IFRC GLOBAL INNOVATION SUMMIT: RYVU INTERACTIVE GAMES SESSION
On 27 June, Professor Matt Baillie Smith, Dr Bianca Fadel and Dr Moses Okech joined the 2023 IFRC Global Innovation Summit to share experiences on the use of creative and participatory methodologies in volunteering research with practitioners from the global Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement.
The 2023 Global Innovation Summit was organised by the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) from 25 to 28 June as a hybrid global event (in-person and online) focused on the theme “Transforming our National Societies and our Network”. For three days, changemakers, thought-leaders, and experts from over 150 organisations and hubs from the IFRC network and beyond, including over 125 Red Cross and Red Crescent National Societies, joined the summit in Nairobi, Kenya, and online for 97 sessions across different thematic areas to collaborate, generate creative ideas and develop a culture of innovation and transformation within the network.
The RYVU team facilitated a digital interactive session on innovative and participatory approaches to volunteering research, with a focus on the use of games as interactive tools for exploring research findings. The session, attended online by 25 participants, explored the use of creative and participatory methodologies in volunteering research and how it can enhance strategies for learning from volunteers’ lived experiences and improving policy and practice in the sector.
Professor Matt Baillie Smith, Dr Bianca Fadel and Dr Moses Okech explained the RYVU project’s photovoice strategy and presented the set of RYVU interactive games to open up conversations not only about ‘what’ is being researched in the volunteer sector, but also ‘how’ evidence gathering and dissemination of volunteering research can be done in innovative ways.
The session also included time for digital game-playing (RYVU Pairing Game) allowing attendees to actively participate and creatively reflect on the use of the methodologies presented by the RYVU team.