In this participatory video project a group of people in Chanya (Malawi) explore key issues affecting them as individuals and the wider community, in relation to climate change locally and/or globally. Video was used as a tool by which the subject could be explored and perspectives shared amongst the participants themselves and with the wider community and beyond.
Our PV methods have demonstrated to be ideal for working with small-scale farmers to enable farmer-to-farmer sharing of innovations and experiences, and connecting those same farming communities with the outside world and key stakeholders including policymakers, industry representatives and NGOs. This article describes some recent examples from our work with farming communities around the world.
Commissioned case study prepared for the Centre for Development Informatics, University of Manchester, UK, for their Climate Change, Innovation & ICTs Project.
InsightShare and IIED worked together during 2009 and 2010 in an action research project called Community-Based Adaptation in Africa, using participatory video for monitoring and evaluation.
In 2009 InsightShare was invited by IIED (International Institute for Environment and Development) to develop ways to use participatory video to monitor and evaluate climate change adaptation. Over 18 months, we held workshops in South Africa, Kenya, Zimbabwe and Malawi under the Community-Based Adaptation in Africa (CBAA) initiative.
Some of the poorest people in the world are already coping with a changing climate. InsightShare travelled to Kenya, Zimbabwe and Malawi to facilitate three Participatory Video for Monitoring and Evaluation workshops. The workshops were to help the local partner organisation and community members keep track of ("Monitor") their ability to cope with changes in the climate and decide together (evaluate) what type of adaptation strategy they thought best for them.
In Dumba village, the seasons have changed beyond recognition. When rains are meant to come, villagers are facing drought, when harvest traditionally used to occur, floods from the river nearby sweep everything away. People are resorting to traditional foods, migration, old and new crop varieties and community support to survive.
In this article Dominic Elliot describes how an Aids support group in Malawi used participatory video to boost their self-esteem and to encourage others to get tested, by enabling group members to tell their own stories and to film themselves engaging in different agricultural activities.
In 2005, InsightShare used participatory video as a tool for working with an HIV-positive community group in M'deka, Malawi. The 3-day project was carried out in partnership with the Malawi branch of GOAL, an Irish non-governmental organisation (NGO) that has been setting up these groups as a way of helping HIV-positive people support one another and change attitudes in the community with regard to knowing/communicating one's status.
This Photostory documents the Participatory Video project behind the creation of film by the Tichezerane AIDS Support Group, in Malawi, all of whom live with the HIV virus.
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