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Improving an initial results chain with relatively vague human well-being outcomes

The first results chain here (Fig­ure 9) for the North­ern Range­lands Trust includes terms like ‘increase eco­nom­ic ben­e­fit’ and ‘increase social ben­e­fit’ to ini­tial­ly describe human well-being outcomes.

An example of a vague results chain for human well-being.

Fig­ure 9

To improve upon this, the results chain was expand­ed to clar­i­fy the links between strate­gies and human well-being com­po­nents. Fig­ure 10 is a sam­ple of one of the expand­ed results chains, focus­ing on the live­stock graz­ing man­age­ment strategy.

An expanded results chain with more explicit human well-being components, for the Northern Rangelands Trust.

Fig­ure 10

This exam­ple empha­sizes why spec­i­fi­ca­tion of out­comes, includ­ing unin­tend­ed (or addi­tion­al) out­comes is crit­i­cal. Income improve­ment is a pri­ma­ry inter­est of local com­mu­ni­ties engaged in the graz­ing pro­grams. Detail­ing of the results chain showed that improved range­land pro­duc­tiv­i­ty is expect­ed to improve live­stock qual­i­ty, but dis­cus­sion with local stake­hold­ers revealed that range­land ben­e­fits may only accrue to cat­tle, not sheep and goats because of graz­ing prac­tices. In many of these com­mu­ni­ties, men herd and sell cat­tle and women care for and sell sheep, goats and their prod­ucts. As income is not open­ly shared in some house­holds, improv­ing for­age for cat­tle, but not sheep and goats could cre­ate greater income inequal­i­ty among genders–a neg­a­tive unin­tend­ed out­come for a vul­ner­a­ble group. Anoth­er strat­e­gy not shown here aims to increase liveli­hood and income options for women, and may off­set this poten­tial risk. Because this is a risk to a vul­ner­a­ble group, it is being mon­i­tored closely.