Building Resilient Movements: Evaluating Organisational Strengthening through Participatory Video

AmplifyChange grantees use participatory video to develop their organisational strengthening and safe abortion advocacy.

AmplifyChange supports civil society organisations to develop their capacity to build stronger, more resilient movements for change.

As part of our strategic offering, nine Strengthening grantees working on abortion rights advocacy were given the opportunity to join a one-year training project learning how to use participatory video to evaluate their organisational growth.

Participatory video is a process that involves a group coming together to plan and create their own film. Video empowers communities, connects people and inspires change. The creative process becomes a vehicle for groups to explore issues together and take collective action, building a form of locally driven advocacy.

We partnered with specialist participatory media organisation, InsightShare, to deliver the training with funding from the Hewlett Foundation.

The participatory video project aimed to:

• support grantees in learning how to evaluate their work using participatory approaches;
• build filming skills to use video as a communications tool; and
• share experiences and reflections on what works for organisational growth to strengthen our organisational development offer to grantees.

The training included approaches to evaluate change; one-on-one coaching in camera skills and the production of short films; screenings and discussion groups between participants; and a small grant to support the purchase of filming equipment.

By the end of the project, the participants:

• produced baseline and endline videos charting their organisational growth from inception through to their current AmplifyChange project;
• indicated that the project allowed them to reflect and prioritise their organisational development goals;
• rated the participatory video process as either ‘good’ or ‘very good’, highlighting that the opportunity allowed them to learn new video skills and participatory evaluation methods to use in future work; and
• reported that the collaborative nature of the project enabled staff to come together in a more creative way, strengthening team bonds. an

Learn more about the project and watch the films by reading our dedicated report page below.

You can also see the full playlist on our YouTube channel.

Further reading and resources
– See AmplifyChangeLearn for lots of How-to guides on Organisational Strengthening
– InsightShare have published free articles, guides and toolkits for using participatory video on their website
– Explore AmplifyChange’s new Organisational Strengthening Handbook