Measuring complex outcomes of environment and development interventions

衡量环境和发展干预措施的复杂结果

• 批准号: ES/J018155/1
• 负责人: David Wilkie
• 金额: $ 59.02万
• 依托单位: Wildlife Conservation Society
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Research Grant
• 财政年份: 2012
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2012 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=ES%2FJ018155%2F1
• 关键词: Measuring; complex; outcomes; environment; development

How do we know if development aid is spent effectively and delivering results? Aid effectiveness has become an important discussion point in international development in recent years, leading to renewed focus on how to measure the performance of development programmes, which is Theme 3 of the ESRC-DFID call. Measuring results is difficult because the results depend on what you chose to measure, when, for whom, and how it is measured. A second difficulty is attribution: how do you know that changes are due to development interventions, as opposed to other ongoing processes. Rigorous impact evaluation methodologies have been developed to address the problem of attribution by comparing intervention sites to controls. However, impact evaluation methods have tended to focus on standard economic measures of human wellbeing (e.g. income), which may not capture outcomes considered relevant by local people - such as resource tenure, education, ability to insure against shocks, or political power.This project focuses on interventions designed to counter increasing environmental resource scarcity, caused by unsustainable use of biodiversity, deforestation, and degradation of ecosystem services, arguably some of the greatest long-term threats to human wellbeing. Understanding the processes that cause resource scarcity and what are effective interventions to address resource scarcity are relevant to Theme 1 of the call. Environment-development interventions are also some of the hardest to assess, since the processes that cause environmental resource scarcity are often very complex, and potentially affect multiple aspects of human wellbeing (not just income). For this reason, credible evaluations of their medium to long-term impacts on human wellbeing are few, providing little evidence to inform decision-makers about what works, for whom, and why.The project aims to directly improve the implementation of policies in the environment-development sector through enhanced understanding of what works, based on more appropriate measurement of results. It brings together the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS, a science-based environmental organization working in over 60 countries), and two of the UK's foremost academics in the field from University College London and Imperial College, as well as local and national partners. The project has three components:(1) a methodological research component, which focuses on how to measure the development impacts of environment-development interventions on the poor(2) a field research component, which will test the different methodological approaches with developing country researchers at 3 sites (2 in Africa and 1 in Asia) that have very different social, cultural and political settings, to see how methods perform in different circumstances and to specifically evaluate 3 field interventions focused on Payments for Ecosystem Services(3) a practical component, which will use the results of the research to directly inform how environment-development projects are implemented in the field, building upon the consortium's networks of partners and programmes.The research responds directly to the growing demand for knowledge about how to measure the performance of development programmes, and the specific paucity of impact evaluations in the environment-development sector. The research will therefore be high impact: both academically, in terms of publications, and for policymakers and practitioners because it responds to already-identified needs for information. The field component focuses on incentive mechanisms, such as Payments for Ecosystem Services, which have been widely promoted over the past decade as a more equitable way to ensure poverty alleviation and sustainable environmental resource management. Through the project's networks and partners, the results will directly impact how current environment-development policies are implemented, and will inform the design of future initiatives.

