Social analysis for agriculture and rural investment projects

Abstract

These three guides produced by FAO’s Investment Centre demonstrate the application of social analysis to investment programmes and projects in agricultural and rural development. The Manager’s Guide addresses the needs of project managers and team leaders. It describes: the main parameters of social analysis in the context of agricultural and rural development investments, and the use of social analysis from three perspectives: international agencies; development approaches; programme cyc le; and management aspects of conducting social analysis such as recruitment, roles and responsibilities. The Practitioner’s Guide deals with the ‘why and what’ questions, building on the conceptual approach in the Manager’s Guide. It describes: the sustainable livelihoods framework for understanding the dynamics of rural poverty and livelihoods, social diversity and gender in the context of agriculture and rural development; main entry points for conducting social analysis; range of inpu ts that may be made to project design; how findings and recommendations are drawn together into a technical paper and summary matrices; and tools for tracking social aspects of development. The Field Guide provides guidance on the fieldwork aspects of social analysis, based on the Practitioner’s Guide. It considers: the practical aspects of integrating social analysis into missions; data collection activities and checklists for work at the national, regional and district levels and in com munity-based discussions, focus group discussions and individual household interviews; and participatory tools for social analysis fieldwork.