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Delivering Sustainable Change:

TREE AID’s Approach

June 2012

Delivering Sustainable Change: TREE AID’s Approach

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1.1 Sustainability and our Values

Our values underpin this policy and our approach to delivering sustainable

change. It is worth restating them here as each is important in inspiring our

approach to sustainability:

• Our work changes lives. We never, ever compromise on the quality of

the work that we do or the honesty with which we do it.

• We are inspired by the people we support. We strive to inspire others

with what we do.

• We believe everyone has something to add. We want to understand

what others think, feel and do.

• Actions count. We want every penny and every moment to make a

difference. We don’t waste time making excuses or blaming others.

We count on each other to reflect, act, learn, share and improve.

• People trust us to do something wonderful in a complex world. We

want to tell them what we achieve in simple terms, without hiding

behind jargon.

1. Background

1.1 What are we talking about when we talk about “sustainable change”?

TREE AID’s mission is to help villagers living in the drylands of Africa unlock the

potential of trees to reduce poverty and protect the environment.

In rural areas of sub Saharan Africa, poverty and environmental decline is

inextricably linked. We believe that addressing both these issues as different

elements of the same problem, is critical to the long-term well-being of both

people and planet.

At TREE AID, success is about improving rural people’s well-being. At the same

time, we want to ensure they are able to invest in their environment, building

its richness and capacity to support people not just for today but for

generations to come. At TREE AID, sustainable change is about ensuring that the positive results of

our work in moving people out of poverty and dependency are felt long after

project activities are finished.

We want rural communities to be in a position to maintain and build on the

results achieved during the lifetime of a TREE AID project.

We believe that sustainable change is fostered by learning and sharing.

1.2 Why does this concern us?

Since we started work in 1987, TREE AID has been concerned with growing

community self-reliance and reducing poverty in Africa based on a long-term

investment in environmental improvement. From the very start, we have

sought to leave future generations and ecosystems in a more secure state

than they are now.

It is important that any investment we make through our programmes delivers

that kind of improvement. Ultimately, our success will be judged not by end of


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project reports, but by the legacy that is left long after project activities have

finished.

1.3 What is the purpose of this paper?

There will always be circumstances outside of our control that will influence

the success of our projects, especially in the long-term, after the intervention

of TREE AID and its partners has finished. However, we know that by thinking

carefully about sustainable change at all stages of our work, we create the

greatest chance of securing a legacy of positive change.

This paper outlines the areas we think are most important to ensure that

change is sustained and built upon. It describes what we currently do to

ensure sustainability in each of those areas. Over the next year, we will collect

examples to illustrate our approach.

The paper is intended as:

• a guide to TREE AID staff, providing a point of reference for

programme design, development and delivery;

• a communication of principles and approach to stakeholders,

including supporters, partners and beneficiaries, as well as to our own

staff;

• a point of reference for assessing our performance and for

organisational learning and improvement.

1.4 What are the main aspects of our approach to sustainable change?

We believe that considering sustainability across the whole of our programme

and through the project cycle is critical to delivering sustainable change. Our

approach is to consider how sustainability can be ensured in:

• strategy and programming;

• project development;

• project delivery;

• managing project exit and follow-up;

• learning and sharing knowledge.

This paper considers each of these areas in turn. It explains our approach as

well as outlining roles within the organisation. We recognise that in some areas

we have progress to make. Where that is the case, it is clearly indicated.

By the end of 2012-13, we will have added to this paper with examples of our

approach in practice.

1.5 What are our indicators of sustainability?

The indicators below describe the kinds of changes that show us that we

have reached a point of sustainable change in each of our programming

areas. They are what we are working towards achieving through our “theory

of change” described in Section 3.2 below. In some cases they are

progressive. Our individual project cycles may work to enable initial changes

before shifting focus to new needs that emerge from these positive changes.


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Access and Rights

• All forest users have a voice in decisions about forest

management. The needs and interests of women, nomadic

people, farmers, forest entrepreneurs and others are heard and

can be shown to have been responded to when decisions are

made about the trees and forests that they depend upon.

