Simon Koolwijk

"Seeing our group of HIV/Aids-infected people for 5 minutes on video as long as our Mayor on video, gave us the feeling that we are recognized and seen in our community.”  A women’s leader in a community in Ethiopia expressed this feeling at a community dialogue, where self-developed video stories were shared amongst stakeholders in Ethiopia, when they discussed about the changes, that had taken place in the health sector.  “Seeing ourselves on video, shows how our behavior and attitude has changed in a positive way on how we deal with challenges in the health sector. It strengthens our commitment to continue this process of dialogue amongst the service providers and service users” This story is an example on how video storytelling can make a difference in participatory processes. Video storytelling is a method, where people who have a common topic of interest,   work together to develop a film. The participants are the directors of the film. The purpose is to...

‘Citizens are not afraid anymore to demand for their entitlements! Health service providers do listen better to the demands of their patients. The quality of the health care has significantly improved last year. The treatments have improved, people started to talk positively about the service in the clinic, service providers keep their time schedules, the ambulance service is 24 hours available, hygiene practices have improved and the clinic is clean.’ This is one of the change stories, which was shared by citizens, service providers and government officials who participated in a participatory video intervention facilitated by Redeem The Generation (RTG), a local civil society organization who supports social accountability processes in various municipalities in Ethiopia.  For the whole story consult video:   Behavioral change and service improvements on health care in Matehare, Ethiopia . Social Accountability Social Accountability is a process where cit...

As part of its communication, monitoring and evaluation strategy, the Ethiopian Social Accountability Program Phase 2, organised a participatory video, a most significant change story and social accountability committee hero competition. In each category around 25 organisations each participated. The final award ceremony took place on the 4th November, 2015 in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. The event gave a platform for the actual social accountability implementers to be awarded. The event was attended by more than 250 participants and representatives from national and international media. Watch the video;  

On the 3rd and 4th November, 2015 the final event for the second Participatory Video Oscar Award was held in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Twenty-seven organisations participated in this competition for becoming the best participatory video maker 2015 in the Ethiopian Social Accountability Program. Between May and September, 2015 the Social Accountability Implementing Partners implemented participatory video interventions to initiate dialogues on social accountability. On the 3rd November, 2015 the organizations had an opportunity to exchange experiences with each other. The four best nominated organizations competed for the PV Oscar Award. On the 4th November, 2015 the price winner was awarded. This PV Oscar competition is part of the Ethiopian Social Accountability Program Phase 2. It stimulates dialogue between service users and service providers for improving service delivery in the sectors of education,health, water & sanitation, rural road infrastructure and agriculture. Watch vid...

This video shows on how stories are visualized through participatory video stories in one week. From story board development to filming, to editing and then finally presenting and discussing the videos at a community dialogue meeting participants from social accountability partners learn to apply participatory video for dialogue with the community in discussing the progress on educational service delivery in Shashemene, Ethiopia. The training took place from 23 – 27 March, 2015 in Hawassa and Shashemene, Ethiopia. The participants inteviewed and involved 6 stakeholder groups in the discussion on the progress of educational services in Shashemene, Ethiopia. Both user groups, students, and service providers, teachers were involved in this participatory process. As experiment, also control groups from both students and teachers were involved in the PV process. The control groups came from schools, who did not participate in the social accountability process. The training was implemen...

From 18th – 20th March, 2015 twenty participatory video facilitators and practitioners attended a three day advanced training in participatory video. The twenty pv facilitators are representing 10 social accountability implementing partners (SAIPs), that are involved in implementing social accountability processes in the sectors of health, education, agriculture, water & sanitation and rural roads in the whole country of Ethiopia. The pv facilitators conducted pv interventions between October 2014 and February, 2015. This training gave them the opportunity to share their experiences and update their knowledge on participatory video, to learn to work with advanced software in video editing and to learn how to use the participatory videos for monitoring and evaluation and to discuss the opportunities and challenges on how to sustain participatory video in their organisation. Between May and July 2015, these SAIPs will continue to implement new participatory video interventions and ...

