Writing & Editing
I have written three guidebooks – on various aspects of participatory video practice – and numerous articles on a range of issues and projects. In addition, various organisations commission me to edit their publications, reports, websites and publicity materials.
On this page you will find links to the guidebooks I have written, numerous publications edited for organisations and, finally, a selection of articles published over recent years.
“We greatly appreciate Gareth’s professionalism and the high quality of his work. Gareth edited and designed our current strategy, which has been well-received by our stakeholders and donors. I would recommend Gareth without hesitation.”
Combatting Corruption
guidebook for practitioners
Published in March 2019, this guide came as a result of numerous projects with Transparency International, exploring the impacts of corruption in systems of land administration and management across Africa. It was created to encourage and support organisations and practitioners to use Participatory Video as a means for unearthing, addressing and combatting corruption around the world.
Rights-Based Approaches
toolkit for practitioners
This toolkit was written for InsightShare in 2010 with funding from the UNDP Global Environment Facility Small Grants Programme (GEF SGP). It was created to provide Participatory Video facilitators and community media organisers with methods, ideas, tools, checklists and resources necessary to adopt a Rights-Based Approach to their diverse practices.
Community Screenings
guidebook for practitioners
A guidebook full of ideas and inspiration for anyone organising community screenings as part of a Participatory Video process. Written for InsightShare in 2014, with funding from The Christensen Fund, the guide includes advice on planning and delivering an effective screening including practical and technical considerations, facilitator tips, checklists, and case studies from diverse projects.
Dignified Storytelling Handbook
CONTRIBUTING AUTHOR
The Dignified Storytelling Handbook is a unique resource to help storytellers and organisations promote and employ storytelling practices that are grounded in a deep respect for human dignity. It provides suggestions of issues to consider and actionable steps for putting the Dignified Storytelling Principles into practice. The handbook includes my case study on a recent participatory video project that I facilitated with citizens from across The Gambia.
Women, Land and Corruption
This is a landmark publication by the Land Programme at Transparency International bringing together research, practices, perspectives and experiences from individuals and organisations working to address land corruption. I was commissioned to co-edit the publication, working with staff from the secretariat, nine national chapters (located across Sub-Saharan African) and a range of contributors to compile research findings and present practical experiences in an accessible compendium for practitioners.
CO-EDITOR & CONTRIBUTING AUTHOR
Land Portal Annual Report/Strategy/Website
The Land Portal Foundation has commissioned me to write and edit various publications over the years, including their Annual Reports 2019 and 2020, 5-year strategy, and copy for all landing pages throughout the website. These assignments also included graphic design, see designs section. In 2020, I was commissioned by the Land Portal Foundation to write a fundraising appeal targeting bilateral funding agencies.
editor & writer
Investigating Land and Corruption in Africa
The Transparency International Secretariat in Berlin commissioned me to edit this unique training manual for investigative journalists working across Sub-Saharan Africa. The manual provides a complete course – covering all aspects of researching, constructing, and presenting stories – which can be downloaded and used by practicing journalists and trainers/educators alike. Transforming the source material into an accessible, relevant and functional course was a highly complex and involved task. The result is a course which is being used by investigative journalists, trainers and facilitators across the continent.
editor
Combatting Land Corruption in Africa
Commissioned in 2019, this collection of practice models brings together a range of approaches to tackling corruption within the land sector from organisations and activists working across Africa. Each practice is described in detail (including the key steps for implementation and factors for achieving success) in a format intended to guide others working against corruption to use the same techniques, while encouraging adaptation and fostering future innovations. My role in preparing the publication was as editor and graphic designer, while also contributing a practice example from participatory video work with widows in Ghana.
EDITOR & CONTRIBUTING AUTHOR
Corruption in Urban Planning
Transparency International commissioned the creation of this guide based upon a closed/private online course published by the Land and Corruption in sub-Saharan Africa programme. The new guide (due for publication in late 2020) has been crafted to equip prospective and established urban planning professionals – from the public, private and civic sectors – with the necessary knowledge, tools and tactics to recognise and push back against corrupt practices in their day-to-day work, and within the planning and urban development sectors more generally.
EDITOR
Articles & Blogs
Paradise Corrupted
Island Community Threatened with Eviction
Three decades of negligence and corruption, at several levels, have fuelled a bitter dispute between a wealthy family from Mombasa and the community of an impoverished island in the Indian Ocean. Written for Transparency International in 2018, this article documents the circumstances facing an impoverished island community, off the southern coast of Kenya, that faces mass eviction due to decades of corruption and malpractice by officials and a powerful local elite. Read the article here.
Participatory Video in Myanmar
Capacity-Building for Local Facilitators
In 2013, representatives from communities in the Ayeyarwady Delta region of Myanmar (Burma) were trained in Participatory Video processes. This article was published in Issue 20 of the Glocal Times – a development communications journal published by Malmö University – to share the approaches adopted and challenges experienced by the team introducing community-led video advocacy to a country dominated by one of the world’s most oppressive regimes. Read the article here.
Indigenous Voices on Climate Change
CONVERSATIONS WITH THE EARTH
Conversations With the Earth was a multimedia initiative to amplify voices of indigenous communities around the world within the global discourse on climate change. This article describes the efforts of eight communities to raise awareness of the impacts of climate change on indigenous communities around the world. It was published in the German language Südlink magazine (#160) in 2012. Access the article here..
Murder in Metchem
Violence and Land Corruption in Sierra Leone
This article documents the role of a national bank and an influential politician in alienating a small community from their land in urban Sierra Leone and the fallout of the corruption scandal which has left five community members imprisoned for murder and scores of residents forcefully evicted. Written in collaboration with local journalists and Transparency International Sierra Leone, it was published in October 2018. Read the article here.