• Local forest management agreements support a balance of

reforestation, sustainable fuel wood collection, grazing and

sustainable Non Timber Forest Product (NTFP) supply for

community based forest enterprises.

• Local authorities work with communities to protect and manage

forests. Local government and traditional authorities are aware

of and can explain their responsibilities to communities. They

have the capacity to work with local people to agree forest

management agreements that protect the forest resource as

well as meeting the needs of diverse forest users.

• National forestry policy respects the rights of poor forest users.

The national policy environment actively supports local forest

management and supports stable and secure rights to trees for

poor people

Enterprise and Value Chain Support

• Viable enterprises support sustainable livelihoods. We define a

viable enterprise as:

o making a profit over at least the last 2 years;

o having a viable business plan, which includes evidence of

market analysis, analysis of production costs, production,

price and quality targets,

o analysis of investment need and access to capital (often

through credit) to meet these.

• Entrepreneurs plan for resource sustainability. This includes

participating in local forest governance structures, sustainably

collecting the resources their businesses depend upon and

actively supporting the planting, protecting and management of

the local tree resource.

• Farmer-entrepreneurs are connected to and represented in

product value chains. Smallholder farmers are developing strong

and more equal relationships with buyers and have access to the

information that they need to be active in the markets their

products are traded in.

• Non-timber forest products offer an additional source of income

for rural families and communities. Individual, household and

community livelihoods are less dependent on crops that may fail


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or on other income-generating activities that are damaging to

either environment, health or wellbeing (like gold mining or

migration for work in the sex trade).

Natural Resource Management

• 70% survival rate of trees planted.

• People are skilled in and committed to protecting and planting

trees. For the long-term potential of trees to be fulfilled, people

need to know how to care for them and to want to do so

because they understand and value their benefits. We work with

people to impart these skills and to reinforce the importance of

trees for sustainable, rural livelihoods.

• Evidence of assisted natural regeneration being successfully

practiced. A conservative estimate is that each smallholder

farmer trained in assisted natural regeneration will successfully

support at least 50 trees to come to maturity in their lifetime.

• Bushfires are dramatically reduced. In many of the communities

where we work on bushfire prevention these unplanned and

devastating burns are entirely prevented by community bushfire

management.

• Compatible agro-forestry techniques are practiced. Planting and

caring for crops and trees together can improve soils, prevent

erosion and increase yields.

• Ecosystems services are recognised. The value of trees to

watershed management, biodiversity, soil conservation and

carbon capture are recognised by national governments and

international agencies. This recognition results in value being

assigned through payments to poor people to maintain

appropriate tree cover.

• Regreening! The cumulative and long-term effect of our natural

resource management work in the regeneration of forests and

trees in dryland areas, improving the environment, preventing

desertification and, crucially, offering improved livelihoods for

poor, rural people.

Note: Food Security and Nutrition is a new programming area and we

will develop these indicators as part of our learning as this work

progresses.

2. Sustainability in Strategy and Programming

We believe the starting point for delivering sustainable change is having a

clear organisational strategy that analyses and describes:

• the need we are addressing and the problems and dilemmas

associated with that need;


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• our specific role and the value that we can bring as an organisation;

• our “theory of change” or how we believe our activities will deliver the

outcome we intend. This is also sometimes called a “logic model”,

“impact pathway” or “programme theory”1;

• clearly defined measures of success and an operational plan that

outlines how we will deliver success;

• a realistic assessment of what resources we will need to support the

delivery of that success.

• how we review and learn from our experience.

The following statements describe qualities of our approach to strategy and

programme development that we believe enhance our chances of

delivering sustainable change. We assess the robustness of our approach

against our ability to respond positively to these statements.

“One head does not contain all the wisdom”: getting views from as many

of those with an interest in our work as possible is important for developing

strong insights on what might work.

It is important that everyone in our organisation understands and has

contributed to developing our strategy.

We use language that is simple and easily understood by people with

different expertise, language, culture and background. This gives us the

best chance of reaching a shared understanding of how we want to

change.

