Call for Applications for Young Media Professionals to Participate in Media for Social Change Workshop and a National Media Campaign

About ABAAD - Resource Center for Gender Equality

ABAAD is a non-profit, non-politically affiliated, non-religious civil association that aims to achieve gender equality as an essential condition to sustainable social and economic development in the MENA region. ABAAD seeks to promote women's equality and participation through policy development, legal reform, and gender mainstreaming, engaging men, eliminating discrimination, and advancing and empowering women to participate effectively and fully in their communities. ABAAD also seeks to support and collaborate with civil society organizations that are involved in gender equality programs and advocacy campaigns.

About Search for Common Ground Lebanon

Search for Common Ground (Search) is a non-governmental organization working to transform the way the world deals with conflict. We have acquired over 35 years of experience in peacebuilding and are based in over 30 countries around the world. Search first worked in Lebanon in 1996, addressing multiple issues arising within Lebanon's diverse society. In each project we seek to engage all stakeholders to work together to address shared challenges and develop joint solutions.

Brief Background

Despite the various efforts made in Lebanon to achieve gender equality and end Violence Against Women and Girls (VAWG), the situation remains troubling. In 2019, Lebanon ranked 145th out of 153 countries in the world on the World Economic Forum’s global gender gap index and ranked 14th among the 19 MENA countries.
Patriarchal social structures and practices, as well as communities’ lack of awareness of women’s rights, limit women’s access to economic resources and leadership positions in the political and social spheres, while simultaneously codifying discrimination in public policy. Furthermore, traditional social images of male superiority and power imbalances still foster attitudes and behaviors that sustain gender inequality, violence, and discrimination.

Project Description 
Search for Common Ground (Search), in partnership with ABAAD - Resource Center for Gender Equality (ABAAD), are implementing the Partners for Justice Project (April 2020 – December 2021) in Lebanon. This project will help reduce violence against women and girls in Lebanon by transforming the attitudes of men, women, boys and girls towards the patriarchal norms that define masculinities, and addressing the root causes of VAWG in public and private spheres. 

This will be met through the following objectives:

●    Engaging men and boys to positively work with women and become allies and champions of gender equality and prevention of violence against women and girls.
●    Promote a shift in communities’ attitudes in target areas around the permissibility of, and assumptions related to, violence against women and girls.

The project is seeking to recruit ten young media professionals that will be participating in the development of a national advocacy and awareness campaign. 
These young media professionals will first be engaged in a “Media for Social Change Workshop” which will include promoting gender sensitive skills. This activity will then feed into the design of a National Advocacy and Awareness Campaign that will promote positive narratives of masculinity and raise awareness about VAWG to a wider public audience.
 The project covers the following geographical areas of focus: North, Mount-Lebanon, Beirut, Bekaa and the South. The campaign is intended to be locally rooted and thus relevant to rural and urban contexts in Lebanon.

Impact on the Community

The awareness campaign which will be implemented through the project will encourage a change of behaviors and perception towards gender issues and masculinities. In addition, empowering youth and civil society actors from different areas all around Lebanon through development of capacities will allow for increased social engagement and responsibility.

Selection Criteria

The applicant should:                       

1. Have values and missions that align with the project goal (commitment to human rights including social justice, non-discrimination and gender diversity and equality); the project will also place high value on the inclusion of actors from a full spectrum of diversities (physical abilities, sexual orientation and gender identities, ethnicities, class, race, religion etc.);
2. Have focus on the following Key Areas of Interest: human rights including the rights of persons with disabilities, social justice, gender equality, masculinities, women’s protection and empowerment, conflict resolution, sustainable development, etc.;
3. Have technical expertise in areas related to media e.g.: screenwriting, music production, production, animation, graphic design, editing, photography, videography, social media influencer, etc;
4. Fluency in both oral and written communication in Arabic;
5. Have technological and digital capacities to join online activities if required.

Roles and Responsibilities

1. To participate in Media for Social Change Workshop;
2. In close collaboration with other youth, to create and design a national media campaign that aims at shedding the light on positive and equitable masculinity, and at addressing the root causes of VAWG;
3. To actively participate in coordination and follow-up meetings with the project team and media actors’ team to ensure a proper reflection of the participatory, youth-led gender & masculinity research findings;
4. To participate in any other learning and development opportunity offered by the project team.