Community Development and Knowledge Management for the Satoyama Initiative Project
(COMDEKS)
COMDEKS CASE STUDY: TEMPLATE, GUIDELINES AND QUESTIONNAIRE
This guidance note is aimed at SGP grantees awarded with the COMDEKS Ex-post Baseline Assessment
Project. As part of COMDEKS activities, each country, must prepare a 5-10-page COMDEKS Case Study, in
English (or in local language with English translation) of publishable quality, focused on key activities,
results and impacts achieved at the landscape level, and including lessons learned and
recommendations for future action.
The COMDEKS Case Study Template, Guidelines and Questionnaire are developed for this purpose. The
template is intended to provide a common structure to ensure portfolio-wide coherence across
COMDEKS participating countries. The questionnaire should be carried out by a representative of the
Grantee organization that was awarded the Ex Post Baseline Assessment project in order to develop the
COMDEKS Case Study. The questionnaire can also be shared with grantees awarded COMDEKS funds in
order to receive information on activities, results, lessons learned and recommendations. The
questionnaire is aimed at guiding the grantee on the type of information that should be included in the
final COMDEKS Case Study.
The COMDEKS case study should be reviewed by the NC and NSC who will provide further feedback
towards its finalization. Additionally, the case study should be submitted to the COMDEKS Project
Manager for technical review. After receiving technical feedback from the COMDEKS Project Manager
on a draft of the COMDEKS Case Study, the case study should be submitted to the NSC for final review
and approval.
Please note that this case study should reflect the adaptive management process used for COMDEKS
activities. The case study should be used as an opportunity to reflect on project outcomes and consult
with partners and, if necessary, adjust goals and approaches. Finally, the case study should inform new
planning and action.
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Appendix 1
COMDEKS [Country] Case Study - Template
Location: Landscape Location, ideally with a very small map of the country, with a mark for the
landscape site
Summary: Include a short summary of the COMDEKS [Country] case study here. (no more than 300
words)
Section 1: Landscape Background and Context (no more than 400 words)
- Please describe the COMDEKS target landscape, and its location. The [Country] COMDEKS Landscape
Strategy should be an input for developing this section.
Section 2: Baseline Assessments (ex-ante and ex-post) and Community Consultations (no more than
400 words)
- Please describe the landscape-wide baseline assessment and community consultation process that
took place at the beginning of project activities, and at the end of project activities (ex-post baseline
assessment)
Section 3: COMDEKS Country Programme Landscape Strategies (no more than 200 words)
- Please provide a brief description of the overall long-term objective of the COMDEKS [Country]
Landscape Strategy and the main outcomes of the landscape strategy. The [Country] COMDEKS
Landscape Strategy should be an input for developing this section.
Section 4: Key Activities and Innovations (no more than 1,000 words)
- Please describe project activities and their linkages to the COMDEKS [Country] Landscape Strategy.
and list accomplishments and impacts so far.
Section 5: Key Results and Innovations (no more than 3 pages/2,000 words)
- List accomplishments and impacts observed so far at the landscape level in regard to the following
landscape outcomes.
1. Ecosystem Services and Biodiversity Conservation
o Please describe results from COMDEKS projects across the landscape contributing to the
provision of ecosystem services and biodiversity conservation in the target
landscape/seascape, providing specific examples, and results and impacts observed to date
(Please include the SGP database project numbers).
o Please describe any inter-linkages among projects contributing to this outcome
o
o
2. Agro-ecology and Food Security
Please describe results from COMDEKS projects across the landscape contributing to Agroecology and Food Security, providing specific examples, and results achieved (Please include
the SGP database project numbers.)
Please describe any inter-linkages among projects contributing to this outcome.
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o
o
o
o
3. Sustainable livelihoods
Please describe results from COMDEKS projects across the landscape supporting income
generation opportunities, and contributing to sustainable livelihoods, providing specific
examples, and results achieved (Please include the SGP database project numbers).
Please describe any inter-linkages among projects contributing to this outcome.
4. Strengthening of institutional and governance systems at the landscape level
Please describe results from COMDEKS projects across the landscape that have influenced
policies and how. Please describe specific examples, and if the policies influenced where at
the landscape or community level. (Please include the SGP database project numbers)
Please describe any inter-linkages among projects contributing to this outcome.