Power can play a part in limiting our knowledge. We actively seek to

lessen the impact of power and ensure that every person with an interest

in our projects has a voice that is heard and responded to.

Understanding the past stories of our organisation and of our stakeholder

organisations – their successes, dilemmas, challenges - is crucial to

unlocking potential and to building and sustaining future change.

Delivering sustainability requires an understanding of the interaction

between policy and institutions, social, cultural and economic issues, and

the challenges of expertise, capacity and know-how.

Strategy provides a strong framework for building alignment and

understanding. We do not think strategies provide a “blueprint” for

delivering sustainable change. We expect the unexpected and

constantly reassess what we are doing in the light of that.

We actively set aside time throughout the year to reflect on how we are

1 This is described in more detail in section 3.2 below.


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performing against our strategy and to consider what we do well and

where we might improve.

Delivering change at the community level is affected by the capacity of

local authorities and other local agencies to support change. It is also

affected by the institutional and policy environment created at national

government level.

We cannot deliver the change we are aiming for alone. We need to

have strong and influential relationships with external agencies.

3. Sustainability in Designing and Developing Projects

This section outlines the ways in which we seek to foster sustainable change in

the design of the projects that TREE AID delivers.

3.1 Beginning with community need

Our projects answer needs identified by the poor, rural women and men that

we work with. In addition, we work with:

• central government,

• policymakers

• local and regional authorities,

• private sector actors and

• strategic partners

All of these have a role to play in identifying the causes of poverty and

meeting the needs of poor rural communities. We balance the needs and

demands of current stakeholders and beneficiaries with those of future

generations. Environmental sustainability is at the core of our work.

3.2 Theory of Change

We work with communities and partners who have identified needs that TREE

AID’s expertise and support can help meet. The theory of change of our

programme is described in more detail in our Organizational Strategy. Our ‘2

for 1 approach’ links technical know how about the potential of trees, with

the motivation that communities have to transform their livelihoods with trees

and support for the secure access to them that they need in order to do so.

This leads to social, economic and environmental change. This diagram

illustrates our approach:


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Our theory of change drives our approach and requires that we continue to

develop our expertise in:

• access and rights;

• enterprise support; and

• natural resource management.

• We are also building our programming in food security and nutrition as

we learn more about how communities can use trees to improve their

nutritional outcomes and household food security.

We tailor our expertise to the contexts and communities where we work. We

ensure that each project has a clear and verifiable approach to delivering

sustainable change (Section 5.2 gives more detail about ways of verifying

sustainable change within each of our programme areas).

3.3 Participatory design

In designing projects, we involve:

• the intended beneficiaries

• those responsible for ensuring people’s rights are met (called “duty-

bearers” and normally government and government agencies)

• our partners

• other organisations with a stake in the issue being addressed

In doing so, we ensure that experience and approaches already successfully

applied elsewhere are appropriately tailored to new contexts. This builds on


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what we know but recognises the uniqueness of each place we work. Where

conflicts of interest exist, we seek to resolve these fairly in support of the needs

of poor rural communities.

Our projects are inclusive. We do not discriminate against beneficiaries on

any grounds. The majority of the direct beneficiaries of our projects are

illiterate and live in extreme poverty. In many cases, women are those who

most depend upon and use trees. They are often those who suffer rural

poverty most acutely. Therefore many of our projects work with greater

numbers of women than men.

3.4 Stakeholder expectations

We are committed to being clear and transparent about what we expect to

achieve in our work with all those involved in our projects. We are also

committed to being clear and transparent about what our various roles will

be and how we will resolve any conflicts that may arise. We work together to

reconcile conflicting expectations in line with the needs of poor rural

communities.

3.5 Thinking long-term

We know that positive change is a long-term and multi-dimensional process.

Trees offer long-term solutions. They require commitment and vision as well as

investments in future community and environmental well-being. Our theory of

change links natural resource management, enterprise, food security and

nutrition and forest governance work in a holistic approach. Together these

enable a community’s investment in trees to deliver the greatest future

returns. However, we know that for this transformation to happen a

community may need different kinds of support at different times. They will

need this support across a longer time period than those often allowed in the

3-5 year project cycle commonly adopted in development practice.

