Collaborative, Participatory & Empowerment Evaluation
Rajib Nandi, Development Scholar and Evaluator (he/him/his)
Board Member
Community of Evaluators - South Asia, India
Madri Jansen van Rensburg, PhD Consulting Psychology (she/her/hers)
Owner
Resilience Analysis Consulting
Johannesburg, Gauteng, South Africa
Vikas Choudhry, Public Health Specialist
Vice President
Sambodhi Research and communications, India
Neeta Goel, Evaluation Expert (she/her/hers)
Senior Program Officer
Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, India
Swapnil Sekhar (he/him/his)
Director
Sambodhi Research and Communications, India
Location: Grand Ballroom 4
Abstract Information: Participatory approaches aim to involve community members in decision-making processes that impact their lives, and to empower them to identify and address their own needs and priorities. However, traditional participatory approaches often rely on structured meetings or surveys, which can be exclusionary and limit the diversity of stories and voices that are heard. Innovative participatory approaches, on the other hand, use creative and inclusive methods to engage a wider range of community members and facilitate dialogue and collaboration. In recent years, there has been a growing interest in experimenting community engagement and participatory approaches for evaluation and program implementation. This multi-paper session will showcase innovative participatory approaches and their impact on community engagement in different contexts. The session will discuss the use of stories as a powerful tool to facilitate community engagement and participation, and explore how evaluation professionals can engage communities in the evaluation process to ensure meaningful and effective results. The session will draw on examples from different settings, including South Asia and Africa, to demonstrate the transformative potential of participatory approaches. Four papers will be presented during the session. (i) Applying a participatory approach for improving Respectful Maternity Care at public health facilities in India: this presentation will focus on a participatory approach used to improve respectful maternity care in public health facilities in India; (ii) The use of stories in evaluation as a projective technique: this presentation will explore the use of storytelling as a projective technique in evaluation, with a focus on its effectiveness in capturing the voices and perspectives of marginalized communities; (iii) Participation in evaluation processes: unpacking the role of the evaluation professionals: in this presentation, we will examine how evaluation professionals facilitate community engagement to bring out unheard stories and narratives so evaluation is impactful; and (iv) using visual stories to enable hearing in conducting evaluation for a conference on power of story in evaluation: this presentation will focus on the use of visual stories in evaluation, with a focus on how they can enable hearing in evaluation processes. Through this multi-paper session, participants will gain a deeper understanding of the transformative potential of participatory approaches and the use of storytelling in evaluation. The session will highlight the importance of community engagement and participation in evaluation processes and provide practical examples of how evaluation professionals can effectively engage communities to achieve more meaningful and effective results.
Relevance Statement: The proposed multi-paper session "Stories from the People: Facilitating Community Engagement through Innovative Participatory Approaches" is highly relevant for the conference where the power of story is the central theme. This session showcases innovative participatory approaches from south Asia, India, and Africa that use stories as a powerful tool for facilitating community involvement in evaluation processes. The session also explores the use of storytelling as a projective technique in evaluation, with a focus on capturing the voices and perspectives of marginalized communities. Additionally, the session unpacks the role of evaluation professionals in facilitating community engagement in evaluation processes, which includes building trust and meaningful relationships with communities. The session will share examples of visual storytelling projects and discuss how they can be used to facilitate community engagement and participation in evaluation. As part of this session, one important paper will focus on how women and communities in India engaged in localised stories to identify and address the root causes of poor maternal health outcomes in public health facilities by using a participatory approach to improve respectful maternity care. It will highlight the impact of these approaches on community engagement, service delivery, and maternal health. Overall, the session proposal aligns with the conference's theme on the power of story and provides insights into how storytelling can be used to facilitate community engagement and participation in evaluation processes. The diverse sub-themes provide a comprehensive overview of innovative participatory approaches that can be used to improve service delivery and better maternal health outcomes. This session proposal has the potential to make a valuable contribution to the conference.
Presenter: Vikas Choudhry, Public Health Specialist – Sambodhi Research and communications
Presenter: Rajib Nandi, Development Scholar and Evaluator (he/him/his) – Community of Evaluators - South Asia
Presenter: Rituu B Nanda, Evaluator – Global Fund for Children
Presenter: Madri S. Jansen van Rensburg, PhD Consulting Psychology (she/her/hers) – Resilience Analysis Consulting