What is co-production and how can it improve the design, implementation and evaluation of interventions in complex settings? 

Co-production in research involves power sharing between researchers and citizens in the production of knowledge, intervention and action to improve the lives of people and communities. In many countries, research in mental health is increasingly expected to be co-produced with end users or key stakeholders, in line with the "no research about me without me" principle.

This event will introduce the principles and steps involved in co-production, with a particular focus on co-production with young people. We will explore the challenges of co-production, and showcase how Project SAMA is using co-production with young people in Karnataka to design school-based mental health programs.

How to move mountains: using youth voice and research evidence to shape policy.

Evidence-informed and inclusive policymaking can ensure that policies are responsive to local needs.

In this participatory session, we will share emerging results of our analysis of the role of evidence in mental health policymaking in Karnataka. This will enable participants to (a) validate the findings and (b) jointly reflect on feasible strategies for improving mental health policymaking. The main output from this session would be shared understanding of key barriers and opportunities for evidence-informed policymaking and engagements of youth groups in policy processes in Karnataka, together with an agreed roadmap for improving evidence-informed and inclusive mental health policymaking in Karnataka.

How can youth filmmaking improve research, co-production and advocacy for young people?

This session will introduce the methodological principles of participatory video, highlighting a number of contexts in which Paul Cooke has used visual participatory approaches to engage young people in helping to actively shape their communities. Examples will range from a leadership programme that has been developed in South Africa to a testimony project in Colombia as well as our work for the SAMA project.

Specifically we will examine how the films can be read as a form of data that can complement other more ‘traditional’ social science forms of data, as well as how a focus on advocacy can ensure that projects avoid becoming exercises in data extraction.