Monitoring and Evaluation of the Partnership Platform for the Amazon through Social Network Analysis
Monitoring and periodic analysis of the network of past, present, and future relationships within and outside the Partnership Platform for the Amazon (PPA) are an important component of the overall PPA learning agenda. To implement the Social Network Analysis (SNA) monitoring of the Catalyzing and Learning Platforms and Partnerships for Biodiversity Conservation (CALPP) Program, the specialists on statistics, SNA, and modeling from CIAT-Colombia, Jean-François Le Coq (overall project coordinator), Carlos Eduardo Gonzalez (SNA and modeling specialist), Bryan Mora (statistical analysis specialist), Camilo Andrés Méndez (statistical analysis specialist), and Vivian Zeidemann (program evaluation coordinator), have been working with their Brazilian collaborators Sylvia Mitraud (project coordinator in Brazil) and Valderli Jorge Piontekowski (IT development coordinator) from IPAM (Instituto de Pesquisas Ambientais da Amazônia), with the objective of monitoring some of the activities of CALPP through SNA.
The SNA component of the monitoring, evaluation, and learning system of CALPP aims to monitor and evaluate the PPA to support adaptive implementation of the platform, providing insight that could be used in replicating or scaling up the approach, and facilitating the extraction of generalized lessons about enabling conditions that support an alternative pathway of economic development in remaining significant tropical forests of the world. Specifically, the objective is to design and apply a relational analysis methodology integrating Social Network Analysis, having ability to perform experiments evaluating information flows, testing network vulnerability, and performing statistical and qualitative analyses that will enable the characterization of the PPA platform and its evolution, as well as the evolution of its impact in the broader social, economic, and institutional contexts in which it operates. And, at the end, monitor whether the PPA project’s implementation achieves its goal of building sustainable development activities in balance with conserving the unequaled biodiversity of the Amazon region.
During the workshop, the CIAT and IPAM teams validated the PPA actors (which will be used in the SNA), defined and validated the variables, and defined the methodological processes that will be used in the PPA social network analysis and modeling. All of these elements will then be integrated into an SNA protocol that will guide the data collection and analysis. The SNA monitoring component is just beginning, but surely, its results will be important in determining whether the PPA is an effective partnership platform and whether PPA membership increases over time and companies increasingly engage and take leadership, thus creating internal business cases and investing human, financial, and/or technological capital. More important is to also determine whether PPA implementation impacts positively on biodiversity conservation in the Amazon region.
A preliminary PPA Social Network Analysis monitoring framework developed by CIAT and IPAM teams. (On right side, in first paragraph, change “member” to “members”. In second paragraph, change “member” to “members” and add comma after “activities” and change “not member” to “non-members”. In third paragraph, capitalize Amazon and remove slash mark. In fourth paragraph, close spaces in relationships/activities and add slash to actors/partners. After circled number 3, change “Impacts pathways” to “Impact pathways”, change “though” to “through”, and add comma after “change.” Above 2a, the fourth colored circle should have (nodes) after Actors. Under middle diagram, change “PPA Projects partners networks” to PPA Project partner networks”. At top, after PPA, change “institution” to “institutions” and change “value chains networks” to “value chain networks”. In parentheses, use public institutions, investors, businesses, producers, NGOs.