Work with us: Community-driven research inspiring change

Susanne Schirmer

‘People are sick and tired of being subjects of research. We are doing action research so people are becoming subjects of transformation.’

For me this statement from Walter Arteaga, one of the partner researchers in the Participate Initiative, sums up the creative approach my colleagues in the Participate Initiative are taking to engage those that are most affected by poverty and marginalisation in change and to bring their perspectives into the post-2015 process.

The Participate Initiative, recently launched a new short video which showcases some of the exciting participatory research the team has been undertaking with their partners in 29 countries from Albania to Zimbabwe in the past year. The team has been using participatory videos and digital storytelling – together with other participatory research methods –to make excluded voices heard in the UN debates around a post-Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) framework.

Watch the 20 min documentary and be inspired:

Alternatively, if you’re pressed for time check out some of the shorter films:

• Community mapping carried out by young people from Spatial Collective to highlight problem areas in Mathare slum, Nairobi, Kenya.
• Child-led research looking at issues of disability in Red Soil, a settlement in Nairobi, Kenya
• Women from two communities in Occupied Palestinian Territories explored their experiences and voiced their concerns through participatory video.
• Transgender community members from Tamil Nadu, India talk about issues that affect them.

Sue Schirmer works as Communications Coordinator for the Participation, Power and Social Change (PPSC) team at IDS.

Read other recent blogs about Participate:

• Involving the world’s poorest citizens in the post-2015 agenda
• Searching for dialogues: Convergences and divergences around the Millennium Development Goals and the post-2015 global development agenda
• Participate: Response to High Level Panel on the Post-2015 Development Agenda report
• What matters Most? Participate Initiative presents research to post 2015 High Level Panel