We do not think of our engagement with communities in terms of a single

project cycle but in terms of the long-term potential of trees to change lives

and improve the environment as articulated in our theory of change. Within

each of our programming areas we have developed indicators to help us

know when our support and interventions are likely to have become self-

sustaining. These are outlined in Section 5 on “Exiting Projects”.

4. Sustainability in Delivering Projects

This section outlines the ways in which we seek to foster sustainable change

within each of our projects.

4.1 Working with partners

We work with a range of partners to deliver our projects, each of whom adds

unique knowledge, skills and expertise. By working together and sharing what

we know, we are able to meet project objectives and beneficiary needs. We

also build the collective knowledge and support which underpins positive,


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long-term change. Our approach to partnership is outlined in TREE AID’s

Partnership Policy.

4.2 Working with community structures

In delivering our projects, we work with and support the development of

community structures. These can include traditional authorities, community

savings and loan groups, forest and environmental management groups and

women’s groups. What they have in common is that they are all structures

made up of, led by and accountable to community members. We believe it

is important to engage with and develop these structures as they are an

important, sustainable mechanism for securing long-term change. They often

become responsible for ongoing activities once project support ends.

4.3 Working with beneficiaries

Our projects transfer knowledge, skills, confidence, capacity and resources to

individual beneficiaries. These in turn enable those beneficiaries to make

positive changes in their lives, communities and environment. These

communities are the ultimate owners of sustainable change. Like all of us,

they are responsible to future generations to manage their lives and resources

sustainably. Our beneficiaries are among the poorest people and live in some

of the harshest conditions on our planet. They are active, inspiring and

innovative and with our support, they achieve extraordinary things.

4.4 Working with government and local authorities

Government, from central level, to regional and local authorities are

accountable to the individuals and communities that we work with. They are

duty-bearers and are responsible for creating an environment in which

sustainable, positive change can be created. We recognize that they are

often constrained by resources, capacity and political will. We work with

governments, policymakers and authorities to create policy environments

that support positive change through legislation, policies and budgets that

encourage and provide support sustainable livelihoods for poor, rural

smallholder farmers.

5. Sustainability in Exiting Projects

This section outlines our approach to sustainability when projects come to an

end.

5.1 Long-term interventions

As stated in Section 3.5 above, we recognize that delivering sustainable

change in the poorest communities takes time. We also acknowledge that it

is not always possible whatever safeguards for sustainability we put in place.

We recognise that needs and priorities are likely to change along the way.

Our support for communities evolves with their needs. We normally work with

communities on a sequence of interventions to support their development


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beyond the duration of a single project cycle. This means we often work on a

range of different projects in a single community or region.

We are honest that sometimes there are lulls in support as we work to

generate resources and consolidate learning. Nevertheless, where tree-

based interventions can help, we are committed to work with communities

over the medium to long-term to achieve their objectives for sustainable

change.

5.2 Indicators of Sustainability

These indicators are described in detail in Section 1.5 above. They are

measures of our success in delivering positive and sustainable change. These

indicators feed into our programme design and, in discussion with

communities and partners, inform our project planning. The timing of our exit

from working in individual communities is based around the presence of these

indicators, the meeting of objectives agreed with communities, new and

changing needs relevant to our programme of work and our ability to

generate resources to continue working within a given community. Though

we are aware that it will not always be possible, we work hard to ensure that

the relevant indicators of change described above are present before we

stop working with a community.

5.3 Post project follow-up

The monitoring, evaluation and learning processes that we undertake are

described in the next section (6). Where possible we endeavour to undertake

post-project follow-up work. This is where we return to communities and

project sites several years after our formal interventions have finished. We

assess the degree to which the indicators of sustainable change are still

present. We also assess how they might have changed as sustainable

change in our programming areas has truly become owned by communities.

Securing resources for post-project follow-up is extremely difficult. This means

we have not been able to do post-project evaluations systematically in the

past. This is an area where we will actively seek future investment from donors.

