Creative Reviews
One of the lessons that was taken on board from the external evaluations of Reflect was that we urgently needed to find more creative ways of documenting practice - enabling participants to express things for themselves and ensuring that we captured more complete stories rather than fragmented snap-shots.
This led us to offer support for organisations interested in developing innovative ways for reviewing their experience. Below is a very brief overview of the particular focus of each creative review. Outcomes from these processes include visual materials (photos/posters), audio materials (tapes in Mali and Peru), and audio-visual materials (videos eg in UK, India, Nepal).
Nepal - Reflect and the movement for Dalit Rights in Saptari
A videographic accountThe video explores how Reflect centres in Saptari District, in the eastern Terai of Nepal, have been instrumental in evolving a process of organising Dalits ('untouchable' castes) to begin to confront the huge social, economical and political discrimination that they face. The video shows how they have played a crucial role in the emerging Dalit Rights Movement in this area.
Background to the movement
Dalits in Nepal's eastern Terai have endured centuries of brutal intimidation, abuse and discrimination at the hands of the upper castes. Today, Dalits in this area can easily recall the details of countless murders and beatings provoked by the most trivial violations of caste barriers - drinking out of a water tap, daring to enter a temple, or crossing onto the wrong path. Challenging these power relationships has seemed unthinkable. The vast majority of Dalits in this area are landless agricultural workers, utterly dependent on the will of high caste landlords for their well being. The high caste also wield undue influence over every institution in society - including the police and local government, leaving protesting Dalits without protection as well as vulnerable to harassment and intimidation. As a result of these significant dangers, challenges to the caste system - individual or organised - have been rare and unknown by many.For more information see article in Education Action 14.
Poster + Tape (Radio Spots)This creative review documents an innovative experience, showing how Reflect has been radically adapted in Peru - to create an intensive process of learning and action on a specific issue (domestic and sexual violence). There is no literacy component but rather a focus on strengthening people's capacity to communicate. A range of creative approaches was used during the course of the project: video, posters, radio programmes. These were used to raise awareness around domestic and sexual violence in the community
CADEP (El Centro Andino de Educación y Promoción 'José María Arguedas') is a Peruvian NGO based in Cusco, in the Andean region of Peru. They work with indigenous rural communities in the province of Anta in the department of Cusco. The main focus of their work is the empowerment of indigenous communities through various education, health, agricultural and cultural projects. They have been pioneers in the field of bilingual and intercultural education. They started working with Reflect in 1998. This particular project using Reflect to address domestic and sexual violence was initiated in November 2000.
CADEP have looked for new ways to tackle the huge problem of family violence, which is now a major public health issue in Peru. They have searched for alternative approaches to address this issue, starting with the basic premise of working closely with those who are affected by this problem. They thought that Reflect could be an ideal approach to begin to broach this sensitive topic. The aim of the project was to promote a collective space for analysis of how sexual violence affects family and couple relationships in this particular rural area of Peru. From this analysis they hoped to work together with the community to examine possible prevention strategies, including producing materials about domestic violence to change people's perceptions of it.
See article in Education Action 14 for more information.
Ghana: Gbaare Gunne Saa (Reflect) in retrospect
This video documentary reveals the work of the Sissala District Assembly and ActionAid in the Upper West Region of Ghana. It captures the different moments of the Reflect process from circle meetings to actions arising out of meetings. The story of Gbaare Gunne Saa (GGS), which in Sissali means "let us come together and develop", is captured for the first time - touching both on successes and failures, testimonies both of transformation and of frustration.
Different initiatives that have been catalysed by the Reflect process are explored in detail, including:
· Feeder Schools in remote areas
· Collective work in building Community dam
· Developing a day centre for early childhood education
· Resolving water problems / digging boreholes
· Income generation for women through manufacturing of soap
· Challenging gender roles in the householdTestimonies are included in the video from participants, facilitators and community leaders.
The three videos were produced - contact Julie Adu-Gyamfi.
