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Following the launch of the webinar series Navigating the Participatory Approach at the end of January 2021, a virtual training of trainers (ToT) was held on 24^th-25^th February 2021, counting 25 participants from Tanzania, Zambia, Angola, Namibia, Zimbabwe and Botswana.

Navigating the Participatory Approach is part of the initiative Making every voice count for adaptive management, a programme co-organised by FAO’s Forestry and South-South and Triangular Cooperation Divisions. The focus of the initiative is encouraging and facilitating participatory video approaches – that is, enabling communities themselves to ‘take control of the camera’ and share the messages important to them. In this way, challenges and success stories linked to GEF-7 Impact Programme within the Sustainable Forest Management Impact Program on Dryland Sustainable Landscapes (SFM-DSL) can be effectively communicated by the people on the ground. This was adamantly expressed by Fidaa F. Haddad, Drylands Forestry officer, lead technical officer for the project and manager of the technical component of this initiative.  

The two days of this ToT was led by Pragyan Pokhrel from the Dryland Forestry Team. On the first day, many of the participants joined the closed Facebook group and started experimenting with video-storytelling by filming their own environments. The exercise highlighted the power of narration, while Antonello Proto, expert in the field of participatory video approaches, made some suggestions for improving the quality of the footage. Towards the end of the sessions, participants split into groups to brainstorm their own storyboards in the context of the SFM-DSL Impact Program. It was more specifically discussed which topics might be particularly important for achieving adaptive management in Tanzania and Zambia, and which therefore might be good objects to capture by video. To this end, key themes, filming objectives, target audiences, core messages, locations, and participatory filming pathways were defined.

It was thus decided that in Tanzania, the considerable potential of beekeeping and honey production should be addressed. Crucially, the use of commercial hives might increase honey production by up to five times, but due to their high cost, traditional hives still dominate the value chain. Participatory video approaches could be used – for instance in the Districts of Mlele and Kaliua – to map current honey production practices around the landscape and to display best practices that should be scaled up. Suggested pathways included focus group discussions with community members to present their challenges and discuss possible solutions.

The workshop participants from Zambia, on the other hand agreed that deforestation was a key theme they would like to explore with affected communities. A suggested objective of their video narrative was indicating drivers of deforestation, but equally showing alternative income sources that could ease the pressure on natural resources. Alternatively, the ongoing pilot on sustainable charcoal production and its participatory guarantee system could be presented, since conventional charcoal production in the country is associated with strong negative effects. A range of possible target audiences were identified, including policy-makers such as the Minister of Energy, charcoal producers, or financial service producers such as the Zanaco Bank. Filming could take place in the regions in which the rates of deforestation are highest, such as in the Districts of Choma, Nyimba, and Petauke.

All these ideas were presented and further discussed on day 2 of the ToT, with further input and guidance by Antonello Proto. Key take-home messages included the difficulty but importance of clearly defining both distinct, simple messages – decided on by the community in questions – and the target audience to which the footage should be tailored for more poignant, effective storytelling.

Day 2 exhibited the other leading component of this initiative which focuses on the importance of South-South Cooperation. Indeed, it included a presentation by Irina Curca, Programme Officer from the South-South and Triangular Cooperation Division, on the options available for using participatory video approaches for purposes of monitoring project results. Communication and knowledge management Coordinator, Michela Baratelli, on the other hand, elucidated the guidelines with regards to using the FAO logo outreach materials and the legal implications that follow.

Responses to these sessions where overwhelmingly positive – and 100% of end-of-event survey respondents reported that they felt more confident in their ability to work on participatory video projects after the discussions held and guidance received during the workshop. In other words, another step has been taken towards filmmaking approaches that are – in the words of workshop participants – interactive, inclusive, and empowering.