IUCN, the International Union for Conservation of Nature

Government Staff and Community Groups Hone Skills in Participatory Video

15 June 2012 | Article

Participants drawn from government departments and community based groups participated in a training on participatory video which was conducted by IUCN from 4 to 8 June 2012 in Garissa, Kenya. The 18 participants are working on agriculture, livestock, water and environmental management issues in the Lower Tana Catchment and included community representatives from the 4 Water Resources User Association (WRUAs) in the region, and a representative from Faida (Fafi Integrated Development Association). 

Participatory Video is an effective tool which empowers and enables communities to document their own problems, issues and ideas and to communicate the same to decision-makers, or other groups, for action. Participatory Video was introduced by the IUCN Water and Wetlands Programme, to visually document projects and strengthen communication capacities.

“Allowing communities to tell their own stories encourages a better understanding of the situation and the challenges faced, and helps the formulation of better solutions to address these challenges”, said John Owino, Programme Officer, Water and Wetlands Programme, IUCN Eastern and Southern Africa.

As part of the training, the participants were required to pass on their skills to members of the local community, assisting them to produce a series of 3 videos documenting the community perspective on issues related to water scarcity and management, charcoal burning and land degradation, and pasture scarcity and management.
 
IUCN ESARO, through its water and wetlands and dryland programmes, and  with funding from Austria Development Cooperation and Global Water Initiative, is facilitating the implementation of projects in the Lower Tana catchment aimed at improving the management of water and land resources.  The overall goal of the projects is to strengthen community and local stakeholders’ capacity to manage and adapt to the impacts of increasingly severe and frequent drought in the Lower Tana Catchment.

“The PV training allowed us to work with the community and our project partners to improve the way we communicate and share ”, said Roba Guyo, Programme Officer, Drylands Programme, IUCN Eastern and Southern Africa. “This participatory process provides a golden opportunity to assess the current situation, while providing hope and inspiration for further action.”

Once edited, the series of 3 videos will be distributed amongst project partners and the environmental community, and shared more widely via social media networks such as Facebook and YouTube.

A photo gallery of the Participatory Video training and Community filming is available here.

For further information, please contact: Sarah Gibbons, Regional Drylands Programme Coordinator on sarah.gibbons@iucn.org