From 2012 onwards Evaluation & Co has been supporting Wemos (a Dutch NGO focusing on Lobby and Advocacy for Global Health issues) in developing a 3-year planning and monitoring trajectory (2013-2015) for one of their networks 'the Human Resources for Health Alliance'.  Wemos has specifically chosen to use Outcome Mapping for this alliance since there are many different stakeholders involved (several ministries, employer’s organisations, unions, client associations, private agencies) while the environment is rapidly changing (National Health Policy changes, budget cuts due to economic crises, increasing costs of Health Care). This alliance attempts to promote  -within the Netherlands - the WHO’ Code of Practice on ethical international recruitment of health personnel and to facilitate the strengthening of health systems. The programme forms part of an EU-project ‘Health workers for All’ that is implemented in 7 EU-countries.

Added Value of using video/visuals in Outcome Mapping

The use of video was included in the Outcome Mapping planning and monitoring trajectory because we believe that visual presentation can be an effective way of sharing lessons, ideas and results. A large group of people learn better through seeing things. Visuals like pictures and videos provide information that words and texts alone cannot, like attitudes, images of situations, spheres, etc.

Another important function of video is that actors involved in programmes can represent themselves directly even though they cannot be present during a meeting or workshop. Especially for programmes in which different stakeholders are involved it is important to explicitly provide time and a stage for all perspectives.

And last but not least in our work: it also provides less dominant actors the space and time to ventilate their thoughts and in this way using video can empower people. Material can be shared horizontally with other groups and vertically with other layers of the programme or organisation.

For the design phase of the Alliance 's programme of action, we interviewed various Alliance members and partners and captured key questions and issues on video. The use of these video interviews clearly created an opportunity to hear the different ‘voices’ and also included the international dimension of the issues. During the intentional design phase these video statements were shared and reflected upon. Also some boundary partners were not able to participate physically in the meeting, they were vividly present. This is an added value considering the time limitations of many policy makers and implementers.

The question on progress markers (changes they expect, like and love to see) challenged Alliance members to include medium and long-term issues and to be specific on whose behaviour needs to change.

We have learned that the video interviews and the collective viewing and reflection during a meeting, really contributed to mutual understanding within the Alliance of joint interests and views and facilitated to define the fields for strategic joint actions. Our experiences so far have been very positive. Watching a video together provokes a different discussion than having a discussion based on a written piece of text.

The compilation of the most important issues on video serves as a ‘baseline’ as well for further monitoring and the development of a monitoring framework. Another advantage of the video material is that it can be easily shared afterwards with other Alliance members and partners who might join in at a later stage.  We cannot wait to progress along this path and start harvesting outcomes and more lessons learned.

This does not mean video is suitable for all situations: not everybody is used or willing to speak out for a camera. When actors however trust the network and group they work with and they know how the videos are going to be used (for learning and not for accountability purposes or a broader public), we have seen that the use of video ignites sparks of enthusiasm, synergy and energetic discussions.

In another outcome mapping trajectory we use visual outcome journals. After some reflection on the existing plans with outcomes and progress markers we decided to start with individual outcome journals per team member. They either capture a 'selfie' (a self-recorded journal) or ask one of their team members to interview them about progress on the outcome they had planned for their own projects: which changes they expected, liked, or loved to see had been achieved? What actors and factors influenced progress? What was their role etc? The individual outcome journals are used in a reflection and learning session to track patterns and learn lessons together in the team. The next stage is making outcome journals that include the perspectives of the boundary partners as well.

As Evaluation & Co’s we strive for much shorter feedback cycles with lessons that could inform the development of current programmes. Our contribution is asking the 'right' questions, pushing the process and where necessary organise reflection moments to support detecting patterns and lessons learned. And it works!