Case Study: Peace Clubs
Participatory Video and Most Significant Change Evaluation (Cote d'Ivoire)
During January 2015 a team of 10 young people were trained by Insightshare to carry out an evaluation using Participatory Video combined with Most Significant Change (PV MSC) for UNICEF WCARO and UNICEF Côte d'Ivoire. The aim of the activity was to carry out an end of year participatory evaluation led by students and young people who participate in the PBEA programme that UNICEF and partners lead in Côte d'Ivoire. The evaluation focused on a peace building project led by UNICEF partner - Search for Common Ground. They have established Peace Messenger Clubs in primary and secondary schools, designed to engage young people in dialogues about peace.
The team listened to 60 stories of change to learn more about how the peace clubs had engaged students at a personal level in peacebuilding processes at school and, at an interpersonal level, if the clubs were educating and mobilizing them to influence their peers and the wider community. The project sample was selected from five schools with established peace clubs in two poor districts of Abidjan, Abobo and Yopougon. The male and female students ranged from 14 to 25, averaging 18. The four story collection circles and first community screening took place at one of the schools in Abobo, Lycée Attecoubé. The decision makers screening took place at Centre Episcopal Regional d'Afrique de Ouest (CERAO) in central Abidjan.
The storytellers described changes linked to better behavior (28%), the existence of models (20%), the promotion of peace (18%) and integration into the Peace Club (16%) which were the most frequently mentioned changes in the stories. The students also emphasized increased tolerance (10%), acceptance of others (10%), increased inner peace (10%) and increased consciousness (8%) as well as better behavior in school (8%).
The key contributors to change were the peace clubs (71%) and theatre club (18%), followed by friends (18%) and school (6%). The screening groups also looked at what had helped to create the changes, and identified advice, positive influencers and awareness-building as key strengths of these enablers as well as activities, financial support and rules of conduct.
The key blockers that youth had to confront were violence at school (30%), school syndicates (20%), in particular the Fédération Estudiantine et Scolaire de Côte d'Ivoire and a lack of affection from their parents (18%). Other important blockers were organized gangs, a lack of education and vengeance. Many of the stories describe being in a state of hatred. A lack of confidence, the crisis, a difficult childhood, negative influences and an absence of positive role-models were also blockers.