In the SDG Pathfinding project we used CoSMoS with local stakeholders in both the Fimela catchment, in Senegal, and the Swartkops catchment in South Africa. In both cases, local communities came together and created systems maps that represented:
i) their collective judgement of the current trajectory of both catchments, and
ii) the pathways they would like to see instead.
These maps are the foundation from which they can develop, deliberate, and select future pathways to achieve their local sustainable development goals.
Workshop participants discuss the current state of the Swartkops catchment.
Together with our project partners, the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA, Austria), the National Research Institute for Agriculture, Food and the Environment (INRAE, France), Groupe d’Action et d’Initiative pour un développement Alternatif (GAIA, Senegal) and the Rhodes University (RU, South Africa), we are continuing to work towards integrating CoSMoS within a broader suite of established participatory approaches, methods and tools.
Visioning: Mapping the desired future for the Fimela catchment