Community Natural Resource Management: A visual documentation of the Reflect Process in Bolangir, Orissa, India.
Background: Drought in Bolangir
The dreadful impact in 1996 left many agricultural wage labourers and small/marginal farmers without livelihood options in their villages in Bolangir district. The situation forced about 40, 000 people to migrate out of the district. The state government, unprepared for the situation, called for help from the NGOs. Responding to this, ActionAid initiated an emergency intervention for three months in 1997. Understanding of the drought situation in Bolangir from the short term intervention and afterwards a participatory poverty assessment of the district by ActionAid-PRAXIS brought the realisation that drought in Bolangir was more of a man-made phenomenon than a meteorological one and needed to be approached with a long term perspective. The district produces 274 kg per capita food grains, much better than the state average of 203 kg. Yet, 90% of the district's population lives below subsistence level. The district receives an annual rainfall of 1200 mm on average, yet there is no water for irrigation. This is largely because the traditional water harvesting structures which were irrigating about 30% of the total agricultural land before 1951, have been either encroached upon for agricultural purposes or have silted up. Large scale deforestation has also played a major role in exacerbating the problem (dense forest coverage was 20% of the total area in 1960 and is only 3% now).These understandings led to the realisation that drought in Bolangir cannot be dealt with a piecemeal approach. Hence, a long term perspective of drought mitigation emerged. ActionAid strategised to work with 10 local NGOs/CBOs in 111 villages in nine of the most drought affected areas in the Bolangir district.
Through AA's capacity building initiatives with local organisations the best approach of drought mitigation was found to be planning at community level. Throughout 1999 attention was focused on facilitating the development of micro level plans, locally know as Lok Yojana. Through this process, the community identified and analysed the core issues of the village, especially those affecting the poorest, and then prepared plans to resolve these problems. To operationalise and take the plans forward, Reflect was introduced. Reflect was mainly used to build community capacity to manage natural resources with local knowledge and to empower the poor to assert their rights.
Reflect circles were launched in 95 villages in January 2000. These circles have now taken up issues of natural resource management, social discrimination, violation of fundamental rights, apathy of government machinery and also illiteracy. The main focus for the community has been on natural resource management.
Operationalising the plan for natural resource management
The plan for renovation of the traditional water harvesting structures was further discussed after the Reflect circle was launched in the village. The Reflect participants, who were from the lower rung of the community, debated the comparative advantages of the four selected traditional water harvesting structures through a scoring matrix. Subsequent analysis focused on identifying who would benefit most from the renovation. Small and marginal farmers would benefit the most. The next discussion in the Reflect circle focussed on finalising the who would carry out the labour. (the labour was paid) The following people were chosen: regular earthwork labourers, those dependent on labour outside the village, those who are the lowest in the well-being ranking and those who have been hit by the failure of the mahua flower (a staple food for the poor during food scarcity).Documentation of the process
The whole process of issue analysis and actions taken through the Reflect process have been documented at two levels - at the Reflect facilitators' level in the village and at the central level at ActionAid's field office.The role of video documentation of the Reflect process
Reflect has been a process through which the community with its own knowledge has started managing its resources. The process has also brought about the upward mobility of the poor in socio-economic terms. It has also challenged to a certain extent the existing functioning of the government. Video documentation of the process which has recently been completed will be useful at two levels:
· Macro Level - A visual understanding of the process is a powerful way of sharing the experience of Reflect in Bolangir at an international level. This will help with the wider dissemination and facilitate debate around agricultural and irrigation policies affecting small and marginal farmers and agricultural workers.
· Micro Level - Dissemination at the micro level will lead to the sensitisation of the community and local governance bodies towards the protection, conservation and spread the use of traditional water harvesting structures in agriculture in drought-prone districts such as Bolangir. The visual documentation of the process can also be used to train Reflect facilitators at the community and district level.A professional video cameraman was hired for 30 days over a period of 3 months to document this Reflect process. A research/process assistant was also recruited for four months to help with the documentation process.
