Purpose & Application
The SHARP+ tool can be used to
Identify the aspects of the farming system in need of intervention
Map the most vulnerable areas & geographical units and inform the design of project activities
Monitor and evaluate the resilience and adaptive capacities of the targeted population
Design inclusive and holistic solutions for enhancing farmer’s livelihoods and climate resilience
When to implement the tool?
- During the formulation of the project to identify priorities and objectives to guide project formulation.
- Before the start of project interventions/activities to:
i) Identify priorities to guide project activities, e.g. training programs curriculum, choice of activities, beneficiaries, zone of intervention and
ii) Develop a baseline for Monitoring & Evaluation (M&E) purpose. - During the interventions/activities to evaluate progress towards targets and provide guidance on adjustments (M&E).
- After the interventions/activities to
i) Provide useful data for Monitoring & Evaluation (M&E) and
ii) Present concrete arguments for lobbying for improved resilience.
Interested in applying SHARP+ to better understand agroecosystem resilience and strengthen farmers’ adaptive capacity within your initiatives?
Connect with the SHARP+ team to draw on their expertise and experience, to tailor the SHARP+ questionnaire to your specific context, and receive personalized support throughout the implementation process.
Implementation steps
The SHARP+ questionnaire is built around a set of twenty-two core modules which capture agroecosystems’ resilience and aims to understand current strategies used by farmers to cope with and adapt to climate change and other non-climate shocks and disturbances in a given context. Eight additional non-mandatory modules can be selected to provide the opportunity to expand the understanding and deepen knowledge of aspects that are more relevant to the project objectives and/or study area.
Furthermore, to tailor the tool to the local context, a list of relevant seasonal crop species, perennial crop species, livestock species, pests and diseases, and tree species not included in the perennial crops section need to be added. Then, the entire questionnaire—both questions and answer options— should be reviewed to ensure contextual relevance. Questions and answer options may be modified, added, or removed as needed. For more in-depth adaptation, additional variables can be integrated, for example, to align with a project's logical framework for monitoring and evaluation or to address highly specific local conditions.
Adaptation involves up-front work to identify all the relevant modules, questions and response options, to ensure that the questionnaire is adequately adjusted to suit the local context.
A three-to-five-day training is designed provided to enumerators to strengthen their understanding of the SHARP+ tool, its methodology, and its application. Specifically, it covers:
- The concept of resilience, its importance, and the need for measurement,
- An overview of the SHARP+ approach and tool,
- How resilience is assessed within the SHARP+ framework,
- A detailed review of the questionnaire, including structure, questions, and re-sponse flow as well as the finalization of its adaptation,
- Hands-on guidance on using the digital tool, completing a questionnaire, and submitting data to the central server.
Other project stakeholders, such as coordinators and M&E experts, are also encouraged to participate.
The primary goal of the training is to ensure high-quality data collection and minimize bias. It can be conducted either in person or online.
Data collection typically begins after the training, using a customized version of the tablet-based digital questionnaire on KoBo Toolbox. Fine-tuning the questionnaire following the training can take from one day to a week, depending on the extent of modifications needed.
Data is collected directly on a phone or tablet using the digital questionnaire, which can function offline. The duration of the data collection phase depends on the sample size and the number of enumerators trained.
Once the survey is completed, the compound resilience scores (ranging from 0 to 20) for each module are automatically calculated and displayed at the end of the survey. The enumerator can then share the results with the respondent directly after completing the survey.
Once all surveys are completed, the raw data can be downloaded from KoBo Toolbox, aggregated and analysed. The analysis requires basic statistical skills, knowledge on how to manage large data sets and familiarity with Excel and/or other data analysis software such as R.
In depth analyses can be conducted on the collected data to examine resilience scores by domain and module, interpret these scores through relevant sub-indicators, and identify the key factors contributing to agroecosystem’s strengths or vulnerabilities. Additionally, descriptive statistical analyses can be performed for each variable. These analyses are partially automated through an Excel dashboard.
Furthermore, data is usually disaggregated per geographic units and per gender of the decision-maker or respondent. If needed, resilience scores can also be mapped to high-ight the most vulnerable areas, and specific statistical tests can be conducted for deeper insights.
Once the analysis have been completed, a resilience assessment report is drawn up. This report focuses mainly on the aspects of the agroecosystem that show low resilience levels, to better understand vulnerability factors. The report can be tailored to the needs of the project (e.g. baseline, monitoring and evaluation report, recommendations, etc.).
Once the report is finalized a two-pages factsheet is published in the FAO knowledge repository. This factsheet displays key findings from the survey in a simplified way for wider dissemination to both project stakeholder and non-project audience. The content of the factsheet and dissemination strategies can be tailored according to the needs of the project in collaboration between the SHARP+ and project teams.