Year started: 2020

Older people are agents of change, rights holders, employees, workers, carers, volunteers, service beneficiaries, consumers and much more. Engagement with older people in all their diversities, and hearing and amplifying their voices, will be critical to making progress on each of the four action areas of the UN Decade of Healthy Ageing’s plan for 2021-2030. A recent WHO-Commissioned Scoping Review of published literature on the engagement of older people focused on the Decade’s action areas revealed that meaningful engagement with older people on ageing issues is more likely to produce tools and solutions that will be utilised, beneficial to older people’s health and wellbeing, and cost-effective. In response, the Decade Secretariat at WHO initiated a Participatory Video VOICE project in 2020, funded by an award from the Public Health Agency of Canada. Participatory Video (PV) is a visual media tool using a set of facilitated techniques that act as a powerful collaborative process to explore issues and mobilise people to tell their stories and take collective action. Importantly, the PV process ensures that people themselves are controlling how they will be represented as they explore issues, voice concerns and discuss these with others. The first set of films made by older people from Canada, Jordan, and Togo as a part of this project were made available to the public in March 2022, and a toolkit about the PV process will be published in 2023.

Objectives

This project aims to ensure that the voices of older people are prominent from the start of the UN Decade, setting the tone for their visibility, inclusion and meaningful engagement throughout the ten years. Meaningful engagement enables people to bring their lived experience, perspectives, expertise and ideas to knowledge-generation, policymaking and health responses that are rights-based, accountable and ensure that no one is left behind. To provide an example of how this can be achieved, the project used an innovative Participatory Video (PV) methodology to engage groups of diverse older adults in different settings. The project resulted in: a community-made film from each site, a document capturing lessons learned from the process, and a practical toolkit on the PV methodology for strengthening the voice and engagement of older people throughout the Decade.

Scope

Small groups of older people were trained to become PV filmmakers in their local communities. They were guided through a creative process by expert facilitators in video-making techniques while exploring together key issues of importance to them related to healthy ageing. They designed and shot their own films among their peers in their own location. They were also involved in editing and screening processes involving local communities, decision makers and service providers, and in some cases, national stakeholders. The site videos were first screened (subject to the consent of the community film makers) in their own communities as a channel for collective dialogue with local decision-makers and service providers. After that, other screenings can be organized at relevant events related to older people and healthy ageing in countries, regions and globally throughout the Decade, contributing to ongoing advocacy and communications with older people’s voices at the centre.