fill the gap in the story), what obstacles they might have in their way, and what resources they would need to do this.
Step 3
Bring the different groups together and ask each group to tell the stories they have created. Encourage the groups to weigh the benefits of each suggestion for improving animal welfare and discuss more ways to overcome the obstacles. Use the following questions provided as a general guide during the discussions, however you are encouraged to adapt them and create your own to ensure relevance to your story:
• What steps would you need to act and make this change a reality in your context? • What resources or support exist to support you in taking these steps? If necessary, resources or support are lacking, what alternatives exist or how could you investigate or learn more about how others have overcome this issue or go about securing these resources/support?
Step 4
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
You are encouraged to consider asking both men and women, and other relevant social or marginalized groups to provide their reflections separately.
Facilitate the discussion of ‘before’ and ‘after’ scenarios by ensuring that the animal welfare context is clearly shown.
More interpretations and suggestions can be gathered by dividing the participants into several small focus groups (for example of women and men, young and old people, or other categories) and giving each the same set of pictures. After analysing the drawings, the focus groups can come together to report on their discussions and compare their views.
Ensure to document the experiences of different community groups views as it may be unique to their intersecting identities and lived experiences.
T24c: Open-Ended Story Telling
Open-Ended Story is an account of an event (true or imaginary) that talks about a problem but does not explain what to do about it. In an open-ended story, listeners are asked to generate as many as possible solutions to a complex problem. In the context of animal welfare, the community may be asked to suggest as many as possible solutions to an animal welfare related story.
Tool purpose:
Time needed:
• To promote discussion and support identification of ideas for solution to a complex issue or problem for which no clear strategy has been identified.
1.5 -2 hours.
Materials needed:
pre-preparation of an open-ended story, handouts of the story, large paper, note cards, markers.
The following are example of an open-ended story were created to help communities identify solutions for addressing heat stress in their animals. Refer to steps below for instructions on crafting an open-ended story relevant to your own context, using this example for reference.
Open-ended Story Example: Providing water to animals
Heat stressed animals — all species [behaviour — immediate: cool the animal down; longer-term: provide animals with free access to water without interruption, disturbance, or distraction]
Temperatures are starting to rise. Nobody looked forward to this time of year when temperatures would reach 40 Celsius / 100 Fahrenheit in the day. It is not comfortable for people and animals alike — especially when there are market trips to do. Abha and his wife Kanti set out in the early morning to reach the market by 6am. The trip would take 3 hours in each direction. They travelled by cart, pulled by their horse, who had recently given birth. Her foal either ran alongside or joined the family on the cart.
The marketplace was very busy. There were many families, with livestock and things to sell. The goods for sale were organised in different sections. Abha was selling grain. The marketplace was hot, open without any natural shade. Some families were clever! They brought poles and material to create their own shade. Water was available at a few locations around the market. When Abha and Kanti arrived at the market and began preparations to sell their grain, Kanti noticed their horse breathing very heavy. Her nostrils were flaring/widening, her head was held very low, and her stomach was moving in and out very fast. Kanti also noticed her foal was trying to nurse and struggling. Kanti got distracted by an interested buyer.
An hour later, Kanti noticed their horse was still breathing very heavy. Kanti then remembered seeing bullocks in the village doing the same thing and the local healer insisted the animals were cooled down. It was dangerous the animals were so hot that they were no longer sweating. They needed to recover from the heat outside and heat generated from working. Abha and Kanti wondered what options they had to cool down their horse. They worried they would not be able to travel home if their horse was sick.
Open-Ended Story
Step 1
You need to prepare a story beforehand. Refer to the open ended story example provided above for ideas when adapting your own. An open-ended story should include: • A story should aim to identify animal welfare issue and associated problem behaviour. • Highlight the impacts on the animal and its feelings because of the problem, consider including elements about societal perceptions of the problem (and these could be framed positively to encourage desired behaviour (e.g., neighbours’ frown on the poor condition of animal and judge owner), or be reflective of the reality even if negative and a barrier to change), • The Story should link to the consequences for people/owners/target actors whenever feasible, and include the subject identifying problem/developing awareness, reflecting on problem and their role in it, weighing pros and cons of change which should reflect local perceptions. • The story should not have a final verdict at the end, and allow the listeners to provide what the imagine should be the end of the story and well as opportunity to suggest what needs to be done Once you have the story ready, ask participants how many of them have recently heard or told a story. What kinds of stories? Where did they hear or tell them? Then explain that in this session, they will talk about one type of story, the open-ended story. Then share with the community the definition you prepared in advance of what an open-ended story is and explain the definition. An Open-Ended Story is an account of an event (true or imaginary) that talks about a problem but does not explain what to do about it.
