Project Summary
Many of the world’s impoverished communities rely on the environment for their livelihoods. Dominant livelihood approaches focus on increasing incomes and trigger processes that disregard underlying social-ecological systems and often result in adverse social, economic and ecological outcomes.
The socio-ecological approach to livelihood (SEAL) framework aims to move beyond mainstream silos of conservation and livelihood development to integrate social-economic and ecological functions and their dynamic interactions as critical to livelihoods. In collaboration with Foundation for Ecological Security, community-based system dynamics was used to understand the interconnections between social, ecological, and economic systems to design more effective programs for sustainable livelihoods in rural India.
Approach
Community-based system dynamics (CBSD) workshops were undertaken with the village and practitioner communities in four regional contexts to help establish the potential of CBSD as a tool to improve systems thinking amongst diverse groups of stakeholders. It helped identify key cause and effect relationships and prepare village communities (and other actors) to foresee the effect (intended and unintended) of actions undertaken and take more informed decisions. The tool provided a process to map the different mental models and engage the community to understand and enable sustainable socio-economic and ecological processes and outcomes. It helped convene different actors in the village and outside; decide on key resources and interconnections; provided a visual means and a common framework to discuss different mental models; analyse causal factors and structures guiding the behavior; and contemplate designs and interventions to build robust social-ecological livelihood systems.
However, systems thinking is much more than a collection of methods and tools. CBSD helps surface and brainstorm mental models that drives behavior and actions of individuals and communities, and enables them to ‘think’ using a systems lens, drawing insights from thinking to influence action.
Publications
Research in Action
Pratiti Priyadarshini (standing) from Foundation for Ecological Security facilitating a community-based system dynamics activity with a community in Rajasthan, India with Ellis Ballard from Washington University in St. Louis, and Kelsey Werner from BCSSW .