Section 6: Challenges (No more than 300 words)
- Please describe the main challenges faced during the implementation of COMDEKS activities.
Section 7: Sustainability (No more than 300 words)
- Please describe the sustainability of the community-based landscape approach implemented through
COMDEKS activities in [country].
Section 8: Replication and Upscaling1 (No more than 300 words)
- Please describe overall results achieved by COMDEKS in a particular area or theme that resulted in a
significant scaling up, either through influencing policy, or through replication of COMDEKS results
and innovation on a wider scale.
Section 9: Lessons Learned. (no more than 300 words)
- Please describe the lessons learned during the implementation of COMDEKS activities.
Section 10: Recommendations and way forward (no more than 300 words)
- Please provide recommendations on how to further enhance the resilience of the target socioecological production landscape Based on the information gathered during the ex-post baseline
assessment community consultation process,.
- Please briefly describe the type of potential community-based activities identified during the ex-post
baseline assessment by communities in the target landscape that should be supported in the future
in the target landscape for landscape resilience and sustainability.
1
For UNDP, scaling up is the process of ensuring coverage, impact, and sustainability of a development innovation. Such a process involves not
only an expansion of successful projects to a larger scale, but also strengthening of global, national and local policies”. Scaling up is a learning
process, which include: Strengthening partnership and engage in policy dialogue; Moving beyond pilots, to a wider adaptation and programme
implementation; Supporting knowledge transfer, capacity development, advocacy and activism at the local level, not relying only on top-down
approach to trickle down to communities; Creating knowledge and political momentum for informing policy and legislating reforms and
nurturing enabling environment.” http://www.undp.org/content/undp/en/home/librarypage/povertyreduction/scaling_up_localdevelopmentinnovations.html
http://www.undp.org/content/dam/undp/library/Poverty%20Reduction/Participatory%20Local%20Development/pamphlet_ScalingUp_web_oct2012.pdf
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Appendix 2
COMDEKS [Country] Case Study – Guidance and Questionnaire
1) Landscape Background and Context (no more than 400 words)
-
Please describe the COMDEKS target landscape, and its location. The [Country] COMDEKS Landscape
Strategy should be an input for developing this section.
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Please provide a brief description of the economic, social, environmental context, together with a
description of the stakeholders living in the target landscape.
1. What are the main problems the COMDEKS initiative in [country] is seeking to solve?
2. Who are the key players and key stakeholders in the target landscape?
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Traditional land management Systems and Historical land uses. To provide perspective on the
current environmental and social conditions within the landscape, it may be useful to allude to
previous sustainable land uses and traditional land management systems.
3. Was there an indigenous land management system in the COMDEKS target landscape? If so,
describe it briefly, including the types of production and the local institutions involved in
governance.
4. Why did this system break down?
5. What, if any, elements of it remain?
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Tenure Situation. Land and resource tenure is a critical factor in local empowerment and the set of
land management options open to communities. It is also an important factor in the sustainability of
local efforts.
6. What is the relative balance between private, communal, and government ownership or
control of lands and natural resources within the target landscape?
7. Of private landholdings, what percentage are small plots (<2 ha), e.g. used for smallholder
agriculture)?
8. Are there landless families in the target landscape?
9. Are there existing co-management arrangements (for example, joint forest management)
between local people and the government?
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2) Baseline Assessments (ex-ante and ex-post) and Community Consultations (no more than 400
words)
Please describe the landscape-wide baseline assessment and community consultation process that
took place at the beginning of project activities. The [Country] COMDEKS Landscape Strategy should
be an input for developing this section.
10. Please tell us about how the initiative started.
11. Who was involved in the assessment?
12. What tools were used to engage participants in the assessment?
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13. Give a brief description of the good practice highlighting the innovative features and
results achieved by the baseline assessment and community consultation participatory
planning processes.
-
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Please describe the consultative process and participatory methods undertaken for the ex-post
baseline assessment.
14. Who was involved in the assessment?
15. What tools were used to engage participants in the assessment?
16. How did you engage the local community and key stakeholders to participate in the
exercise?