Step 2
Explain to the participants that you will now read an open-ended story. See an example of the story in figure T24c below. Distribute the story Handout: Open-Ended Story. Read the story with the participants. Discuss the story in small groups or in plenary by posing the questions for the story you read:
Step 3
The discussions can be guided by the following questions. • What were the main problems in the story? What went wrong? • How could these problems have been prevented? • Have people in your community ever had these kinds of problems? • How can we prevent this problem?
Step 4
Ask participants when they might want to use a closed-ended story and when might they want to use an open-ended story. Allow participants time to answer. Summarize the discussion in your project action tracker and follow up with the community later if/when you start action planning together.
Facilitation Notes
The stories provided are examples, and you are encouraged to craft a story that is relevant to your context and which community members can easily relate with. You may refer to the example stories provided for ideas on how to design a story that promotes reflection, learning and action.
It is recommended to review the example reflection and learning questions provided within the steps and adapt them as needed to ensure they reflect your own story prior to undertaking this activity to save time and ensure the activity runs smoothly and generates effective discussion when implemented.
Consider asking both men and women, and other relevant social or marginalized groups to provide their reflections on stories separately. Different participants may draw different conclusions from the same story that is ok as this reflects their different views and lived experiences of the topic discussed. This is important as it will provide insights on different groups perspectives which can help you better understand these groups and how best to work different groups and tailor your interventions to support them in improving their animals’ welfare.
This resource includes three example trackers you may wish to use to support your work. These are designed for community engagement staff, as a way to record key discussions from community visits, track progress, and capture outcomes. Using trackers will help you to:
Be accountable to the communities you work with
Provide the support requested by communities during your visits
Keep track of actions and ensure that they are completed on time
Evidence progress and requests for further support from your organisation or potential partner organisations
Report to donors more easily
Each of these trackers are suggestions only, and should be adapted and used as is appropriate for your team and context. It may not be appropriate or required to use some of these trackers for all projects so you can pick and choose as is helpful for your work.
Approaches for Working With Communities: Community Development Approach, Community Engagement Approach, Societal Outreach and Campaigns Approach
Project Support: Facilitator Resources, Documentation and Reporting
1. Team Action Tracker
The Team Action Tracker keeps a record of actions to be taken by staff/partner staff teams to support identified animal welfare issues. The tracker is informed by PLA activities and directly supports the community action plan.
The tracker should be populated and updated by community engagement staff. It helps to track which animal welfare issues were identified, using which PLA tools, and captures the follow up actions to be taken by the team to both support the community action plan.
Invite a vet to sensitize on colic (1st priority) during next community meeting.
2. Project/Regional Action Tracker
The Project/Regional Action Tracker is designed to collate information from across communities to inform project/regional planning. Information included within the tracker is populated with information taken from PLA activities and community action plans from within the project/regional operational area. The Project/Regional Action Tracker can support with identifying the scale of different issues, tracking different actions/strategies planned, and recording ideas for actions to take/improvement which should be further explored. The goal is to help teams keep track of outcomes of activities with communities for greater strategic coordination and support for planning and development of projects. The utility of this resource will depend on the scale of the project/programme and may not be needed in all project contexts.
Animal Welfare Issue
Regions & communities where issues was identified as priority
Key actions / strategies to take
Person responsible
Timeline / Deadline
Additional actions / Ideas for improvement
Status / Update
Feeding
Halaba: 17 communities
Regional training on proper feeding practices scheduled for 30th May 2019
Drought (water shortage)
Dodola: 14 communities
· Speaking to WaterAid about opportunities to link communities with water savings programmes
3. Staff Action Tracker
The Staff Action Tracker is designed to support community engagement staff to document their community visits, activities, and action points for follow up.
