5.3.1. Validation and analysis of interventions in the Causal Loop Diagram
How to run a CLD validation and analyse interventions exercise?
After presenting the CLD to the participants, it will be validated (i.e., feedback shall be received from the participants on the variables and the links between the variables).
CLD validation example
Download FREE templateAssessing barriers and facilitators
Why assessing barriers and facilitators?
An important objective of the stakeholder workshop is to critically evaluate the selected interventions by examining both the barriers and facilitators to their implementation, operation, and maintenance. The goal is to identify the conditions that foster the successful adoption of an intervention and to anticipate the obstacles that could prevent its success. This process helps stakeholders predict challenges, assess whether the intervention is feasible within the current context, and determine if adjustments are needed. Identifying barriers early on can also lead to rejecting interventions if they are deemed too difficult to implement or maintain successfully.
How to analyse barriers and facilitators?
The analysis focuses on three main types of barriers and facilitators to the selected WEFe nexus interventions:
This aspect examines whether stakeholders have sufficient financial resources to implement and operate the intervention. Barriers could include high initial costs, limited access to financing, or uncertain returns. Facilitators might include public grants, subsidies, green bonds, and economic incentives that emphasize long-term cost savings.
This dimension addresses whether stakeholders have the required knowledge, space, and technology to implement the intervention. Barriers might involve technical complexity, infrastructure limitations, or maintenance challenges, while facilitators include advancements in technology or successful pilot projects that demonstrate feasibility.
This category focuses on legal, political, and community-related factors. Barriers could involve regulatory hurdles, lack of awareness, or political instability, while facilitators might include supportive policies, public engagement, capacity-building efforts, and strong stakeholder collaboration.
Workshop facilitation
During the workshop, stakeholders will discuss the barriers and facilitators for each intervention, considering the specific context. If a bundle of interventions has been identified, the potential for additional barriers due to the combination of multiple interventions will also be evaluated.
Workshop set-up and logistics
Download FREE templateAssessing perceived impacts on flows of Ecosystem Services
Why assess perceived impacts?
The goal is to evaluate local stakeholders' perceptions of threats and benefits to ecosystem services, and how these impacts affect ecosystem service flows, which may increase, decrease, or remain unchanged before and after the intervention.
How to analyze perceived impacts?
This exercise analyzes stakeholder perceptions in terms of:
⦁ Current and future threats linked to the intervention.
⦁ Ecosystem service (ES) flows, including trade-offs and synergies.
⦁ Impacts on ES in both present and future scenarios.
Two scenarios are used:
Scenario 1: Current scenario
Identifies current impacts on ecosystem services, assessing whether they are increasing, decreasing, or stable.
Scenario 2: Intervention scenario
Evaluates how the intervention affects threats and ecosystem service flows in the future. If multiple interventions are considered, each is assessed separately.
Expected outcomes
The outcomes of this workshop are a final CLD validated by participants, a preliminary list of barriers and opportunities associated with different solutions, and the perceived impacts on WEFe components and ecosystems that support them. Furthermore, the CLD allows to gain insight into how the solutions affect the problem.