IDP Voices

IDP Voices has used personal, participatory dialogue, information and communication technology (ICT), and printed material (a book) to provide a "window" on the actual experiences of a group that may not otherwise have had the capacity to share their stories. The core strategy involves enabling people to see the phenomenon of displacement within a personal context. The idea is that, by looking not only at the displacement, but at the entire cycle of someone's life, a deeper understanding may arise of the impact of displacement.

Specifically, the project has used an oral testimony methodology - so, a face-to-face, participatory process - pioneered by Panos London to capture the real views and voices and stories of IDP in Colombia and Georgia - in a vivid, personal, and direct way. (Editor's note: Click here to learn more about this methodology, which focuses on training and supporting local organisations in recording and disseminating the views and experiences of those usually excluded from international development debate). As part of this process, interviewers are selected among communities affected by conflict and displacement. The IDMC provided its support to these local people and organisations by enabling them to apply life story and oral testimony methodologies to tell their stories.

Guiding the project was the belief that perceptions and feelings are as important as facts. The approach used in the Colombia project offers an illustration. First, a workshop took place in Bogotà in April 2006 to prepare participants to interview IDP in their communities. It addressed listening and questioning skills, interview relationships and ethics, confidentiality, safety and security, topic development, and recording techniques. The participants, who came from 6 different regions of Colombia, included 5 IDP, 2 community members, 3 psychologists, a lawyer, and a social worker. The overall focus was to gather personal experiences of the impact of displacement, rather than evidence-based testimonies of the events and abuses surrounding displacement. By letting IDPs tell their life stories, organisers say, the displacement is contextualised and their strength and knowledge can come forward. The individual becomes a narrator rather than a victim, as illustrated by this life story interviewer's comment: "Having the opportunity to tell your life story can be therapeutic; it can be a restoring and empowering experience." Participants have also contributed to building the agendas of the workshop and meetings and have taken a lead role in facilitating certain sessions.

Following the workshop, participants returned to their areas to record and transcribe as many as 5 interviews each. Interviewers participated at a review meeting in July 2006 and an end-of-collection meeting in September at which they shared their experiences and offered each other on-going support and advice. Psychologists led sessions offering support. Interviewers undertook thematic analyses of their own interviews, discussed and planned the publication of the stories, and learned about the Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement. Then, a reading committee of four people from NRC Colombia and IDMC read all 54 life stories and selected 19 life stories to form the basis for a book and the contents of the project's website. The IDMC intends that visitors to this site from all over the world can listen to, and read about, the personal experiences, hopes, and dreams of IDPs - and perhaps come to a new appreciation of the impact of being forced from one's home.

Rights, Conflict, Displacement

Organisers believe that, "While the stories and voices are valuable in themselves to convey the devastating impact of displacement on the lives and well-being of the displaced, their families and their communities, they also complement the more conventional base-line surveys and needs assessments routinely carried out by humanitarian and development organisations. Life stories enable planners and policymakers to more fully appreciate the complex and varied impacts of internal displacement and identify new ways to respond."