Integrating Data Storytelling in Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning

In 2019, Tetra Tech ARD partnered with its sister company, MSI, A Tetra Tech Company, to support the USAID-funded West Africa Biodiversity and Climate Change (WA BiCC) program. The scope of the support was to produce a suite of products to synthesize the project’s learning and accomplishments, serving as an extension of their short-handed communications team.

While the collaboration initially called for several videos to be produced in addition to traditional written products, the learning objectives provided an opportunity to build upon the researchers’ substantial research and learning experience to create products informed by their knowledge and proximity to the data/field, and tempered by their professional rigor. The plan was to add the technical skills and adaptability of filmmaking to the researcher’s field toolkit and impart the rigor of research onto the storytelling process.

Through a participatory approach to learning, MSI’s team put down their notepads, picked up cameras, first at the home office and then for a filmmaking bootcamp in Ghana, and dove into the grey area between storytelling and research.

The results were more than a few engaging and informative videos. MSI’s research team gained a valuable set of new digital tools to capture data and the experience deepened their logistical scenario planning to anticipate complexities well-beyond their comfort zones. Most significantly, they became advocates within the organization for the integrating digital storytelling to enhance the technical evidence base for improved decision-making.