6. Sustainability from Learning and Sharing

Learning from our work to improve our programming and sharing the impact

of our work with others are both crucial parts of our strategy for sustainable

change. We learn and share in the following ways:

6.1 Assessing our impact

We design a monitoring and evaluation plan for every project that we

implement. Project monitoring tracks our progress against the objectives that

we agree with partners and communities at the beginning of any project. It

allows us to address any problems early on, to adapt to changing

circumstances and to modify any approaches that are not working.


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Evaluation allows us to assess the impact of our work at the end of a project,

and, often, at interim points throughout the project. This evaluation is usually

done externally so that we can get as objective a picture as possible of the

changes that our work delivers and the impact that this has had on people’s

lives.

Both processes enable us to learn what works well and to change what does

not. The evidence from external evaluations gives us material that we can

share with others about successful approaches. We hope that others will be

able to adapt and apply these elsewhere.

We work with researchers in Africa, in the UK and elsewhere to build

evaluation and other research components into our projects and into our

overall programme of work. We are committed to learning as much as we

can from our programming and to using innovative research methods and

partnerships to do so.

In addition, we are also increasingly evaluating the theory of change behind

our work. In doing so, we seek to understand how far the assumptions that we

make about how change happens match up with the actual change

processes within projects.

6.2 Learning and sharing

Our approach to evaluation and learning within projects and programmes

requires significant commitment of time and resources to learning and

sharing. It also requires the development of a strong network within which to

learn and share. We have to be realistic about how much we can invest in

this at any one time but it is a priority for us in seeking funding opportunities.

6.3 Developing our knowledge

We learn within TREE AID in a variety of ways, these include:

• Building a global team with diverse and complementary expertise who

can learn from each other, share skills and build expertise as individuals

and as a team

• Through Annual Learning and Development Plans which allow every

staff member time and space to learn on the job

• By building learning elements into programme design, such as

exchange visits across borders and between communities; workshops

and discussions that bring together various actors; specifically

commissioned studies, etc.

• By participating in key networks in Africa, the UK and elsewhere

• By sharing and discussing our programming insights and impact in

networks, with partners and on our website

• By investing in research and evaluation within our programme

• By partnering with researchers, Universities and other organizations on

collaborative research projects

• Through annual strategy workshops in West Africa and in the UK


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• Through regular consultations with our Programme & Policy Group

(PPG) made up of experts in our programming areas

• By visiting our projects and meeting regularly with our partners and with

people in the communities where we work

• By holding workshops periodically with our partners across West Africa

• By participating in relevant conferences, workshops, inquiries and

meetings

• By developing core policy statements that are informed by our work

with communities and sharing these in relevant international policy

debates

6.4 Developing our networks and extending our influence

We know that demand for our work is enormous and it is unlikely that we will

ever be able to respond to it entirely. This makes sharing the lessons from our

work and our successful approaches all the more important as we hope that

others will be able to apply and adapt them to promote sustainable change

in the contexts where they work. Developing our networks and extending our

influence is a crucial part of expanding the possibilities for sustainable change

and it is an area to which we are devoting more attention from 2012-13

onwards, including through the development of an influencing strategy.

We have 3 key strategies for doing this:

• Developing strategic partnerships with other organizations with mutual

objectives, including other NGOs, research institutes and universities,

funding agencies and others;

• Sharing our programming insights and the impact of our work widely,

through publications, at conferences, in key networks and on our website;

• Developing core policy statements based on the above and sharing

these in relevant international policy debates.

6.5 The process of integrating our knowledge and practice

The learning that we do is not only directed to external sharing. Our

organizational strategy, programme and projects are all informed by our

learning about what works to deliver sustainable change at community level.

We have refined our approach over the last 25 years, developing effective

strategies to promote natural resource management, pro-poor forest

governance and the development of sustainable Village Tree Enterprises.

In 2012-13 we will develop a series of ‘insight’ papers highlighting such

learning towards successful approaches in each of our programming areas.

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Delivering Sustainable Change: TREE AID’s Approach › wp-content › uploads › 2011 › 08 › ... · 2018-06-05 · Delivering Sustainable Change: TREE AID’s Approach 4 Access