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...

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 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...

'The literacy rate has increased with 20 % in five years!' 'Fifty percent of the young people, who participated in reading and writing classes have acquired a job within a year after their studies!' 'The number of parents, who take on volunteer responsibilities in the Youth Centre have increased with 30 parents in two years!' These are just three examples of project indicators, which can be for mulated according to the Logical Framework (LF) principles for a youth development project in a big slum area in Kampala City, Uganda. However, most statistical indicators are difficult to measure. And what do statistics say about structural change? Mostly change can not be liniarly and logically explained...... Most structural change starts with behavioural change. Many times I hear people express after an inspirational workshop about social media; ' Tomorrow I am going to open an account at Twitter!', 'I will update my profile at Linkedin!...