On the 29th August, 2014 the Ethiopian Social Accountability Program Phase 2 (ESAP2) organized the Participatory Video Oscar Reward ceremony in Addis Ababa. Fifteen organisations had submitted each 5 videos for participatory video interventions, they had conducted between March and July, 2014. Five organizations, who were nominated, had to compete prior to the PV Oscar Reward ceremony. Finally the winner was selected and rewarded in the Washington Hotel, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. In this video some of the participatory video facilitators and a community member comment on how PV impacted and influenced their work. The PV Oscar competition brought some surprising result for them.Watch:

The training participatory video, applied in the Ethiopian Social Accountability Program , consists of 7 steps on how participants from social accountability partners learn to apply participatory video for dialogue with the community. The third training took place from 1 - 5 September, 2014 in Hawassa, Ethiopia. The participants inteviewed and involved 7 stakeholder groups in the discussion on the improvement of health care in Meki, Ethiopia. Both user groups and service providers were involved in this participatory process. The training was implemented by a team of participatory video trainers coming from Ethiopia and The Netherlands. Between October and December, 2014 the participants will apply the participatory video in their own workplace and social accountability projects involving their communties. The participatory video training and program is part of the Ethiopian Social Accountability Program Phase 2 .  Watch the video:  

From 9 th to 14 th February, 2014 Simon Koolwijk conducted a participatory video training for 20 representatives from 10 social accountability implementing partners in the Ethiopian Social Accountability Programme Phase 2 (ESAP2 ). This program aims to improve the communication and relations between local stakeholders such as local government (Woredas and Kebeles), civil society organisations, local citizens groups and service providers in the areas of health care, agriculture, water & sanitation, education and rural road construction. The process of better communication aims to help to improve the services of service providers (the suppliers) so that citizens needs (the users) are being met. The participatory video was initiated to help to stimulate and support the dialogue on social accountability and the improvement of social services. In the one week training, participants got the opportunity to apply participatory video in Metehare and Adama City.   In Metehare Cit...

From 16 th to 20 th December, 2013 Simon Koolwijk conducted a participatory video training for 10 representatives from 5 social accountability implementing partners in the Ethiopian Social Accountability Programme (ESAP2). This program aims to improve the communication and relations between local stakeholders such as local government (Woredas and Kebeles), civil society organisations, local citizens groups and service providers in the areas of health care, agriculture, water and sanitation, education and rural road construction. The process of better communication aims to help to improve the services of service providers (the suppliers) so that citizens needs (the users) are being met. The participatory video was initiated to help to stimulate and support the dialogue on social accountability and the improvement of social services. In the one week training, participants got the opportunity to apply participatory video in Gulele Sub City, where they interviewed key stakeholders ...

Most Significant Change is an excellent evaluation tool for measuring behavioral change with beneficiaries during a project period. MSC has a step based approach where personal stories from key stakeholders are collected, analyzed and verified. One of the key steps is the phase of defining the 'Domain of Change' and collecting the stories. This is the phase where the MSC-question is asked for a specific change in a domain. For example: (1) Looking back over the last 2 years, (2) what do you think was, (3) the most significant (4) change (5) in the development of your business (6) in your community? Generally, three to five domains are a manageable number for conducting a MSC-evaluation. The stories are collected, analyzed, and verified from and with a selected group of beneficiairies. An important part is the process of drawing conclusions, lessons and recommendations. Involvement of the right stakeholders determines the quality of the outcome of the evaluation. Since ...

Collecting personal stories can provide some interesting insights on what is going on in a project or a community.   In june 2013, I worked for two weeks with O2Zone.tv .   This organization, based in Salon de Provence – France, aims to strengthen organisations and structures of social work in applying participatory video for building social cohesion amongst people or communities. O2Zone.tv trains social workers, teachers, trainers who work with groups or communities. Their work is mainly based in France, but also participates in projects in Africa and Canada. Video productions are disseminated through their webtv channel at http://www.o2zone.tv/ Storytelling   by local entrepreneurs Marseille – Provence has been designated in 2013 as cultural capital of Europe. Under the name MP13 various cultural activities are organized in Marseille and neighboring cities (Aix en Provence, Arlon, Salon de Provence) to promote the region in France and to other European countri...

