GFAR webinar on participatory video

GFAR COMMUNICATIONS WEBINAR
GFAR-SECRETARIAT@FAO.ORG
GFAR Webinar on
Participatory Video

Presenters
• Soledad Muniz (InsightShare)
• Nelson Ojijo (Access Agriculture)
• Juliet Braslow
• Manon Koningstein
• Shadi Azadegan
Moderators: Charles Plummer/Peter Casier (GFAR)

Soledad Muniz
InsightShare
smuniz@insightshare.org
www.insightshare.org

What is Participatory Video?
Participatory Video is a set of
techniques to involve a group or
community in shaping and creating
their own film.

Not a video camera
An ear
A mirror
A torch
A travel machine

Videos in Agricultural Development:
The Case of Farmer-to-Farmer Training Videos
By
Ojijo, NKO; Van Mele, P.; Malone, P.; and Wanvoeke, J.

Steps in Making Farmer-to-Farmer (F-2-F)
Videos
Factsheet
writing
Validating
the fact
sheets
with
farmers
in the
field
Script
writing
Video
shooting
Editing

AA farmer-to-farmer videos are participatory
1. Farmers assist with initial research so that a strong script can
be written based upon their experience.
2. The script then allows easy translation of the videos into
many different languages around the world
3. During filming, farmers ‘mediate’ by describing their
relevant experiences on the topic
4. Moreover, farmers are given opportunity to demonstrate
the different techniques they are familiar with
5. This allows for knowledge co-creation to suit farmer needs
and helps make strong, structured farmer-to-farmer training
videos

Training NGOs,
farmer
organisations and
GOs in:
Bangladesh
Benin
Egypt
India
Iraq
Kenya
Liberia
Malawi
Mali
Sierra Leone
Uganda

Access Agriculture: Videos for Farmers
Access Agriculture works with a
large network of extension and
communication professionals and
enterprises to encourage and
promote the production,
translation and distribution of F-
2-F videos in local and
international languages.

Online Video Platforms
Access Agriculture website (www.accessagriculture.org)
Repository for over 148 quality, scripted, farmer training
videos on various topics in over 70 local and international
languages
Available also in 3GP formats for downloading on mobile
phones
Available also in audio formats for airing on radio stations
Scripts also available to facilitate translation
Video and audio files are freely downloadable
Within less than four years, over 100,000 visits to the site

Videos can be watched online and freely downloaded by…
Visitors to the website come from 192 countries: (2013- 2017); n > 100,000
…NGO staff,
private sector,
extension workers,
teachers, farmers, etc.
Eastern Africa
25%
Western Africa
16%
Southern Asia
15%
Western Europe
8%
Northern Europe
7%
Northern America
7%
Northern Africa
3%
Southeast
Asia
3%
Western Asia
3%
South America
2%
Southern
Europe
2%
Central Africa
2%
Others
7%

Online Video Platforms
Agtube for any other agricultural videos
(www.agtube.org)
Non-scripted participatory videos showing local
innovations
Project success stories
Videos for policy makers,…

Anybody can show quality videos
• Specialized agencies
• Extension staff
• Local entrepreneurs
• Millers and value chain actors
• Rural information centers
• Cable TV operators
• Farmers

Making videos accessible
to youth and women
• Village setting
• Youth and women organisations
• Time of the day
• Leave DVDs in the community
• Smart projectors

Not everyone can access online videos….
Many farmers who would benefit from the F-2-F
training videos live in remote rural areas with no
electricity, TVs, and DVD players
Where mobile networks exist, farmers in rural settings
can use their mobile phones to download 3GP videos

Not everyone can access online videos….
The smart projector contains all of the
Access Agriculture videos available to
play off-line, off-grid and off mobile
signal. It comes complete with a solar
panel unit, 2 batteries and a sound
system suitable for up to 150 people – all
in one backpack.
The projector operates like an off-line
version of the website with videos being
chosen by category or language. This
content is regularly updated.
Digisoft Smart Projector

Reach of F-2-F Videos
Over 1000 extension service providers are using videos
hosted on our video platform to strengthen their training
Partners distributed more than 70,000 multi-language DVDs
to farmers in villages
Quality videos broadcast by TV stations in > 10 countries
Innovative partnerships with agricultural banks, such as
Equity Bank in Kenya
Over one million farmers reached in Africa and Asia

Lessons & Success Factors for F-2-F Videos
In Bangladesh, farmers who watched conservation agriculture
videos were motivated to experiment with the innovations
they saw, which in turn triggered various local tillage service
providers to invest in the new machinery
Videos not only stimulate farmers to invent new techniques;
they can also foster institutional change among farmers and
NGOs (parboiling in Benin).
Videos are better than farmer-to-farmer extension for
conveying new scientific knowledge and local innovations.

