The Participate initiative is a global network of participatory research organisations.  It works to ensure that marginalised people have a central role in holding decision-makers to account, from local to global levels.

Participate has launched a new phase, the Participatory Monitoring and Accountability (PMA) programme, which focuses on the effective implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals.

Participate aims to:

• Bring perspectives of those in poverty into decision-making processes
• Embed participatory research in global policy-making
• Use research with the poorest as the basis for advocacy with decision-makers
• Ensure that marginalised people have a central role in holding decision-makers to account throughout the life of the SDGs
• Generate knowledge, understanding and relationships for the global public good

In this film, young people in Mathare slum, Nairobi, Kenya identify wider social problems such as youth unemployment that need to be addressed for lasting change to take place. They demonstrate how problems should not be treated in isolation, and solutions must tackle underlying issues as well as those on the surface. In tackling insecurity they have learned what they can do as a community and where they require support in achieving their visions. Watch the film here or go to Participate’s vimeo page to learn more about the film, Working Together for Change