Systems review

Internal reviews of project management will provide information of use to purchasers and investors and can help project teams analyse and improve project management.

Two types of review process are described here: social impact assessment, a periodic evaluation of the project impact on producer groups and management review, an annual evaluation of the implementation and effectiveness of management systems.

Social impact assessment

As well as providing information of interest to investors social impact assessment can provide a valuable forum for the exchange of information among producers. Impact assessment can also help identify particular technical problems and help specify training needs.

Social impact assessment procedures should be designed in consultation with producer groups to ensure that the issues that are important to producers are included. When designing assessment procedures it should be remembered that the Plan Vivo System has a specific remit, i.e. to promote the development of socially beneficial activities. It is hoped that these will have a knock on effect on local livelihoods but this will depend on a variety of factors outside of the control of the project. Social monitoring should therefore concentrate on aspects of livelihoods directly affected by the project.

The Scolel T projects carries out an annual assessment of social impact involving a sample of producers who have carbon registered with the project. The assessment covers:

• The natural resource base of communities
• Skills learnt through project involvement
• Use of carbon payments by producers
• Group communication and organisation

See an example of a social impact assessment form the Scolel T project.

Management review

Management systems review aims to analyse the extent to which projects systems are being implemented as stated in the operational manual to improve management efficiency. Management review will also enable the project to respond to changes in carbon markets more effectively. Management systems review should be a formal, documented process.

Some issues that should be covered in management systems review include:

• Carbon accounting
  • have all purchases been covered by sale agreements, what is the justification of any shortfalls?
  • have there been problems in registering sufficient quantities of carbon, what actions could be taken to minimise these problems in the future?
  • what is the expected volume of carbon sales from the project next year, how many new producers will be required to supply this volume?
  • have purchasers specified new requirements that would necessitate changes to technical specifications or working with new target groups?
• Financial accounting
  • has income from carbon sales been sufficient to cover project running costs?
  • what proportion of carbon income goes directly to farmers?
  • what is the expected income generation from carbon sales next year?
• Record keeping
  • does the relevant documentation exist for all registered producers and carbon transactions, what is the justification for any missing documents?
  • what has been the stakeholder feedback on the documentation used by the project?