MEV-CAM and InsightShare's Journey to PV: the trainings conclude!

The ‘Making Every Voice Count for Adaptive Management’ Initiative has been collaborating with InsightShare over the course of 2022 to train and mentor carefully selected participants on participatory video (PV), how it is used, and what sets it apart from traditional Monitoring and Evaluation reporting.  Beginning in February 2022, InsightShare and MEV-CAM hosted four training modules covering the different ways PV can be used to capture knowledge from the ground and give ownership to community members.  The latest, Modules C and D, recently came to an end uncovering a myriad of new findings.

Module C training on Knowledge Extracting and Sharing through Post-Production and Editing

Module C training focused on extracting and sharing valuable knowledge from the communities on the ground with a component dedicated to Post-Production and Editing the practice by using the PV script, which involved 10 anglophone and francophone countries in total. Trainees gained valuable skills on how to edit their clips for participatory video, which requires unique editing techniques for it to be an actual participatory process.

The edited participatory videos for both Malawi and Tanzania demonstrated an upscaling of best practices from the GEF-6's Resilient Food Systems (RFS) landscapes into what the GEF-7's Sustainable Forest Management Impact Program on Dryland Sustainable Landscapes (DSL-IP) child projects will build upon in their landscapes. 

Community members in both videos decided to focus on beekeeping, but with different approaches.  While the Hadzabe Community in Tanzania showed the most significant change that had been achieved through the use of new beehives and protective clothing compared to their traditional “hunter-gatherer” style, the Lingoni Catchment in Malawi used role play to show how their Community Forest Management teams protect trees and beehives.  The beehives allow the community to produce and sell honey, and with the profits they can improve their own livelihoods. 

Burundi and Uganda were the sole GEF-6 RFS countries who put together PVs highlighting the most significant change and lessons learned as a result of their project interventions. Burundi's video illustrates the use of improved fire stoves for cooking and contour farming skills, showing how farmer-to-farmer knowledge has guided the community in adopting these new skills.  Uganda, on the other hand, decided to focus on improved livelihoods due to learned beekeeping skills.

Module D Training of Trainers on Capacity Building in Participatory Video

Module D began in mid-September and concluded in early December. This training of trainers focused on Capacity Building using Participatory Video in three different phases. The countries selected to participate in this module were Burkina Faso, Mongolia, Tanzania, and Zimbabwe, with a total of 24 trainees, all from the Project Management Units of the GEF-7's Sustainable Forest Management Impact Program on Dryland Sustainable Landscapes (DSL-IP) child projects.

As a result of this training Module, the team from Zimbabwe successfully completed their fieldwork in the GEF-7 landscapes of Save Sub Basin from 21 to 25 November, and the Runde Sub Basin from 28 November to 02 December 2022.  Meanwhile, in the case of the remaining countries (Burkina Faso, Mongolia and Tanzania), the MEV-CAM team will work with the trainees to ensure the skills learned in Module D will boost process documentation in communities throughout the project cycle within these DSL-IP child projects. Countries who participated in this training Module will serve as models to the remaining countries and will help define and promote a regional knowledge sharing hub between and within East, West and Southern Africa and Central Asia.

The MEV-CAM initiative will continue its mentoring process with the countries that participated in the Insightshare training, empowering communities to share their knowledge, extract the best techniques being applied on the ground and disseminate them through the resulting Participatory Videos.

Best Practices Leaflets

In early 2023, the MEV-CAM initiative will launch 'Best Practice' leaflets to complement the PVs that each country produces. The leaflets will give practitioners and other interested stakeholders access to more detailed information on the techniques shown in the PVs, disseminating in depth knowledge to apply them in other landscapes facing similar challenges around the world.  The leaflets will then be shared both within the South-South Knowledge Sharing Gateway, as well as MEV-CAM's very own knowledge management platform, which will be launched later this year.

(c) @FAO&WWF-Mongolia/Bayar Balgantseren