The medium is the message - what PV does for monitoring and evaluation

This paper draws on the chapter written by Isabelle Lemaire & Chris Lunch, from InsightShare, for the book “The Handbook of Participatory Video” about our experiences of applying a participatory video for monitoring and evaluation to a wide range of projects in a variety of contexts. Since 2005 we have sought to develop a range of participatory video for monitoring and evaluation methodologies that are engaging, accessible, easy to implement, rigorous and accountable. We intend for what we document in the chapter to generate further ideas on the use of participatory video for monitoring and evaluation.

A participatory video for monitoring and evaluation activity can help create a safe space in which participants can articulate and develop their own opinions about what is important to them, what needs to change, or what should stay the same. Such a "safe space" opens up a platform for sharing and constructive engagement between peers, and across to other stakeholders or groups as well as individuals from the wider world. There is always a danger that any kind of media product can be manipulated and misrepresent its subjects; this is as true for printed media that have an inherent disadvantage of being inaccessible to beneficiaries with low literacy. Conversely, video manifests many different elements at once and has the capacity to transmit messages accessibly and succinctly.  Furthermore, with skillful facilitation, consensus building and the use of methodologies that place informed consent and inclusion at the heart of the process, participatory video becomes a tool that can be owned and controlled by the storytellers themselves; democratizing the creation of knowledge and its analysis.