manual for social impact assessment of land-based ... - Forest Trends

a) Identification of possible basic necessities via focus groups
A mixed age and gender focus group is used to generate an initial list of goods (e.g., TV, bicycle,
radio, wheelbarrow, machete) and services (e.g., all school age children attending school, walking
distance to a health clinic) that the participants may or may not think are basic necessities. It is
important that the list includes items almost everyone would agree with (e.g., enough food each
day), and others where there may be disagreement (e.g., having a TV). The list should include
between 20 and 25 items.
Some items should be included that only a few people in the group think are currently necessities,
but many think could become necessities in the future. At this point it is a list of possible basic
necessities, not a final list of agreed basic necessities. It is important to avoid items that are difficult
to record with a Yes or No answer (e.g., ‘a healthy family’ or ‘well trained teachers’), or that cannot
be reliably observed by different people.
b) Application of the survey
Two basic questions are put to the male or female (picked randomly) household head:
• Which items do you consider are basic necessities that everyone should have, and no-one
should have to do without?
• Which items on the list does your household possess now?
The list of items can be read out to respondents or typed on cards. The respondent then sorts the
cards/items into two piles – items that s(he) thinks are basic necessities, and items possessed by the
household. Table T8 presents an example of a household BNS form.
c) Analysis of the data collected
Data analysis involves the following steps (see Table T9):
• determine which items are ‘basic necessities’ – these are defined as items which over 50% of
the households think are basic necessities;
• calculate a weighting (fraction) for each item based on the percentage of households who
think it is a basic necessity;
• for each household multiply the number of items owned by the weighting fraction;
• calculating a maximum possible score for a household with all the basic necessities;
• calculate a poverty index (%) for each household by adding up the weighted scores and
dividing this by the maximum score, as shown in Table T9;
• it is also possible to estimate the value of a “basket of basic necessities.” As can be noted
from Table T8, a ‘village price’ can be estimated for each item owned and each household’s
‘basket value’ computed. If desired, this could be compared to say the often used poverty
measure of $2 per person per day.
Social Impact Assessment of Land-Based Carbon Projects (1.0) – Part II | 41