我们如何知道发展援助是否得到有效使用并取得成果？近年来，援助实效已成为国际发展中的一个重要讨论点，导致人们重新关注如何衡量发展方案的业绩，这是欧洲社会研究中心-国际开发部呼吁的主题3。测量结果是困难的，因为结果取决于你选择测量什么，什么时候，为谁测量，以及如何测量。第二个困难是归因：你如何知道变化是由于发展干预，而不是其他正在进行的进程。已经制定了严格的影响评价方法，通过比较干预地点和对照地点来解决归属问题。然而，影响评价方法往往侧重于人类福祉的标准经济措施本项目的重点是采取干预措施，以应对因不可持续地使用生物多样性、毁林、砍伐森林、破坏自然资源和其他自然资源而造成的环境资源日益稀缺的现象，和生态系统服务的退化，可以说是对人类福祉的一些最大的长期威胁。了解造成资源短缺的过程以及解决资源短缺的有效干预措施与呼吁的主题1有关。环境-发展干预措施也是最难评估的措施之一，因为造成环境资源稀缺的过程往往非常复杂，并可能影响人类福祉的多个方面（不仅仅是收入）。由于这个原因，很少对这些政策对人类福祉的中长期影响进行可信的评估，几乎没有提供证据让决策者了解哪些政策有效、对谁有效以及为什么有效，该项目旨在通过更适当地衡量结果，加强对哪些政策有效的了解，直接改善环境-发展部门政策的执行。它汇集了野生动物保护协会（WCS，一个在60多个国家工作的科学环境组织），以及来自伦敦大学学院和帝国理工学院的两名英国最重要的学者，以及当地和国家合作伙伴。该项目有三个组成部分：（1）方法研究部分，重点是如何衡量环境-发展干预措施对穷人的发展影响（2）实地研究部分，将在3个地点与发展中国家研究人员一起测试不同的方法（2个在非洲，1个在亚洲），这些国家的社会、文化和政治背景非常不同，以了解各种方法在不同情况下的表现，并具体评价3项侧重于生态系统服务付费的实地干预措施（3）一个实用部分，将利用研究结果直接告知如何在实地实施环境-发展项目，这项研究直接回应了对如何衡量发展方案业绩的知识日益增长的需求，以及环境-发展部门影响评价的具体缺乏。因此，这项研究将产生很大影响：无论是在学术上，就出版物而言，还是对决策者和从业人员而言，都是如此，因为它响应了已经确定的信息需求。外地部分侧重于奖励机制，如生态系统服务付费，这在过去十年中得到广泛推广，作为确保减贫和可持续环境资源管理的一种更公平的方式。通过该项目的网络和合作伙伴，其结果将直接影响当前环境-发展政策的执行方式，并将为今后举措的设计提供信息。

项目成果

Approaches Used to Evaluate the Social Impacts of Protected Areas

• DOI: 10.1111/conl.12223
• 发表时间: 2016-09-01
• 期刊: CONSERVATION LETTERS
• 影响因子: 8.5
• 作者: de Lange, Emiel;Woodhouse, Emily;Milner-Gulland, E. J.
• 通讯作者: Milner-Gulland, E. J.

Impact of payments for environmental services and protected areas on local livelihoods and forest conservation in northern Cambodia.

• DOI: 10.1111/cobi.12423
• 发表时间: 2015-02
• 期刊: Conservation biology : the journal of the Society for Conservation Biology
• 作者: Clements T;Milner-Gulland EJ
• 通讯作者: Milner-Gulland EJ

Evidence of Payments for Ecosystem Services as a mechanism for supporting biodiversity conservation and rural livelihoods

• DOI: 10.1016/j.ecoser.2013.12.003
• 发表时间: 2014-03-01
• 期刊: ECOSYSTEM SERVICES
• 影响因子: 7.6
• 作者: Ingram, Jane Carter;Wilkie, David;Foley, Charles Andrew Harold
• 通讯作者: Foley, Charles Andrew Harold

Accounting for the impact of conservation on human well-being.

• DOI: 10.1111/cobi.12277
• 发表时间: 2014-10
• 期刊: Conservation biology : the journal of the Society for Conservation Biology
• 作者: Milner-Gulland EJ;McGregor JA;Agarwala M;Atkinson G;Bevan P;Clements T;Daw T;Homewood K;Kumpel N;Lewis J;Mourato S;Palmer Fry B;Redshaw M;Rowcliffe JM;Suon S;Wallace G;Washington H;Wilkie D
• 通讯作者: Wilkie D

Guiding principles for evaluating the impacts of conservation interventions on human well-being.

• DOI: 10.1098/rstb.2015.0103
• 发表时间: 2015-11-05
• 期刊: Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences
• 作者: Woodhouse E;Homewood KM;Beauchamp E;Clements T;McCabe JT;Wilkie D;Milner-Gulland EJ
• 通讯作者: Milner-Gulland EJ