Challenges
Institutional impediments to cross-cultural learning - many
decision makers do not believe in south to south
communication across continents and between continents
Encouraging others to invest in translations to help farmers
understand better is sometimes a struggle
Tracking the use of and benefits accruing from the videos
High cost of video production

Awards
GOLD Award in the Innovation
category of the EVCOM Clarion
Awards at an International Award
Ceremony held Friday 7 October
2016 at Covent Garden, London UK.
The Access Agriculture website
which features “farmer to farmer”
videos in local languages was
singled out for the imaginative way
in which videos of value can be
accessed by the target audience
either directly or through extension
staff

www.accessagriculture.org
www.agtube.org
Thank you and please visit us at:

Adapting participatory video to rural
community and project needs in
Africa
Juliet Braslow
May 9, 2017
GFAR Webinar
33

Project Contexts
• Agricultural research for
development projects funded by
international donors
• General topics pre-defined by
projects: agricultural and natural
resource management impacts on
farmers’ livelihoods and ecosystem
services
• Facilitated with local project partners
(Universities and NGOs) in Ghana,
Kenya, Malawi and Tanzania
• Across different community and
agroecological contexts
34

PV objectives within project
context and constraints
• Facilitate bottom-up participation
in the research process
• Reveal group, community, and
wider landscape power dynamics
• Opportunity for farmers to
critically analyze their
environments and identify
problems and constraints and
their own ideas for constructive
action
• Identify opportunities for individual
and group action
• Multidirectional communication
and opportunities for feedback
35

Rural community context
• Rural agricultural communities
• Farmers whose time is one of their
most valuable resources
• No previous experience with video
cameras
• Many have basic mobile phones and
access to TV or DVDs in the
community
• Often many participants unable to
read and write
• Entire process facilitated in
translation to local language
• Multiple neighboring communities
involved
36

Who participates?
• 8-12 participants
• Participant selection can drive
and change the entire process
• Representatives from multiple
communities where carrying out
project activities
• Representative of range of
community members
• Socio-economic
• Age
• Gender
• Status
• Religion
37

6 day participatory video process
• Adapted InsightShare methodology to 6 days
• Chose exercises carefully through iterative
process to refine 6 day schedule
• Role play activities were very popular and
culturally appropriate
• Songs with messages and morals of the films
featured
• Writing not always appropriate way to keep group
notes so drawing and acting became key
• Participants supported each other to learn
together to
• Distil the messages they want to share
• Develop, film, and edit their story
38

Five Participatory Video case studies
Shared learning from:
• videos
• interviews
• observations
• discussion during and after the
video production
39

PV in Translation
• Important role and training of
translator and local facilitators
• Planning extra time for each activity
and re-cap session for translation in
both directions
• Engaging participants not comfortable
with writing or drawing (and
associated power dynamics)
• Using drawings from day 1
• Using acting or singing from day 1
40

Transformative learning
• Participants’ finish feeling impressed
and empowered by their:
• learning in only 6 days
• video product
• ability to express themselves
• share knowledge
• reach audiences in new and
unexpected ways
• critical analysis of environment and
communities
• opportunity to take on different roles
(becoming teachers or leaders)
• Farmer-to-farmer learning during
and after the PV process
41
“Even on the first day I could operate the camera on my own
and then all together we helped each other learn more. We
worked as a team to learn and make a good video.”
Rachel, a farmer in Malawi

Transformative learning on many levels
• Facilitators pushed to step back and
hand over control
• Avoid falling into the “easy” default
of letting the typical group leaders
take control
• Allowing everyone to try every role
and chose how they want to
participate
• Visually impaired participant’s success
• Summary speech pressures
• Unexpected facilitator leads community
meeting
42

Farmers’ teach their systems thinking
• Farmers demonstrate
their systems thinking at
multiple levels
• Farming system level:
interconnectedness of
farming activities
• Landscape system level:
farm activities impact the
wider environment
• Poverty forces people to
interact with their
resources unsustainably
43
Farmers Identify
Upstream & Downstream Relationships
“Some choose not to cooperate and they are not
taking responsibility upstream for the effects
downstream”
Farmer in Malawi

