manual for social impact assessment of land-based ... - Forest Trends

Advice to facilitators of the MSC method includes:
• Make sure everyone understand the approach.
• Make sure everyone understands and 'buys-in' to why this approach is being used and what
purpose it will serve. If people are going to put time, energy and knowledge into it they should
know why, what it contributes to, and what will be done with their stories.
• Try to make it a team/group effort - something which 'we' will do together - rather than a topdown
effort in which people have to comply and produce something
• Be very clear about the domain of change and how it is defined. The question you ask is really
important for the stories you will get. Make sure the question is clear and to the point of what
you want to find out. It may be good to test it out on someone to make sure what you are
asking is what you want and that it is understood by others the same way.
• It is sometimes good to have an example to share with others to give them a kick-start; but
beware - you may also get replicas of your example with certain details changed. It is up to
you to decide what will work with the group you are working with.
• You need to handle the selection of 'best stories' process carefully. Everyone who has written
and shared an MSC story will feel attached to their story, and their effort and story should
always be respected. It is necessary to understand your group and find a way to instill a team
feeling about choosing the change stories which are 'best' for the project.
• Stories can still go through a process of discussion, revision and refinement before being
finalized - both before submission and even after selection. The process can help to make an
even better story around a key change identified. After all we aren't all good at storytelling
and writing, and there may be differences in capacity, literacy and language which must be
taken into account.
• While MSC is associated with and used for monitoring, review and evaluation processes, you
can get a lot more out of it if you link MSC and the stories produced to other parts of the
project. MSC and the stories produced can be linked to communication, dissemination, media,
and future planning activities to name a few.
The above description is based on: http://www.mande.co.uk/docs/MSCGuide.pdf, and
http://www.odi.org.uk/rapid/tools/Toolkits/Communication/MSC.html
Social Impact Assessment of Land-Based Carbon Projects (1.0) – Part II | 67