Thank you for this interesting topic for the discussion. The TAPE tool developmed by the FAO looks very promising and it would be interesting to see, whether it could be embedded into the evaluations of projects or programmes targeting agroecological transitions.
The tool is very much rooted in the systems thinking and because of this, it offers an alternative to the mainstream evaluations approaches. Maybe it would be helpful to investigate how it could be integrated with the popular frameworks using the OECD DAC, Theory of Change, Intervention Logic and Logframe approaches. In my view, the best would be to use the suggested indicators already at the project design stage.
On the other hand, the proposed indicators can be possibly helpful for facilitation purposes in the rural communities. For instance, when I worked with the project beneficiaries on developing indicators in participatory manner, I was sometimes missing a good background template with indicators to inspire them. The TAPE Tool could be a good resource for this.
In my experience, farmers and rural stakeholders often do not see a clear difference between agroecology and other system-type approaches, such as for instance conservation or carbon farming. The TAPE Tool could be possibly used to articulate more the similarities and differences.
RE: Evaluating agroecology: what is your experience?
Dear Seda and Colleagues,
Thank you for this interesting topic for the discussion. The TAPE tool developmed by the FAO looks very promising and it would be interesting to see, whether it could be embedded into the evaluations of projects or programmes targeting agroecological transitions.
The tool is very much rooted in the systems thinking and because of this, it offers an alternative to the mainstream evaluations approaches. Maybe it would be helpful to investigate how it could be integrated with the popular frameworks using the OECD DAC, Theory of Change, Intervention Logic and Logframe approaches. In my view, the best would be to use the suggested indicators already at the project design stage.
On the other hand, the proposed indicators can be possibly helpful for facilitation purposes in the rural communities. For instance, when I worked with the project beneficiaries on developing indicators in participatory manner, I was sometimes missing a good background template with indicators to inspire them. The TAPE Tool could be a good resource for this.
In my experience, farmers and rural stakeholders often do not see a clear difference between agroecology and other system-type approaches, such as for instance conservation or carbon farming. The TAPE Tool could be possibly used to articulate more the similarities and differences.
Best wishes,
Anna Maria Augustyn