Staff Name: Community/site:
Visit/ Meeting Date
Number of participants and equines targeted
Community engagement activities Key topics/issues discussed (incl. follow up on progress of action points/results identified in previous meeting/visit)
Identified action points and results expected to be achieved by community Persons responsible + expected achievement date
Identified actions for staff Person responsible + expected achievement date
Action point: 1. Sensitization on hoof care & possible handling for women 2. Follow up on how sharing of stable cleaning activities are going Staff responsible: Expected achievement date:
07/06/2019
# Participants: 10
# Equines:
T15 Cost-benefit analysis – not over-loading · Implementation costs · Cost on animal · Cost on HH if adopted or not · Benefits of mixed feed
Action point/result expected: 1. Reduce from 10 quantal/3 trips to 8 quantal/4 trips 2. Buy wheat bran in bulk to reduce cost (10 birr to 8.6 birr / kg) 3. Focus on balance loading Person responsible: Fanos & Azamach Expected achievement date: Meet to discuss in one week
Action point: 1. Check with animal welfare team that reduction in amount over more trips is good welfare 2. Make plan to collect money for bulk purchase of feed 3. Support selection of money managers 4. Provide support/training on cart balancing & feed mixing 5. Sensitizing shop keeper about over-loading 6. Identify feed sellers who are willing to sell in bulk for reduced cost 7. Revisit for support planning in 15 days Staff responsible: Expected achievement date:
07/06/2019
# Participants:
# Equines:
T14 Group inter-loaning
Action point/result expected: 1. Carry out activity in smaller groups
Action point: 1. Evaluate seed money strategy – focus seed money on direct equine-benefited activities
07/06/2019
# Participants: 10
# Equines?
T15 Cost-benefit analysis – not over-loading: · Implementation costs · Cost on animal · Cost on HH if adopted or not · Benefits of mixed feed
Action point/result expected: 4. Reduce from 10 quantal/3 trips to 8 quantal/4 trips 5. Buy wheat bran in bulk to reduce cost (10 birr to 8.6 birr / kg) 6. Focus on balance loading
Person responsible: Fanos & Azamach
Expected achievement date: Meet to discuss in one week
Action point: 1. Check with animal welfare technical support staff to evaluate potential welfare implications of community’s proposed action. 2. Revisit for support planning in 15 days
Staff responsible: TBD, consult with AHM and UK AW team
2.3.1 Develop a project operating plan informed by community action plan(s)
The community’s members have by this stage prioritised their animal welfare issues and identified the desired changes they wish to make. Utilize all evidence gleaned through this community action planning process, including the results from the community participatory welfare needs assessment, to explore meaningful interventions for addressing any COM-B related barriers and/or motivators to change that your organization may wish to address and monitor. For example, this could include interventions to improve the enabling environment for community animal health workers or undertaking societal level outreach and awareness raising campaigns with the aim of generating improved value of animals and to shift social norms to support the desired changes in practices that have been prioritized by communities. Consider using the following facilitator resources to support your planning process: 12. Behaviour Change Planning Table, 13. Guidance on Identifying Effective Behaviour Change Strategies. It is important to note that the planning process should include a plan for withdrawal of support and exit and consult with community members about what support they envision will be required to do this effectively.
Refer to any notes taken of key findings and insights identified through PLA activities and discussions undertaken with communities to inform this process, referring to you records within the Project Action Tracker resource if used, adding any additional information as needed.
It is important proper policies and standard operating procedures are in place for the project, including necessary safeguarding measures that protect and create an enabling environment for potentially discriminated and vulnerable groups (e.g. to take on leadership roles within their communities, women as change agents etc.). This includes ensuring sufficient capability within the implementing team to uphold these measures and effectively fulfil their roles and responsibilities to the project without issue.
2.3.2 Develop project monitoring plan and conduct baseline assessment
Identify Indicators of Success
Now that you have identified what the project aims to achieve through its planned activities, you can develop your monitoring plan by first identifying indicators of success. Indicators may be quantitative or qualitative but need to be measurable which you can ensure by designing them so that they are SMART –specific, measurable, achievable, realistic, and time-bound.
When thinking about what to measure, consider the following:
Impact Indicators: Impact level indicators may be focused on how animal welfare has improved because of the project, or benefits perceived by the community as a result of the project/improving animal welfare. Examples of impact level indicators to consider may include:
- How animal welfare has improved in terms of the five domains, and/or specific indicators of welfare issues you would expect to see resolved because of the adoption of desired behaviours.
- Benefits perceived by communities as a result of improving animal welfare/ the project.
Outcome indicators: outcome indicators enable you to determine the extent to which project activities have achieved the desired result. Examples of outcome level indicators to consider may include:
- The extent to which community group members practice the desired behaviours, such as “XX% men or women animal carers clean their animal’s shelter daily” (refer to Behaviour Change Planning Table step 1 and 2) [20].
- Indicators that enable assessing the extent to which pre-conditions/barriers to practicing and sustaining the desired behaviours have been addressed e.g. access to and/or availability of quality animal health services, cognitive variables such as attitude and knowledge change (refer to Behaviour Change Planning Table step 4 [20].
