LESSON
Lesson Learned: Strengthening promotion of women’s rights (Kenya)
While the project succeeded in bringing stories from women at grassroots level into the Kenyan mainstream media, simple steps could have improved the coverage of women’s issues. Several women mentioned that they were unable to provide images to illustrate the issues they wanted to highlight because either they did not have cameras or they had not been trained to use them. To ensure sustainability and quality in the coverage of women’s issues, the grantee should include training in photojournalism and social media in future activities.
Project Name
Project Partner
African Woman and Child Feature Service
Project Description
The project focused on the role of the media as a source of information for women at grassroots level, and as an influencing agent on government and institutional processes, promoting women’s voices and issues in the media. Additionally, the project aimed to build the capacity of advocacy groups to work with the media on behalf of women and other marginalized groups. The project succeeded in bringing women’s issues into the national debate ahead of the political reform process in Kenya. Most prominent was the monthly publication of the online newsletter Kenyan Woman which effectively framed women’s issues to more than 3 million subscribers. Kenyan Woman caught the attention of senior politicians, brought women’s stories to the attention of Kenya’s Truth, Justice and Reconciliation Commission, and influenced mainstream media to increase their focus on women’s issues.
Report
Evaluation Date
October 2011
Theme
Country