Example of framing
Framing means putting some boundaries around what you are talking about so that you and the people you work with can hold conversations about the same thing.
This is how we planned the framing for the assessment of Thobelani CPA at Gwebu, May 2002.
- Check people's understanding of the term CPA.
Explain term CPA if needed: "In a CPA a group of people buy, hold and manage the land collectively. They set up rules to live under. All the people together." - Explain background to the assessment and who you are
"In 1996 DLA created legislation that resulted in new ways in which people could organize themselves to get and keep land - i.e. they could form a communal property association (CPA). DLA has set up a national CPA Task Team to review how well these CPAs are working. They plan to use the results to improve policy and support around land holding bodies. They have asked people to form task teams in the different provinces to carry out this work. In KZN the provincial CPA task team consists of DLA planners from Port Shepstone and Vryheid, and people from the LEAP project. DLA asked the regional offices to put forward cases in their regions for this review." then explain why we have come to Gwebu - how Gwebu was chosen. - Clarify what you are asking to do:
"We are asking to do some research in your community. " - Explain the main focus of the research
"Here at Gwebu you own land as a group. Inside the group are different households and inside the households are individuals - men, women and children."The people of Gwebu are already using the land now - people have homes here, and fields and livestock and probably use natural resources from the land.
"We will start by listening to what you say about how the group and the households use the land and the resources now - the present situation. We note that the people of Gwebu are also working with outside structures around development of land.
[Note to facilitator: this is the core]: "Understanding how you use land now is a stepping stone to understanding how households and individuals inside the group get to be users of land and resources, how they keep the use of land, and how they change who has or who uses land and resources, when circumstances change.
"We have questions like: What sorts of structures, authorities and arrangements do you have to do this? and How well are these working?
"We want to hear the views of the land users themselves and the views of the authorities who make decisions."
- Explain what you will do with the information
"We will use the information at two levels:"We will feed back to you what we find out, and think with you about the sorts of arrangements the people of Gwebu need, so that households and individuals who form the land holding body can get land, and keep it, or change who has or uses land or resources in a way that works. LEAP and DLA haven't got immediate capacity to support making all the changes, but there may be things that you want to start doing on your own.
"We will use the information in a research report to national CPA Task Team, to feed into countrywide analysis of the situation with respect to CPAs. We want this to feed into improvements in support for CPAs."