Strengths, weaknesses, opportunities & threats: Questions for a grassroots discussion

Building upon the self-assessment of resilience and security, your community can further identify the most important strengths and challenges, opportunities and threats related to the territory of life. Ideally, these questions are asked immediately after using the Tool, or at a meeting that takes place shortly afterwards. You may start by reflecting on some obvious trends (for example, increasing or decreasing conflicts in the community, ecosystem regeneration or degradation, out-migration or immigration, decrease or increase in the respect of the governance institution’s rules, impacts of climate change), before moving to the following questions:

Strengths and weaknesses

  • What are the most important issues that arose regarding the ‘building blocks’ of resilience and security?
  • If the tool was used by diverse small groups in our community, are the ‘scores’ and identified key issues similar for all groups? If not, what are the main differences? What does that reveal?
  • What are the key elements of strength of our territory of life?
  • What are the most serious internal and/or external weaknesses of our territory of life?

Threats and opportunities

  • Is our territory of life currently facing any threats? Do we see any threats emerging?
  • Would these threats have different implications for different groups in our community, such as women, elders, young people, ethnic minorities or those sharing their main means of livelihood?
  • Are there opportunities to strengthen our territory of life that we can act on?
  • Would these opportunities have different implications for different groups in our community?
  • Can the existing governance of the territory of life meaningfully and rapidly counteract threats or take advantage of new opportunities?
  • Can territory of life management practices be meaningfully and rapidly changed if the need arises?

Note: The last two questions are discussed in more detail in the following sections, on #governance and #management of the territory of life. The community should decide whether they wish to go into more depth in their understanding and analysis.