Assessing Social Impacts of Program-Level REDD+ Report Brief

The initiative aimed to help governments and civil society design, implement, and build support for effective and equitable REDD+ programs. LISA-REDD is a consortium of international organizations, including CARE International, Climate, Community and Biodiversity Alliance (CCBA), Conservation International (CI), Center for International Forest Research (CIFOR), Forest Trends, Overseas Development Institute (ODI), International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED), and U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID)'s Forests, Carbon, Markets and Communities (FCMC) program. REDD+ stakeholders have demonstrated strong interest in making concerted efforts to minimize risks and maximize benefits for communities that depend on forests for their subsistence and income needs. Assessment and evaluation of social impacts is an important means for identifying how best to enhance positive impacts and avoid, minimize, or mitigate negative ones. Many development partners working on REDD+ support the undertaking of social and environmental impact assessments. The Forest Carbon, Markets and Communities (FCMC) program commissioned a report on methods for assessing and evaluating social impacts of program-level REDD+. The report provides detailed summaries of 22 different methods and practices that are considered suitable for social assessment and evaluation of program-level REDD+. These methods include Poverty and Social Impact Analysis (PSIA), Participatory Theory of Change, Stakeholder Analysis, Appreciative Inquiry, and Drivers of Change Analysis. The report also references nearly 30 other tools and approaches that can be applied to REDD+. The methodologies summarized include Participatory Rural Appraisal, Participatory Mapping, Household Economy Approach, Economic Modeling, and Participatory Impact Assessment, Monitoring and Evaluation. Each summary includes the method's major attributes, including scope, key assumptions, ability to capture short-term versus long-term impacts, its level of differentiation, strengths and weaknesses, examples of where the method has been applied, and cited sources of where more information on the methodology can be found. The overall process of assessing potential social impacts during the program design phase and identifying and monitoring actual social impacts during the program implementation phase encompasses multiple goals and objectives. Meeting each objective requires decisions regarding how many and which methods to use. A framework is developed to classify the objectives of social impact assessment and evaluation and their respective components. The framework includes four objectives: Develop overall approach for assessing and evaluating the social impacts of policy reforms and programs; Engage stakeholders, assess risks, compare options, predict impacts, and design programs; Select and monitor indicators of well-being; and Identify impacts: establish attribution and rule out rival explanations. The framework also highlights the importance of using both qualitative and quantitative methods and the advantages of using both method types. The report provides general guidance on how to select appropriate methods given a REDD+ program's resources, availability of relevant data, preferences, situations, and the magnitude of potential impacts. The report is designed to be useful for those commissioning or undertaking social assessments or evaluations.