- Indicators of the self-sufficiency and effective governance of the community group e.g. savings and loan repayments, peer-peer support, and ability to work together on collective actions and/or advocate to meet their needs.
- In addition to the indicators above, it is also helpful to consider assessing the following [20]:
• Why people practice the promoted behaviours? Such findings provide extremely useful lessons for further promotion of these behaviours in the existing or planned projects.
• Why do people not practice the promoted behaviours? Such findings are crucial for re-designing your strategy to address the factors which prevent people from practicing the behaviours
Output indicators: indicators related to output should enable your project to assess how well project activities were implemented, as opposed to measure the resultant changes that emerge because of activities. Refer to the activities you plan to implement and develop indicators for each activity (step 4 of the Behaviour Change Planning Table). Examples of output level indicators include:
- Total number of male/female community members attending educational or training event.
- Total number of trainings provided on animal welfare.
- Total number of educational posters or murals displayed publicly.
Once monitoring indicators are identified, the next step is to select the method of data collection (e.g. KIIs, FGDs, Surveys, secondary sources of data, photos etc.), and develop appropriate data collection tools as needed, as well as define your sampling parameters. Consider the following when selecting your data collection methods and tools:
Think about where you may be able to rely on existing data sources or use participatory monitoring methods (e.g. Animal Welfare Transect Walk, records of treatments or observations of animal health service providers), and where the project will be responsible for monitoring.
Feedback from members of the target audience can be used for monitoring and evaluation purposes. Consider establishing feedback mechanisms or proactively reaching out to different demographics within your target audience or engaging a small group of proactive engaged target audience for their opinions and suggestions about the content and value of communications, and effectiveness of the project and whether it has affected their animal care and management practices.
If considering self-reporting methods for capturing attitudes and attitudinal change (i.e. members of the target audience report on change), responses may be distorted by the respondents’ wish to give socially acceptable or desirable answers. To overcome this, you can triangulate data by obtaining information from 2 or 3 sources and use observation to give a broad perspective of the effectiveness of the programme.
Ensure whatever monitoring methods and tools you select will enable you to collect data from/about relevant demographics within the target audience so you can assess the extent to which your outreach activities have equally reached and been effective proportionately across demographics. This is particularly important to assess to ensure your project has effectively understood and tailored its approach to address the different realities of target group demographics, and does not further contributed to the marginalization of potentially vulnerable groups.
It is important to strike a balance between sufficient sample size to evaluate project success, ensuring inclusion of relevant representative demographics within the target audience (e.g. men, women, or other marginalized groups), and not overburdening the project. Think about how data will be used and by whom and aim to sample sufficiently to suite your purposes. For example, the understanding needed by your project requires a differently level of data reliability and certainty than would publishing results in a scientific paper.
Applying a mix of quantitative and qualitative methods of data collection gives a more in depth understanding for evaluating project success.
Figure 39: Examples of Triangulating Data Sources to Assess Project Success
Determine Monitoring Timelines and Responsibilities
Once you have identified your monitoring methods and tools, decide how often you are going to collect data on the different indicators, who is responsible for collecting and analysing it, and how will the results be shared, including both unexpected and undesirable outcomes. Consider the following recommendations when deciding when to collect data [20]:
At the project’s start: conduct a baseline survey of the projects’ selected impact and outcome indicators
Throughout the project: consider assessing relevant outcome and output indicators to monitor the progress of activity implementation and achievement of results
At the end of the project: conduct an end line assessment to measure impact and outcome indicators and compare this to the results of your baseline assessments. It is recommended the end line assessment also assess the main reasons why people (did not) adopt the promoted behaviours.
6 months- 2 years after the project: replicate the end line assessment of impact and outcome indicators to assess the extent to which changes have been sustained after the project.
It is important to ensure that whatever monitoring indicators, methods, and frequencies are selected, that results can be used to promote reflection, learning and adaptive management for both community members and the project throughout the course of the project cycle. Collective reflection and experience are a powerful tool for learning and change, and effective learning and reflection processes can foster motivation and a sense of self-efficacy and ownership of change amongst community members. It is therefore helpful to create opportunities for community groups to review monitoring results to:
Support their reflection, learning about successes and challenges, and changing trends.
Promote transparency and accountability in terms of what the project is achieving.
Improve motivation for change through a celebration of successes and identify where more effort or adaptations in action plans are needed.
Tools and resources helpful to supporting this step include:
