Storytelling is a universal feature of human culture that is used to communicate, educate and entertain. The simplicity of storytelling ensures that the audience participates and understands the messages the storyteller intends to convey. But storytelling is not simple; it is an art that has evolved and transformed throughout human existence.

With the intention of learning more about this topic and strengthening capacities for its use, we called Storytellers and asked them to share their different perspectives, as well as the different forms and techniques for storytelling. This is how we created the series “INVISIBLE STORIES, MADE VISIBLE. STORY TELLING IN AFRICA”. The series features new and old generation artists, academics, researchers and the local community showing how storytelling and evaluation can be connected in different ways, from data collection and analysis to dissemination of the knowledge generated.

Today we share the second part of the series, where Bambo Idriss Waintum presents a unique way of telling stories through painting one’s own body with natural dyes.

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One of the challenges of participatory evaluation is that of including a broad diversity of stakeholders, many of whom have no training or previous knowledge of evaluation.

In this testimony Olga Nirenberg highlights the importance of the tools and techniques employed. These must be at the same time effective in tackling the topic and simple so as to be within the reach of all the participants. Including the voices of a vast and diverse array of stakeholders in the process is the best way towards a useful, transformational and high quality evaluation.

Olga Nirenberg has a PhD in Social Sciences (UBA, 2005) and a diploma in Public Health (UBA, 1976). A founding member of the Local Development Support Centre – CEADEL -(https://ceadel.org.ar​, 1986 – 2020), she developed the Self-Assessment Tool for Education Quality project – IACE- (UNICEF/CEADEL, 2007-2017). She has worked as a consultant/evaluator for UNICEF Argentina, the ARCOR Foundation, the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO), the World Health Organization (WHO) and the W.K. Kellogg Foundation. She has also worked in different social areas of the national government in Argentina. She has been an evaluator of extension projects and a teacher in both public and private universities and has published books and articles on social planning and evaluation. She is a member of the Argentine Network of Evaluation (EvaluAR) and of the Latin American and Caribbean Monitoring, Evaluation and Systematization Network (ReLAC). She is currently collaborating with the EvalParticipativa initiative.