17. Were the Resilience Indicators useful to assist communities in monitoring the resilience
of socio-ecological production landscapes (SEPLs)? How so?
18. Was the exercise effective in capturing the perceptions of a variety of stakeholders?
How did you adapt the exercise to meet the needs of the stakeholders groups present in the
landscape?
19. Has the perception of the community about the resilience of the target landscape
changed because of project interventions? How?
20. Give a brief description of the good practice highlighting the innovative features and
results achieved by the ex-post baseline assessment and community consultation process.
3) COMDEKS Country Programme Landscape Strategies (no more than 200 words)
Please provide a brief description of the overall long-term objective of the COMDEKS [Country]
Landscape Strategy and the main outcomes of the landscape strategy. The [Country] COMDEKS
Landscape Strategy should be an input for developing this section.
21.
22.
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What are the main objectives and outcomes of the COMDEKS initiative in [country]?
What was the vision? Has the vision changed at all? If so, why?
4) Key Activities and Innovations (no more than 1,000 words)
Project summaries are needed that relate activities on the ground to the Landscape Strategy
23. For each project, briefly describe (in a paragraph) activities implemented.
24. Which outcome in the [country] Landscape Strategy do these activities contribute to?
25. Who were the target beneficiaries?
26. Please provide any statistics on the number of women involved in COMDEKS activities,
and/or the number of women benefitted by COMDEKS projects.
27. Please provide any statistics on the number of indigenous peoples involved in COMDEKS
activities, and/or the number of IP benefitted by COMDEKS projects.
5) Key Results and Innovations (no more than 3 pages/2,000 words)
List accomplishments and impacts observed so far at the landscape level in regard to the following
landscape outcomes.
28. What impacts have been observed so far? Please provide quantifiable information,
statistics and numbers that document the change of impact of the COMDEKS activities over
time (number of beneficiaries, hectares of target landscape restored/maintained,
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percentage increase in yield, percentage increase in household income, number and type of
organizations working at the landscape level strengthened, and number and type of policies
influenced).
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-
-
-
-
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-
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Ecosystem Services and Biodiversity Conservation
Please describe results from COMDEKS projects across the landscape contributing to the provision of
ecosystem services and biodiversity conservation in the target landscape/seascape, providing specific
examples, and results and impacts observed to date (Please include the SGP database project
numbers).
Please describe any inter-linkages among projects contributing to this outcome
Agro-ecology and Food Security
Please describe results from COMDEKS projects across the landscape contributing to Agro-ecology
and Food Security, providing specific examples, and results achieved (Please include the SGP
database project numbers.)
Please describe any inter-linkages among projects contributing to this outcome.
Sustainable livelihoods
Please describe results from COMDEKS projects across the landscape supporting income generation
opportunities, and contributing to sustainable livelihoods, providing specific examples, and results
achieved (Please include the SGP database project numbers).
Please describe any inter-linkages among projects contributing to this outcome.
Strengthening of institutional and governance systems at the landscape level
Please describe results from COMDEKS projects across the landscape that have influenced policies
and how. Please describe specific examples, and if the policies influenced where at the landscape or
community level. (Please include the SGP database project numbers)
Please describe any inter-linkages among projects contributing to this outcome.
The local and state institutions—both traditional and modern—involved in local land management
and community-based resource management are central actors in planning and carrying out
COMDEKS project activities.
29. What local institutions (traditional authorities, local government bodies, CSOs, NGOs,
and other local organizations) are involved in land management decisions in the target
landscape or are potential contributors to COMDEKS projects?
30. Describe the role of traditional authorities in local land management. In what way did
traditional authorities influence or directly participate in COMDEKS activities?
31. What state-level government institutions are involved in local land and resource
management? How did they participate in COMDEKS activities?
6) Challenges (No more than 300 words)
Please describe the main challenges faced during the implementation of COMDEKS activities.
32. What were the main challenges in implementing COMDEKS activities at the landscape
level?
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33. What did the organizations do to overcome these challenges?
34. At what phase of the implementation of COMDEKS did these challenges arise
(planning/implementation/evaluation)?
35. What could have been done differently or better?
36. What do you recommend to improve future community-based landscape management
planning?
