Wrap-up: September 2015 Discussion

Publish Date: 
Friday, October 2, 2015

In the September discussion facilitated by Jessica Mayberry from Video Volunteers, we continued our conversation from August on participatory monitoring by looking into the potential of video as a community-led monitoring tool. Sharing concrete and vivid details of working with community correspondents, Jessica helped us assess the challenges and benefits of using video to conduct ESCR monitoring in local setting.

Among other things, the rounds of questions and feedback highlighted that the foremost objective of community-led video documentation is gathering evidence and empowering the community with a voice, which can encourage mobilization around a certain issue led by those most affected. Having too much concern about technical video skills or pursuing video simply as a publicity tool should be avoided in the work of community-led documentation. Towards impactful monitoring of structural violations of human rights, the conversation also emphasized the need for more collaboration from civil society groups to combine video stories with relevant data, in order to increase the strategic benefit of the video tool. Once again, we sincerely thank Jessica for her facilitation and those who participated and commented on the blog for this lively conversation.

Facilitator: 
Jessica Mayberry (Video Volunteers)