Step Aside.

Where This Started

My personal connection to what we now call Community-Led Storytelling (CLS) started in 2022, during the work on the Impact Diaries – my last project before I joined Fairpicture and the first time I collaborated with a local visual creator and experienced first-hand what it means to let contributors tell their stories themselves.

That changed something in me.

From there, I started paying close attention to what was happening in the space. There was a striking study from AMREF around that time comparing charity-led versus participant-led fundraising campaigns – with convincing arguments to go for the second. And there were always a few pioneers who have come up with something truly innovative happened.

Yet beyond these few pilot projects and showcase initiatives the discussion remained largely theoretical; under pressure from powerful interest groups – like us, Ibex Ideas or The New Humanitarian, who states that "what journalists owe to those they report on goes right to the heart of the colonial power imbalances”.

The truth is: Our sector largely continued as before. Yes, more and more iNGOs and Humanitarian Aid Organisation are collaborating with local creators, informed consent processes have been embedded. In that respect, the situation has improved.

But what about the way stories are collected, what about the power dynamics? It seems that for most organizations, actually giving up control is still a step too far – even though everyone knows it’s the right thing to do.

Becky Mansell, Content Manager at the DEC, was one of the facilitators on the ground in Beirut. She wrote openly about what the week felt like – including what it actually took to step back from her professional instincts and hand creative control to the women themselves:

What the DEC and its team have successfully tested goes exactly in the right direction – brave, innovative, persistent and with stories that are – how Becky phrased it – representative rather than interpreted.

Upon closer inspection, however, I came across two limitations: power imbalances and costs. If our clients have to fly in western facilitators every time they want to carry out a project like this, aren’t they simply perpetuating the very patterns they set out to address? Where is the decolonization and localization in that?

Beyond that, this model isn’t scalable. And it doesn’t lead to a genuine shift in power. What we were looking for was something different.

The Piece That Was Missing

What had been missing in all previous Community Led Storytelling (CLS)-approaches we were aware of was a real transfer of knowledge – and the ability to offer clients cost-effective monitoring follow-ups of their project development without compromising on depth or quality.

Until now, most CLS-projects were initiated by Western consultants (exceptions prove the rule) who tended to be rather protective than collaborative, which is understandable, since most are run by dedicated individuals. However, this protectionism runs directly counter to our mission and theory of change.

Then we found the missing piece of the puzzle, and suddenly everything made sense.

Our shared goal: to support every CLS project with professional visual content and to empower our local network on our methodology.

Tom Martin is a humanitarian photographer and senior lecturer at the University of Lincoln. Together with Michelle Walsh, a senior lecturer and photovoice practitioner, they developed Collective Storytelling methodologies for Social Change – built on one core conviction: that contributor ownership is not a nice-to-have, but the whole point.

In Morocco, they worked alongside Indigenous Amazigh women to document the devastating effects of climate change on their land – a project that won the Emerald Publishing Real Impact Award. In Rwanda, their participatory filmmaking gave young people a voice around mental health stigma – and that work directly shaped the country’s National Youth Mental Health Strategy.

With this in mind, we are taking a further step toward localization and decolonization and ensuring our clients receive high-quality visual documentation – from stories in which contributors are the directors. Over time, our network of visual creators will become increasingly able to facilitate Community-Led Storytelling workshops and assignments independently.

And just how much that shift means to our creators themselves? Laura put it well:

Looking Ahead

Let’s be honest: The market for ethical visual communication remains unstable. Budgets are tight. While some still question if AI-generated images really undermine trust in organizations, the IFRC has already concluded as much in its World Disaster Report 2026:

Harmful information is a humanitarian crisis.
It disrupts aid, triggers violence, and acts as a weapon
by spreading rapidly in digital environments.

That's why I believe it will become increasingly important for iNGOs and Foundations not only to demonstrate the authenticity of their photos and the informed consent of the people depicted, but also to adopt approaches where their contributors own the stories they share – not just appear in it.

These are stories that serve as insightful project evaluations for your program and M&E teams supplemented by visual communication materials that bring them to life.

I'm genuinely excited about the conversations ahead – for example at our next FairTalk on Tuesday, May 26th, where we will introduce Fairpicture's CLS – together with our facilitators, creators, former contributors and clients – save this date!

After our first big milestone – shifting from imported to local visual creators – we are now ready to take the next one: empowering organisations to work with storytelling that is wholly in service of the contributors' perspectives.

And that’s why – amid all the chaos and destructive energy out there in the world – building something like this makes me actually really hopeful.

It’s time to step aside.