The Most Significant Change: using participatory video for monitoring and evaluation (PLA 56)

In this article, Chris Lunch discusses how two methods – participatory video (PV) and Most Significant Change (MSC) – can be combined in a monitoring and evaluation (M&E) process. PV is useful for opening up channels for community-led learning, sharing and exchange. It can convey a ‘rich picture’ of voices and views across different sections of a community. The MSC technique is a qualitative M&E process. It is akin to storytelling, and uses participatory approaches to document and systematically analyse stories of significant change. By combining the two, communities can document their MSC stories themselves, with minimal training. Different sections of the community can film their stories of most significant change and show them to the whole community for feedback. Filming the stories allows them to be shown and disseminated widely, and feedback from, for example, decision makers and scientists can also be videoed and shown to the communities, creating a feedback loop. The article includes an example from a workshop where the combined methods were used to evaluate a research programme, to illustrate how the technique works.

Article in: Participatory Learning and Action 56. Co-editors: Holly Ashley, Angela Milligan and Nicole Kenton.

Participatory Learning and Action (PLA, formerly PLA Notes) is the world's leading series on participatory learning and action approaches and methods. PLA publishes articles on participation aimed at practitioners, researchers, academics and activists. All articles are peer-reviewed by an international editorial board. See: www.planotes.org

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