Linking and connecting: Video screenings and discussions
Every PV process includes
screenings and discussions with
various actors such as:
• District Executive Committee
• Forestry and Agriculture
departments
• Community members
• Traditional authorities and leaders
• Local TV and radio stations
• Locally active NGOs
• Power of farmers on screen &
leading discussions
• Group brainstorming for action
and behavior change
44

Conclusions
The PV process:
• Allows farmers to take control of the
dialogue to communicate for the
change they desire
• Provides a unique space for a
transformative learning process
• Farmers demonstrate their systems
thinking and understanding of how
farm activities impact the world
around them
• Feeds into research and development
activities that are locally relevant
Farmers hope their videos can serve to
inspire the necessary cooperation and
individual action toward safeguarding
ecosystems and food security
45

Thank you, Asante, Zikomo,
Npohiya, Barka
46
These Participatory Video processes were made
possible in partnership with:
With funding from:
Malawi (Photo: J. Braslow)
Juliet.braslow@gmail.com, juliet.braslow@un.org
Photos by Juliet Braslow/CIAT

Participatory Videos and links
• Blogs about Participatory Video and
mapping Process
• http://blog.ciat.cgiar.org/an-ecosystems-
approach-to-the-sdgs-in-africa-why-we-
need-to-listen-to-farmers/
• http://blog.ciat.cgiar.org/farmers-film-
their-homegrown-solutions/
• http://blog.ciat.cgiar.org/filming-for-
change-when-farmers-get-behind-the-
camera/
• http://blog.ciat.cgiar.org/farmers-
become-editors-what-next/
• http://insightshare.tumblr.com/post/142
631656625/farmers-film-their-
homegrown-solutions
47
• You Tube links of Participatory Videos
• "Ti Na Nyang" – "We Can" Upper East
Ghana: https://youtu.be/8hw4ytnCU6A
• “Let's conserve the environment by
finding solutions to end poverty” Ntcheu
district Malawi:
https://youtu.be/0EZD5lv_xAQ
• “Farming challenges in North Alego,
Kenya”:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QTU
UP6RYWSQ&feature=youtu.be
• “Don’t Destroy the Environment” Upper
West, Ghana:
https://youtu.be/RrZQt3dHJoA
• “The Environment is Life” Lushoto,
Tanzania:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Erjb
vNr15jY&feature=youtu.be

Linking Participatory Video to
Research for Development
Objectives:
A PV Experience in Esteli, Nicaragua
MANON KONINGSTEIN AND SHADI AZADEGAN
MAY 2017

Participatory video is…
A way to establish two-way communication
Adaptable to a broad range of research for development contexts
Can be aligned to support a variety of research objectives

“Lights, Camera, Action: Participatory Video to
Empower Rural Women and Youth”
Conducted by CIAT within the CGIAR Research Program on Integrated Systems for the Humid Tropics
Program objectives:
- Productive, economic, and environmental
- Learning, innovation, and gender & youth empowerment

PV experience in Esteli, Nicaragua
Source

PV experience in Esteli, Nicaragua

PV experience in Esteli, Nicaragua:
Aligning PV with research for development objectives
Learning and Innovation
Gender and Youth Empowerment
Livelihoods Improvement and Sustainable Intensification

PV to inform the pursuit of research for
development objectives
1. Establishing a two-way communication channel
- Group Agreement and Informed Consent
2. Aligning with Gender and Learning objectives
- Empowerment through individual and collective learning and innovation
3. Supporting Productive, Economic, and Environmental objectives
- Information Flow Map, Village Resource and Use Map, Wealth and Vulnerability Ranking
4. Final participatory video product

"As women we have great potential, and sometimes this is not so
visible to us... But we set goals, we have dreams, and we work
hard to achieve them. I love myself and I feel capable when I
believe in myself, in my potential and in my capacity. I want this
experience to serve as an inspiration to other women in our
communities. Why not experiment with new things? That is how
we transform a person, transform a community, transform a
country. It gives us courage to pursue our vision as rural women:
To produce quality crops and position ourselves in the market, to
increase our production and our earnings, and to have control over
our activities and our resources."
(Ima Alfaro, personal communication, 2015)

