An Appreciative Inquiry Cameo

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An Appreciative Inquiry
Cameo
Olivier Serrat
2011

Appreciative Inquiry
"Problem solving" holds back analysis and
understanding by focusing on problems,
thereby limiting discussion of new
organizational models.
Appreciative Inquiry studies the positive
attributes of organizations to create new
conversations among people as they work
together for organizational renewal.
Appreciative Inquiry leverages the art and
practice of asking questions to strengthen
ability to apprehend, anticipate, and
heighten positive renewal.

Appreciative
Inquiry is
based on two
assumptions:
• Organizations always move in the
direction of the questions their members
ask and the things they talk about.
• Energy for positive change is created
when organizations engage continually in
remembering and analyzing
circumstances when they were at their
best rather than focusing on problems
and how they can be solved.

• Discovery: People converse to (re)discover the
times when their organization was at its best.
• Dream: At a group conference facilitated by
experts, personnel envisions that the peak
moments identified in the Discovery phase have
become the norm rather than the exception.
• Design: A team is empowered to design ways to
create the organization dreamed in the group
conference.
• Delivery: Teams are formed to deliver the dream
and new designs, follow up on design elements,
and continue the appreciative process.
Appreciative
Inquiry uses
the 4-D
Cycle:

The 4D Cycle of Appreciative
Inquiry
Affirmative
Topic
Choice
Discovery—
Appreciate
the Best of
What Is
Dream—
Imagine
What Could
Be
Design—
Determine
What
Should BeDelivery—
Create What
Will Be

Sustainable Livelihoods
• People-centered
• Responsive and
participatory
• Multilevel
• Partner-friendly
• Dynamic
• Sustainable
The Sustainable
Livelihoods approach is a
way of thinking about
the objectives, scope,
and priorities for
development activities.
The approach helps
formulate development
activities that are:

The Sustainable Livelihoods approach:
• Makes the connection between people and the overall
enabling environment that influences the outcomes of
livelihood strategies.
• Brings attention to the inherent potential of people's skills,
social networks, access to physical and financial resources,
and ability to influence core institutions.

Human
Social
Physical Financial
Natural
Vulnerability
Context
• Shocks
• Trends
• Seasonalities
Livelihood
Strategies
Policies &
Institutions
• Structures
- Public Sector
- Private Sector
- Third Sector
• Processes
- Institutions
- Laws
- Policies
- Culture
Livelihood
Outcomes
•Sustainable use of
natural resources
•Income
•Well-being
•Resilience
•Food security
Capital Assets
The Livelihoods Framework

Appreciative Inquiry for
Challenge
To make a
difference in poor
peoples' lives.
Tools
From a
sustainable
livelihoods
perspective, use
appreciative
inquiry to build on
accomplishments.
Emphasis
Explore options
with an eye to
comparative
advantages and
opportunities.

Livelihoods Framework Attributes
The Sustainable Livelihoods approach encourages thinking out of
the box; it frees development practitioners from conventional
approaches that are often restricted to identifying problems and
finding solutions.
The approach invites development practitioners to look at
contexts and relationships so that development initiatives can
become more process-oriented.
The approach represents an important shift away from the
conventional focus on project inputs and outputs and the
assumed mechanical links between them.

Livelihoods Framework Attributes
The Sustainable Livelihoods approach compels development
practitioners to look for multiple entry points and to move
beyond a homogenous "community" view and a narrow sectoral
perspective.
The approach stresses the importance of understanding
institutions by mapping the institutional framework and linking
the micro to the macro and the formal to the informal.
The approach calls for a new style of appraisal that moves from
universal prescriptions to context-specific approaches that allow
alternative, local perspectives to reveal themselves.

Livelihoods Framework
Assessment
Strength Weakness
The Sustainable Livelihoods
approach seeks to understand
changing combinations of
modes of livelihood in a
dynamic and historical context.
approach underplays elements
of the vulnerability context such
as macroeconomic trends and
conflict.
approach explicitly advocates a
creative tension between
different levels of analysis and
emphasizes the importance of
macro and micro linkages.
approach assumes that capital
assets can be expanded in
generalized and incremental
fashion.

