Tag Archives: development

Videos to structure discussion

During the annual public presentation in November 2011, The Swiss State Secretariat for Economic Affairs SECO used videos to structure the podium discussion.

Public podium discussions tend to be monotonous and risk to lose the audience’s attention. By using audio-visual media it is possible to breath fresh air into the talk. SECO displayed three 1 min. videos to diversify and structure a 45 min. podium discussion on SECO’s support to Albania’s crumbling water distribution infrastructure. Each video introduces one important program aspect to the audience, and is then discussed among the invited experts.

Complexity conveyed in simple terms

I had the opportunity to produce these 3 videos. My main concern was to tell the complexity of such an intervention to people without any development aid background. The number 3 inspired me to present SECO’s support to Albania through the systemic approach glasses: Continue reading →

Raising awareness with a computer game

In the same effort like the videos on the Swiss support to Moldova (see my post from 26.11), the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) department Cooperation with Eastern Europe financed the production of a game to sensitize the Swiss public to the challenges in facilitating integrated water management systems in partner countries, such as the Central Asian states, emphasizing the interdependence of all water users.

The game was designed to be displayed during the traveling street exhibition 50 years of SDC in Switzerland in 2011. Since there is a high visitors’ turnover at such public exhibitions, the game was to have a play-time of not more than 5 minutes. This obviously limited the game’s ability to fully display a complex subject such as the regional water distribution in Central Asia. For this, the game was accompanied by A2 large panels informing further on the subject. The game together with the panels resulted in the perfect mix of play and content, where all visitors, young and old could find their entry point into the subject.

Concept & Project Coordination: K. Kunz, LerNetz, Hynek
Production: LerNetz

Presenting SDC’s Results in Moldova

While working at the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation I contracted LerNetz to produce a video clip explaining how Switzerland supports the Republic of Moldova in reforming its health system. I like LerNetz’s educational clips. There’s play in presenting serious matters, and there’s the human factor: you see human hands animating the image. I am tired of shiny 3D animations, that are too slick to have a soul.

The challenge of the story was to bring across SDC’s concept of the holistic or systemic program approach, so that it can be understood by the general public. The systemic approach takes into account all causes and effects of a development intervention. To give you an idea: such projects work not only with the direct project partners, but also involve the population concerned while actively communicating with the partner government to promote state policies that facilitate the partner government reform objectives. – If you have trouble understanding the last sentence, you are getting my point ;-) Watch the video and let me know, if we succeeded.

The video was produced in the 3 Swiss languages (German French and Italian) and you find it also on SDC’s web page.

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