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Figure 7: COMPAS partners in Africa identified 13 capacity areas as necessary for
communities to be effective in undertaking endogenous development. A baseline of
these capacity areas was compared to progress after 4 years of supportive
programmes and community visions of success in the future (Source: COMPAS, 2010)
TOOL: Assessing Key Opportunities and Threats
Purpose: This tool can be adapted and used to determine how the community would like to respond to
certain opportunities and threats. If a large number of opportunities and threats have been identified,
the tool can also help prioritize which ones to act upon.
Resource: Adapted from Toolbox for Jirani Na Mazingira and Community Conservancy Local Level
Planning in Laikipia Ecosystem (Zeitz Foundation, 2010)
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Throughout your interactions with the community, a number of opportunities and threats have
likely been identified. If not, facilitate a brainstorming session. Aside from redundancies, all
suggestions should be considered potentially important.
Work with a small group to identify criteria for assessing the opportunities and threats. Such
criteria should help the community eventually make a decision about whether or not to address
the opportunity or threat in question.
Create an organized table with the opportunities and threats listed in separate columns across the
top and criteria listed in separate rows on the left-hand side. See Table 6 below for an example.
Encourage the small group to consider each opportunity or threat in turn and assess it according
to the criteria.
After the table is completed, the group will likely have a good idea of the most important
opportunities and threats and what may be required to address them.
Facilitate a process of prioritization. This could be done by identifying the issues that have large
magnitude and are easy to address. Those that have a small impact and are easy to address are
also reasonable choices.
Once key opportunities and threats are prioritized, you could facilitate a process of visioning and
planning to address them.
Table 6: Sample criteria for assessing opportunities and threats (Source: Zeitz Foundation, 2010)
Assessment of Opportunity or Threat
MAGNITUDE
What is the size of the opportunity or
Opportunity
or Threat A
Opportunity
or Threat B
Opportunity
or Threat C
Opportunity
or Threat D