The next level in community-led engagement and accountability: integrating a participatory mixed-methods approach

The ‘Participation Revolution’ will not be achieved until participatory methods are used to centre communities’ voices, perspectives and expertise at every stage of humanitarian programming and response.

Participatory video (PV) is a method of involving a community in creating their own films to express their experiences and feed into programme planning, design and evaluation. Several CDAC members use PV techniques to deepen community engagement and achieve meaningful participation, particularly in refugee and internally displaced people (IDP) camps.

Fernanda Baumhardt (CDAC Expert Pool) and Soledad Muñiz (CDAC member InsightShare) share their participatory video experiences in this photo story.

A people-centred approach means affected peoples’ voices drive programming discussions and decisions

Fernanda Baumhardt for NORCAP/CASHCAP Meaningful Dialogue with Communities project, Maaji 1 Refugee Settlement, Uganda, 2019: A South Sudanese refugee woman who acts as an interpreter between refugees and aid organisations explains what her group of women expects from humanitarian programmers.

Identifying locally-led solutions and ideas is crucial not only for accountability but also to promote ownership and sustainability of those solutions

InsightShare, South Africa, 2009: Identifying local solutions for water provision.

Supporting communities to analyse what works and what doesn't in interventions creates space for real-time feedback, as well as integration of community-led solutions and ideas into design

InsightShare, Uganda, 2022: Refugees and host communities identifying what's working and what's needed next at a midline evaluation on financial inclusion.

Participatory evaluations centre communities as clients speaking out about projects’ impacts and gaps

Fernanda Baumhardt for IFRC and the Malawian Red Cross Society PV evaluation pilot, Malawi, 2016: Community members discussing and elaborating on OECD DAC evaluation criteria.

A circle enables horizontal learning of video dialogue tools

Fernanda Baumhardt for IFRC and Malawian Red Cross Society PV evaluation pilot, Tanzania, 2016: A circle during the first hour of community video training.

Tools to amplify voices: women learning how to operate a video camera

Fernanda Baumhardt for IFRC and Malawian Red Cross Society PV evaluation pilot, Tanzania, 2016.

Women at an IDP camp in Ecuador learn how to capture community suggestions addressed to camp managers

Fernanda Baumhardt for IOM during M7.9 earthquake response, Pedernales, Ecuador, 2016.

Community led, community defined

Participatory video enables affected communities to reflect, identify, direct and film their feedback, recommendations and stories in the way they perceive as the most relevant and appropriate to portray their viewpoints and realities.

Far more than simply making a film product, this is a process that stimulates community engagement, collaborative problem-solving and ownership.

Participatory training methods must be designed to facilitate a peer-to-peer learning journey. It is not about ‘behaviour change’ but more profound social changes.

“The process of communication with communities and by the communities is far more important than the products. It is a communication and participation process that activates social change” (A. Gumucio, The New Communicator, 2001).

Listening to one another means we’re not only sharing our recommendations with implementers but also collectively analysing our circumstances, which supports resilience and agency

InsightShare, Bangladesh, 2016: Post-disaster community-led evaluation.

Without two-way communication, failure is inevitable

InsightShare, Tanzania, 2014: Failed project in which a water NGO installed a water pump in the wrong location.

Peer-to-peer sharing of stories creates a safe space to learn, share and heal

InsightShare, Jordan, 2021: Host community and refugee story sharing

Deciding how to record our video stories of change means making sense of our journeys to unpack how and why change happened

InsightShare, Moldova, 2014: Women's economic empowerment defined by women, instead of for them.

Self-representation grounded in a safe space

Fernanda Baumhardt for IOM Global Migration Film Festival, Afghanistan, 2018: IDP women in Herat.

Watching back is not only an essential aspect of an ethically informed consent process but also supports reflexivity and agency

InsightShare, Uganda, 2022: Community group watching back after filming their story of change.

Community documented

Amplifying the voices of the affected community should be a priority in any community engagement and accountability strategy, and self-directed film has a unique ability to embody their lived experiences.

Simple equipment, such as a filming camera and a hand microphone, become key social justice tools, enabling people to speak out with confidence, self-recognition and dignity.

Participatory video project portraying refugees’ recommendations on cash assistance interventions

Fernanda Baumhardt for Meaningful Dialogues with Communities pilot project by CASHCAP/NORCAP, Uganda, 2019.

IDP youth recording their recommendations to local authorities and partners for reconstruction plans

Fernanda Baumhardt for OCHA Peru, 2017.

Venezuelans in Colombia share suggestions with cash assistance programmers

Fernanda Baumhardt for Meaningful Dialogues with Communities pilot project by CASHCAP/NORCAP, Colombia, 2019.

Venezuelans in Colombia share suggestions with cash assistance programmers

Fernanda Baumhardt for Meaningful Dialogues with Communities pilot project by CASHCAP/NORCAP, Colombia, 2019.

“My feedback, your actions”

Centring communities in the dialogue and listening to their insights is half the equation; to close the loop we must turn their feedback into action. If we don’t feel prepared to truly integrate community feedback into programming, we must interrogate how flexible our systems are to enable course correction. Are we really listening?

A camp cinema in Ecuador shows community-produced messages aimed at improving life in the camp

Fernanda Baumhardt/NORCAP for IOM Ecuador, Pedernales, Ecuador, 2016.

“Our voice, in our way”: narratives produced and edited by migrants screened for an audience

Fernanda Baumhardt/NORCAP for IOM: Global Migration Film Festival opening in Geneva, 2018.

Red Cross staff and volunteers listen to what’s worked in earthquake recovery and urban resilience for disaster risk reduction

InsightShare, Nepal, 2019: PV training of British Red Cross and Nepal Red Cross Society staff conducting a participatory evaluation on earthquake recovery programming and urban resilience lessons for disaster risk reduction.

Maria, a youth from an IDP camp, voices her recommendations to municipality authorities and humanitarian partners during a camp management coordination meeting

Fernanda Baumhardt/NORCAP for OCHA Peru, 2017: Piura floods response.

Adolescent girls present their views and recommendations on girl-centred programming to funders

InsightShare, Turkey, 2012: Adolescent girls from Guatemala and Uganda presenting at the AWID conference.

Post-screening discussion on what worked and why

InsightShare. Nepal, 2018: Groups of women discuss with Nepal Red Cross Society what aspects of disaster risk reduction programming have worked and why.

Projecting communities’ voices to influential audiences

Our current times need a more humane approach that goes beyond ‘putting faces to numbers’. Participatory video enables communities to comfortably and safely express their own experiences in their own way and at their own pace. Unlike written reports, film can connect on a deeper emotional level with influential audiences and show a fuller picture.

It also promotes peer-to-peer knowledge-sharing, providing longer-term value for their community while also documenting their feedback.

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If you’d like to learn more about PV, contact:

• Soledad Muñiz (Director of Programmes at InsightShare): smuniz@insightshare.org

• Fernanda Baumhardt (Humanitarian Community Engagement and Accountability Specialist; Member of NORCAP CEA Roster and CDAC Expert Pool): fernanda.baumhardt@mac.com

Photo story prepared with the assistance of Tania Ocampo-Garcia, InsightShare.