Global Reach: Grantee Partners

Photovoices International (PVI)

Context:

Young people have a fundamental right to actively, and meaningfully engage in all matters that affect their lives. The Global Consensus Statement on Meaningful Adolescent and Youth Engagement states that Meaningful Youth Engagement (MYE) is “an inclusive, intentional, mutually-respectful partnership between adolescents, youth, and adults”. It is “whereby power is shared, respective contributions are valued, and young people’s ideas, perspectives, skills, and strengths are integrated into the design and delivery of programmes, strategies, policies, funding mechanisms, and organisations that affect their lives and their communities, countries, and world.” This grant for Photovoices International (PVI) is grounded on this concept.

PVI began collaborating with EMpower’s long-standing grantee partner East Bali Poverty Project (EBPP) on youth-empowerment projects in 2016. Since then, EMpower grants allowed EBPP – with the support of PVI – to go on an impactful journey that centred young people’s, and above all young women’s voices, from the Ban village area. Over the years, PVI – in using the Photovoices approach – facilitated young people’s work on gender issues, mentored EBPP programme staff, and trained the latter on gender and the Photovoices approach – which contributed to EBPP staff’s growing understanding of the power and importance of MYE.

From programme to programme, girls and young women were increasingly empowered to bring issues to the forefront, in areas such as Child, Early and Forced Marriages (CEFM), sexual harassment and Gender Based Violence (GBV). They were trained amongst others, in research, photography, community interview, analysis, communication, and presentation skills. They hosted community meetings with leaders of their hamlets and villages to advocate for their issues of concern. They have already had success with two customary villages committed to creating a Parerem (customary law) against CEFM and an additional 17 customary villages having signed on. The leaders met with youth representatives, led by girls and young women, to listen to their concerns and ideas. The whole journey came also with a growing understanding among EBPP staff and management that girls and young women (young people in general) cannot shoulder the responsibility without strategic support from adults such as village leaders.

Based on this journey, PVI is looking forward to scaling and replicating the Photovoices approach with EMpower grantee partners in East and Southeast Asia.

Organisation:

Photovoices International (PVI) was founded in 2007 in Bali, Indonesia, and established as a registered Indonesian non-profit organisation in 2015. Their objective is to carry forward the work of empowering underrepresented communities, to articulate their perspectives and to improve their lives. To date, PVI has worked with community participants in 14 projects in 23 villages across the Indonesian archipelago. PVI collaborates with village and regional government partners, as well as community-based organisations, to bring community and young peoples’ voices into decision-making and support community advocacy for positive change.

PVI’s vision is to empower under-represented communities to articulate their perspectives and improve their lives. The mission is to engage with and train community members and young people to use visuals and storytelling to positively impact people and policies, and to advocate for positive change.

Current Grant

EMpower's first grant to Photovoices International (PVI) creates the prerequisites for a scaling and replication of the Photovoices approach with EMpower-funded grantee partners in East and Southeast Asia to place greater emphasis on Meaningful Youth Engagement (MYE) at programme and organisational level. This is a regional grant with a clear strategic objective on MYE. It ultimately supports our grantee partners of all three thematic portfolios (Economic Well-being, Inclusive Learning, Safe and Healthy Lives). This first planning grant supports PVI to: (1) develop internal capacity by investing in the development of training materials for the Photovoices approach and in capacity enhancement of PVI staff and (2) run a regional needs assessment with EMpower grantee partners in East and Southeast Asia. The needs assessment is important to learn about the needs, interests, resources and readiness of our grantee partners in the region regarding the implementation of the Photovoices approach as a powerful tool for MYE.

Primary Location: Bali, Indonesia

Website: www.photovoicesinternational.org

Funded Since: 2022