From 1997 to 2007 SDI staff first conceptualized, then developed and piloted, a comprehensive toolkit called the Community Options Analysis and Investment Toolkit (COAIT). This was done under the aegis of Innovative Resources Management with funding from the United States Agency for International Development Central Africa Regional Program for the Environment, the Biodiversity Support Program (BSP) at the World Wildlife Fund, and the World Wildlife Fund itself.
The toolkit was designed to address a gap that existed then, and in fact still is pervasive today: the lack of proven, effective tools that enable communities to become empowered to perceive sustainable development opportunities, analyze costs, benefits and risks associated with different options, and to take action that is reasoned, vetted, and representative of the diverse views of community level stakeholders. At present, while much continues to be expected of communities in developing countries, social capital oftentimes remains underdeveloped given the potential in communities, along with the challenges and opportunities communities and their diverse stakeholders face.
COAIT mobilizes communities around the twin economic development goals of improved local resource management and enhanced local participation. Developed in response to the lack of methods that enable communities to be proactive in their own development, the COAIT methodology facilitates community involvement in local institutional analysis, the assessment and strengthening of human capital resources, and more effective community initiative in development. Feasibility analysis is stressed, helping communities participate in more nuanced manners in planning and oversight.
COAIT builds on information-gathering strategies developed in social scientific field survey techniques such as Participatory Rural Appraisal (PRA). These proven techniques include institutional assessment, village mapping and stakeholder identification. COAIT extends beyond PRA by incorporating innovative tools that promote community involvement in information gathering and cost-benefit analysis COAIT reduces dependence on external expertise to drive local development by facilitating community leadership in the planning process strengthening community level decision making about viable development options, and promoting community initiative in implementing viable resource management options. The end product of COAIT is identification of sustainable enterprise development and resource management options that can be spearheaded by local communities, and packaged into a "development prospectus". This prospectus can be marketed by an individual community, or groups of communities aggregated for economies of scale at broader "landscapes".
COAIT is a process that can take from six to twelve months to implement depending on the baseline and the ability for communities to identify partners to support the training. The latter can include companies with corporate social responsibility programs, foundations supporting community empowerment programming, or donors seeking to create an enabling environment for feasible and sustainable development involving free, prior and informed consent to be achieved. The latter is increasingly seen as a standard for work involving forestry, mining and even biodiversity conservation activities. SDI is committed to providing services to stakeholders who perceive that COAIT offers a viable model. For more information on how this can be adapted to address your situation in the extractive industries, forestry, agriculture, or even decentralized governance arenas, please contact michaelbrown@satyadi.com.
