| Reporting Organization: | Media Focus on Africa |
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| Total Budget ($CAD): | $ 240,000 |
| Timeframe: | December 20, 2018 - December 31, 2020 |
| Status: | Implementation |
| Contact Information: | Unspecified |
Unspecified
| Kenya - $ 240,000.00 (100.00%) | |
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| Gender Equality (40 %) | |
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| Sexual & Gender-based Violence (33.33 %) | |
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| Protection (16.67 %) | |
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| Human Rights, Advocacy & Public Engagement (10 %) | |
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This project aims to empower and raise the voice of Kenyan women to become leaders in building and governing a more peaceful and equitable Kenya through the use of media for social change. The project works to produce a 26-episode reality television series, called Ms President, where women are selected to act as presidential candidates and engage on issues such as women’s rights and the empowerment of women, adolescent girls and girls in politics, peacebuilding, reconciliation, and social cohesion. In parallel, the project facilitates media practitioners’ ability to change media content to portray women as leaders in their communities and to challenge discriminatory social norms that continue to depict women as inferior to men. It also strengthens the capacity of the selected women presidential candidates in the reality television series to have more effective messaging and to act as influential political leaders and change agents for gender equality in Kenya. In addition, the initiative partners with civil society and women’s rights organizations post-production and use the television series as a way to increase dialogue among civil society actors, local and national conflict resolution and peace-building groups, as well as government officials about women’s leadership roles in peacebuilding in three counties in Kenya affected by insecurity and violent extremism.
| Gender and age: | Adult women Adolescent females Children, girls |
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| Total Direct Population: | Unspecified |
Unspecified
Return to topThe expected outcomes for this project include: (1) increased leadership positions for women who have participated in the show; and (2) increased effectiveness of civil society actors, notably the media, in promoting and supporting women leadership in their communities, in peacebuilding and in preventing violent extremism.
Results achieved as of July 2019 include: (1) Media Focus Africa has screened all 26 episodes of the TV show, which witnessed an estimated average of 3.5 million viewers per week (of which 49% women and 51% were men); (2) broadcasted on Kenya’s main TV channel, the show has significantly increased the leadership and influence of the top five Kenyan women contestants, who had to build a campaign team, carry out a campaign in different parts of Kenya’s capital, and participate in a live televised debate before the final episode where the public (147,099 people) voluntarily voted for their Ms President choice using text messages; (3) after the end of the series, women and young women contestants to the reality television series have expressed an increase in their self-confidence in public speaking and in their sense of empowerment to be a more effective agent of change in their communities; and (4) this project has provided a valuable profile for Canada in supporting gender equality and the empowerment of women, adolescent girls and girls, as well as in advancing its women, peace and security agenda.
