DESIGNING PROJECTS IN A RAPIDLY CHANGING WORLD

BOX D
Linking environmental and development benefits in the goal
Contributed by Mohamed Bakarr, GEF Secretariat
Designing and implementing projects in complex
social-ecological systems demands careful
alignment of environmental and developmental
benefits. This applies at most scales and will ensure
that opportunities for positive synergies are identified,
while potential negative trade-offs avoided.
The chosen goals must take into account many
interests and needs within the targeted agro-ecological
context. For example, in sustainable land
and forest management, the goal could be to
improve and maintain ecosystem services (healthy
soils, water flow, vegetative cover, and agrobiodiversity)
in ways that underpin rural livelihoods (e.g.
crop and livestock production, improved access
to energy, and water for consumptive use). In
landscapes where such links are well established,
the local stakeholders will have a vested interest
in approaches that deliver these multiple benefits,
and consequently use resilience thinking to work
collectively toward the project goal.
The Food Security IAP has a strong focus on safeguarding
natural resources—water, soils, trees,
and genetic resources—as the basis of sustainability
and resilience in food production systems.
It aims to bring a holistic perspective to the
management of natural resources in smallholder
agriculture, since smallholders account for more
than 70% of agricultural production in Sub-Saharan
Africa. Within this broad and ambitious
framework, all projects under the IAP program
are asked to embody actions that are holistic and
integrated, with goals that are relevant to the
local, national or regional context.
At local level, the sustainability and resilience of
production systems relies on the efficient management
of natural capital –soil, water, vegetation,
and genetic resources – by farmers and local communities.
The IAP therefore enables scaling-up of
appropriate interventions for soil and water conservation,
diversification of production systems
and integrated natural resource management in
agro-pastoral systems. These interventions complement
efforts to increase access to improved
drought-tolerant seeds, better management of
soils and other inputs, adjustment of planting
periods, cropping portfolios and the management
of on-farm agrobiodiversity
At national level, the program will promote creation
or strengthening of institutional frameworks
which enhance collective action on integrated
approaches in smallholder agriculture. This will
increase the prospects of combining at scale the
multitude of successful efforts by smallholders to
integrate management of land, water, trees and
genetic resources. At the regional and sub-regional
levels, an institutional framework will be
promoted for engagement with the main development
partners, scientific institutions, international
organizations and economic agencies.
• Identify and challenge assumptions that humans
understand and control the system. This avoids
‘blueprint solutions’ that resist change and try to
“stabilize” the old, failing system
• Identify tendencies in donor–recipient relationships
that may cause perverse incentives and add to
problems they were meant to solve.
Step 4 Identify stakeholders and governance structures
relevant to the phase of project cycle
It is standard practice to identify stakeholders who
need to be involved in the current phase of any
project. However, resilience considerations place a
much greater emphasis on thinking across scales and
time, and on identifying a wider set of stakeholders
who may influence or have responsibility for implementing
the project outcomes. Therefore:
• Develop a list of stakeholders who should be involved
in each phase of the project cycle, recognizing
that this will be revised in the Engagement and
Governance component. Most importantly at this
point, consider which stakeholders will enable you
to carry out the Theory of Change steps credibly.
• Consider options for governance structures.
RAPTA guidelines for project design 41