Livelihoods Framework
Assessment
Strength Weakness
approach acknowledges the
need to move beyond narrow
sectoral perspectives and places
emphasis on seeing the linkages
between sectors.
approach does not pay enough
attention to inequalities of
power.
approach calls for investigation
of the relationships between
different activities that
constitute livelihoods and draws
attention to social relations.
approach underplays the fact
that enhancing the livelihoods of
one group can undermine those
of another.

The Tonle Sap at a Glance
Item Characteristic
Area •250,000–300,000 hectares (ha) in the dry season and 1.0–1.6 million ha in the wet season.
•The flooded forest extended over more than 1 million ha originally, 614,000 ha in the 1960s,
362,000 ha in 1991, and about 20,000 ha in 1997.
Hydrology •1–2 meters above mean sea level in the dry season and 8–12 meters above mean sea level in
the wet season.
•20% of the Mekong River's floodwaters are absorbed by the Tonle Sap.
•62% of the Tonle Sap's water originates from the Mekong River and 38% of the Tonle Sap's
water originates from the Tonle Sap basin.
•The Tonle Sap is connected to the Mekong River by the 100-kilometer-long Tonle Sap River,
which reverses its flow seasonally.
Biology •The flooded forest contains about 200 plant species.
•The Tonle Sap contains at least 200 species of fish, 42 species of reptiles, 225 species of
birds, and 46 species of mammals.
•Of the 500 fish species once found in Cambodia's wetlands, as many as 300 are now thought
to have disappeared.
Socio-
economy
•1.2 million people live in the area bordered by Highways No. 5 and No. 6.
•The Tonle Sap yields about 230,000 tons of fish each year (about 50% of Cambodia's total
freshwater capture fisheries production).
•Rice production in the Tonle Sap's floodplains makes up about 12% of Cambodia's total.

Threats to the Tonle Sap
Climate
Change
Cumulative Impact
of Built Structures
on the Hydrology of
the Mekong Basin
Deforestation in
the Watersheds
Agricultural
Expansion
Industrial and
Urban
Pollution
Conversion of the
Flooded Forest to
Agriculture
Overexploitation
of Fisheries and
Wildlife
Resources
Agricultural
Runoff
Mining
Habitat
Fragmentation
Collection of
Fuel Wood from
the Flooded
Forest
Introduction of
Non-Native
Species

Entry Points for Sustainable
Livelihoods
Entry Point Purpose Potential Outcomes
Establishing Village
Development Funds
• To provide a sustainable mechanism
for communities to self-fund
development activities, and
provision of safety nets to the poor
and vulnerable.
• To set in motion innovative
livelihoods improvement initiatives
with a bias toward disadvantaged
groups.
• Enhanced human and social capital
and reduced dependency on
external agencies.
• Enhanced human capital by directly
developing the knowledge and skills
of all groups to contribute to
planning at the village level.
• Improved physical capital in terms of
local infrastructure.
• Enhanced social capital through
improvement in the internal
functioning of groups.
Strengthening
Community-Based
Management of
Natural Resources
• To generate transparency and equity
into issues surrounding access t land
and other natural resources that
create conflict and dispute in
villages.
• To improve sound management of
natural resources.
• Direct impact on the stock of natural
capital by enhancing sustainable
measures to improve natural
resource management.
• Social capital can provide
community-accepted leadership and
management.

Livelihoods
Improving
Agronomic Practices
and Small-Scale
Irrigation
• To achieve optimum production from
local crop varieties, especially rice,
particularly during favorable
seasons.
• To make agricultural output more
reliable with the rehabilitation of
existing or construction of new
small-scale irrigation systems.
• Improved natural and physical capital
through the provision of inputs that
ensure greater household food
security.
fostering Water User Groups and
Pump User Groups.
• Strengthened structures through
involvement of the Ministry of Rural
Development in cultural change
leading to social capital wealth.
• Increased coordination of activities
that allows gaps in support of efforts
to be closed.