7) Sustainability (No more than 300 words)
a. Please describe the sustainability of the community-based landscape approach
implemented through COMDEKS activities in [country].
37. What are the key components that make COMDEKS activities at the landscape level
sustainable? (Ex; training, human resources, financial resources, capacity-building,
community participation, awareness, organizational support)?
38. Which partner agencies and organizations, if any, are furthering project sustainability?
39. What is needed to make the COMDEKS initiative at the landscape level more sustainable
over the next 5/10 years?
40. What advice would you give to other communities who wish to implement a
community-based landscape approach?
8) Replication and Upscaling2 (No more than 300 words)
41. How easy would it be to replicate the successes of COMDEKS’ community based
landscape approach in a different context or other part of the country?
42. What mistakes should be avoided if the project were to be replicated?
43. Have any COMDEKS activities been up-scaled? If yes, please explain how and which
organizations lead the up-scaling process.
44. Have COMDEKS successful experiences being shared among communities in the target
landscape?
45. How was knowledge being exchanged?
46. If the model has been replicated, please explain how, with what support from which
stakeholders, how many beneficiaries
47. In your opinion, how important is exchanging peer-to-peer knowledge?
48. Have barriers being experienced to successful knowledge exchange? If so, what are
they, and how could they potentially be overcome?
2
For UNDP, scaling up is the process of ensuring coverage, impact, and sustainability of a development innovation. Such a process involves not
only an expansion of successful projects to a larger scale, but also strengthening of global, national and local policies”. Scaling up is a learning
process, which include: Strengthening partnership and engage in policy dialogue; Moving beyond pilots, to a wider adaptation and programme
implementation; Supporting knowledge transfer, capacity development, advocacy and activism at the local level, not relying only on top-down
approach to trickle down to communities; Creating knowledge and political momentum for informing policy and legislating reforms and
nurturing enabling environment.” http://www.undp.org/content/undp/en/home/librarypage/povertyreduction/scaling_up_localdevelopmentinnovations.html
http://www.undp.org/content/dam/undp/library/Poverty%20Reduction/Participatory%20Local%20Development/pamphlet_ScalingUp_web_oct2012.pdf
7
-
9) Lessons Learned. (no more than 300 words)
Please describe the lessons learned during the implementation of COMDEKS activities.
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The Knowledge Management goals of COMDEKS require cataloging and disseminating the lessons
learned during all phases of planning and executing the COMDEKS Landscape Strategy and project
activities.
49. What “process” lessons have been learned--about the community consultation process
involved in creating the landscape strategy and applying the resilience indicators to assess
baseline conditions in the landscape?
50. What technical lessons have been learned about executing the projects on the ground,
or about the appropriate mix of landscape management techniques and livelihood-related
activities needed to create the desired impacts?
51. What lessons have been learned about capacity building in the target communities?
52. What governance lessons have been learned about the institutions and partnerships
needed to carry out the Landscape Strategy and create the conditions for community buy-in
to the project activities?
53. Which partner contributed to implement COMDEKS activities at the landscape level?
Please list key partners and their roles in the project activities and describe their critical
contribution.
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Give a brief description of two of the best practices and highlight their innovative features and
results achieved by COMDEKS in [country].
Describe what worked well and how it was done, what were the key successes of this project?
54. What were the key successes of COMDEKS in [country]
55. What factors supported the success?
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Innovation is often a key ingredient in adapting traditional land management systems to modern
circumstances, and is an essential ingredient of the model of adaptive management that COMDEKS
projects aim to express.
56. What innovations—in agriculture and ecosystem management techniques, institutional
arrangements, marketing or business arrangements, decision-making processes, or capacity
building—have surfaced in COMDEKS projects in the target landscape?
57. How did these come about?
10) Recommendations and way forward (no more than 300 words)
Based on the information gathered during the ex-post baseline assessment community consultation
process, please provide recommendations on how to further enhance the resilience of the target
socio-ecological production landscape.
Please briefly describe the type of potential community-based activities identified during the ex-post
baseline assessment by communities in the target landscape that should be supported in the future
in the target landscape for landscape resilience and sustainability.
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