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Toolbox home References 10 short descriptions

These tables focus on specific tools that might be used in an evaluation process to explore different aspects of people’s experience of the adaptation initiative. They are not specific to adaptation processes and could be used in any type of evaluation. Where possible examples of their use in an adaptation situation is given to illustrate how they can add value in an adaptation context. Participatory tools often try to draw out the more ‘tacit’ or hidden aspects of people’s experience and knowledge and to do this it approaches often use metaphors either visually or through narrative and story telling. For example, the metaphor of rivers are used in ‘Rivers of Life’ to enable people to tell a story of their ‘journey’ through the work. This throws up other metaphors such as ‘tributaries’, ‘rocks’, ‘torrents’, ‘waterfalls’, ‘shallows’ etc that allow participants to explain different aspects of the work in a relatively non-threatening way, including the parts they feel proud of and parts they found difficult. The kind of information you get from these types of approaches, where the participant takes control of the content, level of detail and presentation is thus quite different to that you might get from interviews, especially where the questions are set in advance and there is little flexibility for following interesting lines of questioning that may emerge. Most of the tools presented here are relatively quick to facilitate (a hour or so) although some require much longer and have greater resource implications e.g. learning histories, participatory video.

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Exemplary methods and tools

Part 1: Visual
Name	Description	References
Rivers of Life	a tool that can be used in a number of different ways e.g. as a way for a group to get to know each other, to reflect on key moments in the life of a person, group, organisation or project, as an evaluation devise to draw out what has value or was surprising, difficult etc. It could also be used as an anticipatory tool to explore hopes and fears for a new venture or piece of work.	http://pubs.iied.org/pdfs/G02828.pdf
Participatory video	A participatory approach, using video as a tool with communities to research, reflect and analyse their own problems, and can be used to represent their ideas directly with policy-makers enabling participation at the village level to influence national policy-making processes	A photostory from Kenya explaining how PV works in practice http://insightshare.org/sites/default/files/CBAA%20PHOTOSTORY_lowres.pdf Example of using participatory video from Change with Children in a Changing Climate (CCC), the Institute of Development Studies (IDS), and ActionAid Nepal (AAN) http://pubs.iied.org/pdfs/G02819.pdf General information and moreexamples available from: http://insightshare.org/engage/services/pv-monitoring
Spectrums	A very simple visual tool focused on a single line which represents a range from one extreme to another. People are asked to express where they are on that spectrum in relation to a particular question e.g. how confident do you feel in making decisions about climate adaptation for your organisation in a spectrum from ‘not at all’ to ‘extremely’?. The position on the line can then be interrogated. E.g. ‘where would you like to be in 1 years’ time?’ ‘Why did you put yourself at the beginning of the spectrum?’ etc.	http://www.participatorytraining.co.uk/How%20to%20use%20Spectrum%20Lines.pdf
Reviewing with ropes	a collection of tools that use rope or cord as a device to help a group review progress, draw out meaning and identify next steps	http://reviewing.co.uk/articles/ropes.htm
Photo techniques	Photostories are an innovative ways of engaging community members in explaining their livelihoods, vulnerabilities and opportunities. They are relatively easy and fun to carry out and allow for elderly and illiterate people´to join in. The stories that emerge are based on photographs of real scenes and people.	http://www.zeitzfoundation.org/index.php?page=homefooter&subpage=Featured%20Projects&id=22
Learning Maps	Learning maps enable individuals, organisations, projects and networks to create a visual representation of the flow of knowledge and learning in their work or project. The resulting map can be used to explore the potential for creating or strengthening connections and ways to ensure that the organisation (individual or project) is making the most of learning from experience.	www.hivos.nl/eng/.../Learning%20for%20Change%20(Britton).pdf
Part 2: Narrative
H Diagram	A versatile tool which can be adapted to fit a number of applications e.g. as a tool to assist local people in evaluating (and learning in the process) the performance of partnerships, programmes, agencies and initiatives; as a tool to identify local indicators for monitoring and evaluation, as a way to identify next steps and priorities for action and in the evaluation of workshops and training.	http://www.planotes.org/documents/plan_03415.PDF
Learning Histories	A learning history is described as a ‘jointly told tale’ between outsider researchers and insider actors around a tangible outcome. It aims to bring together analysis and story in a way that has value both for those originally involved in the work and others seeking to learn from it. A learning history account attempts to get into the ‘messy’ human aspects of what happened in doing the work. It aims to present a number of perspectives on a situation rather than synthesising several accounts into a single ‘truth’. It is presented as a multi-voiced and multi-levelled account with a narrative that charts what happened, quotes from those involved, reflections from researchers during the process and analysis of themes.	http://www.bath.ac.uk/management/news_events/pdf/lowcarbon_insider_voices.pdf
Conversation mapping	Conversation mapping is useful for articulating different perspectives of a situation, learning about others’ and our own understanding of the situation, exploring insights about the situation emerging from the conversation and capturing the above in the development of the map	Conversation maps were used in a stakeholder workshop in Australia to get different framings of adaptation to climate change: http://www.vcccar.org.au/files/vcccar/VCCCAR_Framing_workshop_report_final_220311.pdf
Case studies	One purpose of developing case studies is to provide examples of adaptation in action and to draw out transferrable lessons that can be used by others trying to adapt.	A UKCIP briefing paper offering guidance on developing case studies for adaptation http://www.ukcip.org.uk/case-studies/case-study-background/