Livelihoods
Developing Post-
School Literacy for
Women
• To provide women the opportunity
to acquire greater literacy in the
Khmer language and thereby
increase capacity to seek
information, lobby, and set up new
groups for gender empowerment.
• Enhanced social and human capital,
especially for poor and vulnerable
women from all three ethnic groups
in the Tonle Sap region.
• Enhanced social capital since women
would become less economically
dependent on men, leading to
greater gender empowerment.
• Lessening of social exclusion for
many women groups, including
ethnic minority women.

Livelihoods
Supporting Self-Help
Groups
• To enable small groups (up to 20
members) to work with one another
to pool savings toward a revolving
credit fund or to access microfinance
provider services.
• Increased financial capital, especially
for the poor and vulnerable.
• Increased financial capital induced by
the possibility of financial savings.
improvement in group formation and
structure.
• Increased financial capital through
income generation and scope to
participate in external activities.
Linking Villagers to
the Private Sector
• To enable the private sector to drive
poverty reduction, for instance, in
the livestock sector but also in other
land and water-based enterprise
sectors, through open and
transparent linkages that are
protected by appropriate legislation
and practices of engagement.
• Increased financial capital through
enhanced market opportunities and
subsector activities leading to the
possibility of financial savings.
• Enhanced natural capital, which will
need sound management to prevent
overexploitation.

Livelihoods
Providing Post-
Schooling Vocational
Education
• To compensate for the limited
schooling of many in the Tonle Sap
region
• To equip a new labor force with basic
know-how and experience to add
value to local industry and other
economic activities
• To develop a "Living Skills" program
related to labor and migrant workers'
rights, economic development, and
HIV/AIDS
• Direct enhancement of human
capital, from which economic growth
potential can be realized
• Reduced vulnerability of those in the
workplace and workers' enhanced
knowledge of rights and obligations
to employers
• A skilled labor force at the
community level and from whom the
community can also elicit advice
Adding Value to Fish
and Non-Timber
Forest Products
• To add value to fish by introducing
appropriate training in post harvest
practices, for instance, in the areas
of fermenting and drying
• To generate higher economic returns
from non-timber forest products
harvested which could have a
significant economic value
• Enhanced human capital through a
reduction of vulnerability at times of
low fish catch or flooding
• Maximized returns to communities
from natural capital

Tonle Sap Sustainable Livelihoods
Output 1
• Community-Driven Development is Supported (to
absorb 90% of baseline costs). This entails: (i)
establishing a community-livelihood fund; and (ii)
designing and implementing livelihood investment
packages.
Output 2
• Core areas are Safeguarded (to absorb about 4% of
baseline costs). This entails: (i) establishing an
information base on core areas; (ii) instituting a
management system for core areas; and (iii)
instituting an improved network of fish sanctuaries.
Output 3
• Skills and Awareness for Sustainable Livelihoods are
Built (to absorb about 6% of baseline costs). This
entails: (i) improving coordination for community-
driven development; (ii) enhancing the skills base for
community-driven development; and (iii) educating
for protection of natural resources.

Tonle Sap Sustainable LivelihoodsOutputs
Community-
Driven
Development is
Supported
Core Areas are
Safeguarded
Skills and
Awareness for
Sustainable
Livelihoods are
Built
Outcome
Increased
access to assets
in the five
provinces that
adjoin the Tonle
Sap
Impact
Improved
livelihoods

Further Reading
• ADB. 2005. The Tonle sap Basin Strategy. Manila.
www.adb.org/documents/tonle-sap-basin-strategy
• ——. 2005. Tonle Sap Sustainable Livelihoods Project. Manila.
www.adb.org/projects/documents/tonle-sap-sustainable-
livelihoods-project-rrp
• ——. 2005. Sustaining Livelihoods on Cambodia's Tonle Sap.
Manila. www.adb.org/news/sustaining-livelihoods-
cambodias-tonle-sap
• ——. 2008. The Sustainable Livelihoods Approach. Manila.
www.adb.org/publications/sustainable-livelihoods-approach
• ——. 2008. Appreciative Inquiry. Manila.
www.adb.org/publications/appreciative-inquiry

Quick Response Codes
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