Development of Health and Sustainability Indicators for a Tropical Highlands Agroecosystem - Integrated Assessment of Health and Sustainability of Agroecosystems - page 150

table 6.1
sequencing of learning tools used to Generate community-driven Health
and sustainability Indicators

tool objectives output

1. Introduction and

icebreakers

Develop rapport
Explain workshop objectives
Workshop logistics (venue, meals,
schedule)

List of participants by
gender
Workshop logistics

2. Focus groups

Topic: “Monitoring
and Evaluation”

Introduce concepts (monitoring,
evaluation, and indicators)

Definitions of monitoring
and evaluation
Understanding of indicators

3. Focus groups

Topic: “Ecosystem
Health”

Introduce concept (ecosystem health)
Describe a hypothetical healthy
ecosystem
Define agroecosystem health

Understanding of ecosystem
health
Identification of some
health attributes

4. Group presentations Identify disparities among groups on the

definition and conceptualization of
ecosystem health

Understanding of ecosystem
health

5. Listing ecosystem

health attributes

Identify ecosystem health attributes Lists of attributes

6. Pairwise scoring

matrix

Rank attributes based on their role in
determining ecosystem health

Rank matrix of attributes

7. Focus groups

Topic: “Indicators of
Ecosystem Health

Identify potential indicators for selected
health attributes

Lists of potential indicators

8. Group presentations

and scoring matrices

Assess selected indicators in terms of
validity, ease of measurement, and
usefulness

Refined lists of health
indicators

9. Planning for ecosystem

health monitoring

Identify resources and people to carry
out ecosystem health monitoring using
selected indicators

Itinerary of an ecosystem
health-monitoring activity

used in these workshops and their objectives and expected outputs are shown in
Table 6.1. Details of the specific tools used are provided in Chapter 2.
After explaining the objectives of the workshop and seeking the communities'
consent, the concepts of indicators, monitoring, and evaluation were introduced
through focus group discussions. To introduce the concept of indicators, participants
were asked to reflect on their stated agroecosystem goals as well as their concerns
or problems and to find things that they would measure to find out if there was an
improvement. Health was equated to the Gikuyu term ugima which is used inter-
changeably to mean unity, maturity, and wholeness. It is also used with reference to
a human being to mean either a mature, well-rounded person or a healthy (broadly
defined) person.
Participants were asked to describe their vision of a healthy village. They were
then asked to list the likely negative consequences of current activities, processes or
states in the village that threatened this vision. Discussion on what could be done to