"For me, empowerment comes from knowledge, but also from
putting that knowledge into practice. I have negotiated with my
parents that I want a piece of land so I can work, because I
studied bio-intensive agriculture... This is easier for me, because
my mother is one of the founders of FEM. But it is not so easy for
many young women, or for the women who came before us. They
went through many challenges, and made a path so we young
women wouldn't have to face those difficulties. It is still
challenging for us, but not nearly as challenging as it was for [my
mother's generation]."
(Angeles Rivas Zamora, personal communication, 2015)

"As rural women, we come from different roots, and we have
different customs. This is why we have a different way of
experiencing [development]. For me, [it] is what makes me feel
connected to other rural women, and in harmony with Mother
Nature. It is a long process that involves many different areas of
our lives. We need to implement new things in our society, but
taking care of ourselves first. As rural women, we need to become
organized, because we have a great battle ahead and we cannot
do it alone. We share so many goals, we all want to study, to
become professionals; these are all goals that we can achieve, but
only if we work together."
(Deyling Espinoza, personal communication, 2015)

Defining development identities through PV
Consciously striving for a more equitable exchange between researchers and communities
Emphasizing agency, mutual learning, and understanding
A research approach that recognizes communication, learning and empowerment as processes
to be nurtured, rather than as static outcomes

Incorporating PV into Research for Development Processes:
Recognizing Limitations to Overcome Challenges
PV’s main purpose: to encourage an equitable dialogue between researchers and communities
Follow up methods and tools are needed for:
- Scaling the results of that dialogue
- Channeling the results of that dialogue to feed into and support research objectives
- Expanding the reach of those results to strategic audiences

Recognizing PV’s Limitations to Overcome Challenges
The final product of a participatory video workshop is intended to:
- Emphasize the purity of the participatory video process
- Enhance the conversation sustained throughout the workshop
- Provide a tangible outcome to the participants’ efforts
- Signal both an ending point for that initial researcher-community interaction, and serve as a
starting point for a follow-up conversation

No one method alone can accurately assess and resolve every manifestation of inequality to
automatically empower a diverse group of people.
Overcoming these challenges requires placing participatory video within a project structure
where the PV experience will:
A) support research for development objectives
B) be supported by parallel initiatives to effectively scale results
Recognizing PV’s Limitations to Overcome Challenges

Contributing to Research for Development
through Participatory Video
Allow marginalized groups to define the terms of their representation and participation
Encourage project ownership and the adoption of new technologies and practices
Explore and expand traditional social roles and learning processes
Consider new additions to the collective dialogue
Promote an approach that views development as a shared conversation to be nurtured and
sustained over an extended period of time

Thank you!
“Lights, Camera, Action: Participatory Video to Empower Rural Women and Youth” was
financed by the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT) through the CGIAR Research
Program on Integrated Systems for the Humid Tropics and the CGIAR Research Program on
Climate Change, Agriculture, and Food Security (CCAFS), and supported by the Capacity
Development Unit of the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI).
Contact:
Manon Koningstein: sivincommunications@gmail.com
Shadi Azadegan: shadi.azadegan@colostate.edu

Autonomous community media and food
sovereignty in Northeast India
In 2015/16 we began training community
filmmakers from nine indigenous communities in
the North-East of India, from the Garo and Khasi
Hills to Nagaland. The project seeks to nurture
autonomous community media across the region;
bringing unique opportunities for traditional
customs, food systems, beliefs, agricultural
practices; to be documented by the people, for the
people.

The group’s award-winning videos have been
screened at numerous prestigious events
across the region, including the Indigenous
Terre Madre. Community screenings have led
to vital community discussions and the uptake
of traditional practices including a massive
surge in millet growing amongst communities
in the Khasi Hills.

“Our mode of transmitting knowledge, skills,
practices, histories, the way of life is through
oral tradition. When there is no written
documentation these disappear with the
passing away of the knowledge
holder. Participatory video is contributing
towards filling that gap.”
Seno Tsuhah, North East Network (NEN)

Watch the videos on the
dedicated YouTube channel:
http://tinyurl.com/communitym
edianortheastindia

This project was implemented with funding and
support from The Indigenous Partnership for
Agrobiodiversity and Food Sovereignty and
NESFAS (North East Slow Food &
Agrobiodiversity Society), in partnership with
the North East Network (NEN).
For more information go to
www.insightshare.org

GFAR webinar on participatory video

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