FutureGenerations

Necessary Conditions for Change

Future Generations researchers and colleagues have been monitoring community-based development and conservation programs worldwide to examine why some programs have succeeded and others have failed. This research concludes that in all cases of success, in which the program has been both sustainable and has gone to scale, four determinents can be found. In all these cases, successful community change resulted from a set of necessary conditions, which the SEED-SCALE process has described as four key principles.

The Future Generations model for community change

• what it is
• how it works
• why it works

A Proposal for Going to Scale with Self-Reliant Social Development

“Sustainable human development is development that not only generates economic growth but distributes its benefits equitably; that regenerates the environment rather than destroying it; that empowers people rather than marginalizing them. It gives priority to the poor, enlarging their choices and opportunities, and provides for their participation in decisions affecting them. It is development that is pro-poor, pro-nature, pro-jobs, pro-democracy, pro-women and pro-children.”

Summary of Scientific Evidence Relating to Community-based Conservation

Perhaps roughly ten percent of the planet remains an unpeopled “grand treasure” suitable for the set-the-land-aside approach, but how do we protect the remaining ninety percent?

This paper offers an analysis of current thinking and trends in community-based conservation that draws from the scientific literature.

The Challenge: Peace agreements do not make peace. Neither does the arrival of international peacekeepers. Transforming the conditions of instability and post-conflict reconstruction into lasting peace requires stable relations within and between the state and society. While peace agreements and international intervention are often necessary stimuli, most essential is the partnership of people and government. The challenge is: how can citizens and

The traditional conservation approach is to establish a protected area. Typically, local people are relocated outside the park boundaries. An alternative response, known as community-based conservation, seeks to protect larger areas of land by encouraging local stewardship and integrating social and environmental priorities.

Definition

Going to scale refers to a process to extend community level change through:

The Annual Cycle of Seven Steps

In many areas of life, we use a cycle of steps. To grow crops, there are the seasons of plowing, fertilizing, planting and weeding, before the harvest. To graduate from school, there is a routine of classes. Our studies of worldwide development experiences indicate a frequent failure: communities and governments often just keep starting over, without ever completing a full cycle of action.