Phase 3: Co-conctruct the assessment
At this stage, researchers and stake- holders tend to part ways and go back each to their sectorial activities. We propose here a methodology to keep the assessment process participatory all along the way.
Phase 3: Co-conctruct the assessment
Keep stakeholders involved in the assessment tools and model development process
Step 10 > Build scenarios
The guidelines for scenarios was developed during the VALMER project by Herry et al.
Scenarios can be developed either as a standalone participatory assessment process or to feed in the model development. It can also be used in parallel of the development of models. Scenario building is an efficient engagement tool and is best developed in stakeholder workshops. The method is simple: it invites the “audience” to react to a plausible set of events in the future or to build the future events themselves and then test these against a range of criteria.
Step 11 > Gather focus groups
A focus group or discussion group is a way of studying social perceptions, different from one on one interviews and that also reveals the interaction in the group. In the case of participatory assessment and participatory modelling, it can be a useful technique to gather stakeholders from the same sector to allow discussions that might not take place when all sectors are represented and if the considered issue raises conflicts. Also, to involve actors in the co-construction of models and go into more technical or specific details, working with a smaller group can be more efficient.
Step 12 > : Gather socio- economic and environmental data
Many methods can be used to assess environmental issues. They methods belong to either the natural or social sciences, and some of them attempt to combine concepts and principles from both fields.
Socio-economic and environmental data help to understand the social and economic impacts and benefits derived from socio-ecosystems.
Step 13 > Build models and assessment tools
In this step, we propose a general description of participatory modelling. Participatory modelling is one aspect of stakeholder engagement when actors participate in the design and development of conceptual or simulation models.
The model development should stop at the level necessary to address the project objectives identified during the triage.
Step 14 > Wrap up the assessment
To promote understanding, sharing and appropriation, it is essential to use expression and representation tools that mobilise these different channels: stories, graphs, maps, role plays, brainstorming on post-its…. The outputs must be carefully designed so as not to be misinterpreted and used out of context by end users. These tools should favour visual and animated indicators rather than classical graphs. The hypothesis taken in the formulation should also be advertised and clearly documented.
The objective is not to produce a single representation for- mat but rather a collection of different perspectives on the issue under consideration to feed everyone’s thinking. The uncertainty inherent in different assessment approaches should also be part of the communication of results.
Step 15 > Celebrate
The importance of this Celebration step is inspired and adapted from the Dragon Dreaming approach (https://dragondreaming.org) and it makes it different from many other project management processes. Here, celebration is not a task of the noisy extrovert, but rather part of reflection, recognition of effort and acknowledgment.
It is about acknowledging everything that went well in the project and everything that did not go so well. Celebration is also an important process that reconnects the doing of a project back to the brainstorming first phase.
Community building is encouraged through Celebration.
Photo: © David Mark / Pixabay |
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