There are no secrets to success. It is the result of preparation, hard work and learning from failure - Colin Powell This quote triggered my interest while reading ' Making documentary films and videos - a practical guide to planning, filming and editing documentaries' -  author Barry Hampe.  The publication is a practical handbook giving some useful hints and tips on how to make a video production.  Practise, practise, practise, ask for feedback, reflect and practise again. Applying video is a process of hard work and learning. Video versus a report As a facilitator and evaluator of organisations, projects and multi-stakeholder processes, I am triggered by the fact that  video can express much more in a shorter time space than a report. A video is about visual evidence.  It shows behavior, people expressing emotions and attitudes. It also shows results and physical accomplishments.  A video interview not only communicates the content, but also peop...

"How do habitants think about their own neighbourhood?" .  This was the theme about which 17 European videomakers developed a participatory video on how citizens think of their neighbourhood in Marseille and Aix en Provence.  The theme was interesting since Marseille will be the cultural European Capital in 2013 together with Kosice in Slovakia.   This Grundtvig funded training about Participatory Videomaking was organised by Têtes de l'Art in co-operation with Vidéos des Pays et des Quartiers (VDPQ) and Anonymal. from 5th - 10th March, 2012. See video:  Participatory video making in Marseille "This training was well organised. We learned how to plan a story" , shares one of the participants. "A good planning is essential. It helps to develop the story and it saves time for video editing" .  During the middle of the week interviews were conducted in specific urban areas of Marseille and Aix en Provence.  Two teams composed a 7-minute vide...

'Follow your heart, use your brains!'  This was the title of the video that opened the 25th Anniversary of the Nedworc Association on the 6th January 2012 in Amsterdam.  Nedworc is a network of development consultants in international development co-operation.  In October 2011  Erica Wortel ,  Joke Oranje and Simon Koolwijk developed in partnership with the Nedworc Anniversary committee the scenario for a video about the future development in the sector of international development co-operation.  The future of the sector,  developments on the labor market for consultants,  professional development and the future of the consultant were the main discussion threads for the development of the video. See video:  'Follow your heart, use your brains!' (in Dutch) The process of video making After developing the scenario   Erica Wortel and Joke Oranje selected member consultants with various backgrounds eg. livestock advisor, fo...

On the 18th December 2008, Simon Koolwijk conducted a training on Youth Participation at Hogeschool Utrecht - Social Department . One of the students, interviewed by another student, and the tutors are sharing their experiences about the training. Hogeschool Utrecht - Social Department is already working more than 10 years with Facili2transform . One of the students sharing his experience about the training Youth Participation. One of the tutors sharing his experiences about his work with Simon Koolwijk. Interested in a training about Youth Participation, contact Simon Koolwijk, e-mail. faccom@xs4all.nl

At the end of the web 2.0 training on the 3rd December 2008 one of the participants interviewed the trainers Joitske Hulsebosch, Elmine Wijnia and Simon Koolwijk. It is simple and practical way on how to involve the participants in applying modern techniques for knowledge transfer. The web 2.0 training is a joined initiative of Joitske Hulsebosch , Sibrenne Wagenaar , Elmine Wijnia and Simon Koolwijk . They have a joined website at werkenmetweb2 .

One of the participants, Frank Hulsbos working with Kessels & Smit shares his experiences and new perspectives after participating in the NVO2 Web 2.0 workshop at the Baak in Driebergen, Zeist. This training was a joint initiative of NVO2 , Joitske Hulsebosch , Sibrenne Wagenaar , Elmine Wijnia and Simon Koolwijk . For more information at the Werkenmetweb site .