Storytelling & Participatory Evaluation: A South-South-North Collaboration Initiative

This video and accompanying blog highlights a South-South-North collaboration on storytelling and participatory evaluation involving EvalParticipativa, eBASE Africa, and DEval. It showcases how knowledge sharing around indigenous and participatory approaches can strengthen culturally responsive evaluations.

This resource highlights a unique collaboration on storytelling and participatory evaluation, bringing together practitioners and academics from Africa, Latin America, and Europe. It documents the Storytelling and Participatory Evaluation Retreat, held in Limbe, Cameroon, in September 2024, where participants explored the intersection of indigenous storytelling traditions and participatory evaluation approaches.

The retreat served as a platform for knowledge exchange, showcasing how storytelling—deeply rooted in African cultural practices—can enhance participatory evaluation processes. Organised by eBASE Africa, EvalParticipativa (Latin America’s participatory evaluation community of practice), and DEval, the retreat brought together diverse perspectives to co-develop new tools and strategies for integrating storytelling into evaluation methods. Participants included artists, researchers, academics, and community leaders, who worked together to connect storytelling practices to data collection, analysis, and knowledge dissemination in participatory evaluation contexts.

The initiative underscores the importance of culturally responsive approaches to evaluation, highlighting the role of storytelling as a means of communication, learning, and empowerment. By fostering a South-South-North collaboration, this retreat has deepened connections between regions and opened pathways for future innovations in evaluation practice.