Oxford Development Education Centre (ODEC) - Video of the Skills for Change Project
Background to the project
The Skills for Change (1998-2001) is based in Oxford and is implemented by ODEC, a non-profit making organisation dedicated to promoting education for social change. The project is funded by the European Commission and the National Lottery Charities Board. It involves training and supporting community members in using Reflect to bring about change on issues that concern them. Linking their issues to wider global patterns and action is a feature of this work. The key themes arising from the project so far have been poverty, racism and the standard of education in local schools. The participants are largely from sectors of the community who have firsthand experience of poverty including long-term unemployment, some are single parents, others are people with disabilities. More than half of the participants so far have been members of the Black communities.The course called "Participatory Education for International Community Development' is accredited through the Open College Network at level three and there is an emerging network of facilitators using this approach in Oxford. Seventeen people have completed the course and another fourteen are about to start it.
Evaluation outline
The focus of the evaluation was the use of participatory video techniques to evaluate the project using the stories of past participants. They looked at how the Reflect training has changed both the way they do community work and the way they approach other tasks and activities in their lives. One participant has become much more aware of the participation and power issues within the management of her local playgroup, three other participants have changed the way their organisations run their youth and community education sessions as a result of the project. Another group got paid consultancy work to help run a consultation with the local community helping to make the NHS services more accessible. One participant used the tools to plan her holiday with her family. Participatory monitoring and evaluation principles were used to record these stories using participatory video as a medium.Rationale and project process
ODEC have already carried out an evaluation project using participatory video on a previous project using Reflect principles. In this project they explored further the use of participatory video techniques by integrating the use of the video with the Reflect process - in other words the video becomes one of the tools that they use in the Reflect process. An evaluation steering group was created among the participants of the Skills for Change project. An evaluation consultant was used to train some members of the group so that they could set up the activities around performance indicators that they decided were important. Participants video-ed each other during sessions in which people discuss the ways in which they have used the Reflect approach in their lives. The evaluation steering group was fully involved in the editing of the video.
Mali - Using Radio to document change
(This creative review / documentation work is ongoing)
Background to the programme
Work is presently underway recording the experiences of local people involved in Reflect processes in three contexts in Southern Mali:1. With Save the Children USA whose Reflect circles are linked to community school management committees. More recently Reflect is being used in the Good Governance programme in the context of civic education.
2. With ADAC where Reflect participants come from all women circles based around savings and credit activities.
3. With Jeuness et Developpement whose Reflect circles link the health and women's support aspects of community development activities around Manankoro.
Key Themes being explored in the creative review / testimonies
· How Reflect affected community schools.
· The evolution of the use of Reflect towards good governance, how it is being used in this context and with what results.
· How Reflect integrates with other development initiatives and helps strengthen community based organisations;
· Reflect and gender / power relationships;
· How Reflect is seen in local communities.Approaches being used
Experienced Radio programme makers are taping interviews with Reflect participants and helping them to tell their own stories. After South Africa, Mali has more local radio stations than anywhere else in Africa, so it is a particularly suitable medium to use. The production team includes a national radio journalist, one or two people from the local radio in Kolondieba and an international level journalist. The resulting series of short programmes around the key themes mentioned above are being produced in three languages (French, Bambara and English) and will be available for use at local, national and international level for information sharing, education and raising awareness.It is hoped that the experience of working with radio producers will help participants, facilitators and implementing organisations think through the ways in which radio can be used more widely as a medium in the context of Reflect programmes.
Bangladesh: Creative Review by Participatory Video
This creative review was done by Reflect participants themselves who were trained over two weeks in how to use a video camera and how to edit a video. They then recorded their own video, entirely independently, to document the outcomes of the Reflect process as they perceived them. This resulted in a 30 minute video (now put on CD Rom) produced by the people of Chandrapara village.
The process of using the video to document the process was also, at the same time but at another level, a process of exploring how introducing video technology could itself complement the Reflect process - strengthening people's capacity to communicate through other media than literacy.
