Storytelling

Roxanna Samii - r.samii@ifad.orgInternational Fund for Agricultural

Development (IFAD)Regional implementation workshop for

IFAD-financed projects in Eastern and Southern Africa10-14 November 2008

Storytelling and knowledge management

• to ignite organizational change • to communicate • to capture tacit knowledge • to transfer knowledge • to innovate • to build community • for individual growth

“Everyone interested in knowledge management knows that storytelling can be an effective knowledge-sharing technique, largely because it conveys context, causal relationships and emotional content more effectively than most other modes of communication”

When to use storytelling

• Team and community building• Break down cultural barriers• Debriefing• Capture project impact• M&E

“Sometime reality is too complex. Stories give it form.”

J.L. Godard

IFAD and storytelling

• Capture project/programme impact• Highlight challenges and

opportunities• Show how the projects/programmes

influence policy• Tell human story of

project/programme beneficiaries• Show innovations

Storytelling ingredients

• Title of story• Name of original teller• Name of listener/understander• Landscape: set the scene in time and space• Dwelling place: precise location where action occurred• Characters: full name of interviewees, descriptive

attributes and roles in story

Storytelling ingredients

• Challenge: problem or task that triggered the action• Action: sequence of events before, during and after

your turning point• Turning point: the moment when the change happens• Resolution: ending, including moral, lesson learned or

message• Vision for future and aspirations• Key visual hooks: photography

Thank you

www.ifad.orgwww.ruralpovertyportal.org