UN Women and Partners Launch Gender Journalism Awards

The UN Women and Partners have launched the 2021 Gender Journalism Awards Competition for Journalists working in the East and Southern Africa Region. The competition aims to promote gender-sensitive reporting that reflects the work and impact of feminist movements in advancing gender equality in the region. Efforts will promote the objectives of the Feminist Movements and Leadership Action Coalition under the Generation Equality Forum, a partnership of UN Women and the Governments of Mexico and France.

The contest is jointly organized by the UN Women Tanzania, UN Women Malawi, the Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA), the African Women Leaders’ Network (Tanzania and Malawi Chapters), the Tanzania Media Women Association (TAMWA), the Association of Women in Media (Malawi), and the MISA Chapters in Tanzania and Malawi. This initiative also aims to enhance multi-stakeholder partnerships in the regional gender space leading to the expansion of coverage on the barriers to the realization of gender equality.

In recognition of excellence in advancing the rights of women and girls, and in showcasing strategies and innovative approaches used to bridge the gender gap in all socio-economic and political sectors, a total of 15 prizes will be awarded on December 10 this year.

The May launch was attended by over 100 participants, including senior government officials from Tanzania and Malawi, representatives from regional media organisations, feminist movements, development partners, the private sector, and civil society.

The Canadian High Commissioner to Tanzania Ms. Pamela O’Donnell, the Norwegian Ambassador to Malawi Mr. Steiner Hagen, and the French Embassy’s Deputy Head of Mission in Tanzania Mr. Alexandre Peaudeau were among the panellists who shared lessons on how to better collaborate with the media for gender equality.

Malawi’s Minister of Gender, Community Development and Social Welfare, Dr. Patricia Kaliati, was joined by Tanzania’s Director for Gender in the Ministry of Health, Community Development, Gender, Elders and Children, Ms Mboni Mgaza, who represented the Permanent Secretary, Dr John Jingu, to officially launch the regional awards.

Speaking at the ceremony, the UN Women Acting Regional Director for East and Southern Africa, Mr. Moez Doraid highlighted a series of Generation Equality activities being implemented in the region to engage the media, governments, feminist movements, civil society, youth, and other actors who influence progress in gender equality.

“In Tanzania and Malawi we are focusing on building strong feminist movements, and one of the activities is the Regional Gender Journalism Awards. Through our advocacy work and other programmes, we acknowledge that the media are a key ‘entry point’ for promoting gender equality and transforming social norms because of their unique reach to broad sections of the population,” said Mr. Doraid. He said the Generation Equality campaign “is about everyone’s action. It is my responsibility, as well as yours, to continue pushing the needle towards the full implementation of the Beijing Platform for Action.”

On her part, the Guest of Honour,  Dr. Patricia Kaliati, said the need for the media to foster stronger partnerships in gender advocacy with the feminist movements has a great potential to yield game-changing results. “These results can stir a major shift in narratives and framing and packaging of news articles through a well-informed gender lens. That will help in transforming mindsets and building societies that understand the importance of gender equality in our quest for sustainable development,” said Dr. Kaliati.

Ms. Mboni Mgaza, the Director for Gender in Tanzania, emphasized the need to motivate and encourage journalists through initiatives such as the Media Awards, alongside “pooling resources together to promote the development of in-depth and serialization of various subject areas on gender equality, including women as news sources,” Ms. Mboni said.

She said the transformative role played by the media in advancing gender equality in the region must not be underestimated. “In all our strategies, we should bring the media much closer to our work, as critical allies who can collaborate with us in all programmes. We would like the media to support our efforts in highlighting gender concerns, and, in turn, enhance our advocacy for more investment towards advancing the rights of women and girls,” said Ms. Mgaza.

On her part, Ms. Hodan Addou, UN Women Representative, said the media is undoubtedly an indispensable partner in driving the feminist movements and leadership agenda and a great influence in mobilizing public opinion and agenda-setting. “Through news content, the media can shape attitudes, and behaviour change to support communities to overcome gender stereotypes, harmful cultural practices, and structural barriers.” The Journalism Awards Competition, she said, will create opportunities for South-South Cooperation, and promote production of well researched regional stories, and setting of a new regional agenda for collective efforts that leave no country behind under the Generation Equality campaign.

The UN Women Representative in Malawi, Ms. Clara Mah Anyangwe said over the years, feminist movements have opened public spaces to women and other marginalized populations to voice their socio-economic and political demands, from changing the way power works to decentralizing and democratizing governance, engaging and amplifying diverse voices.

“Importantly, the media are a critical partner for regional agenda setting, awareness-raising and promoting gender equality, women’s visibility including amplifying their voices. It is in this spirit that we are now fostering this unique partnership so that together, we move towards realizing our common goal,” said Ms. Anyangwe.

The UN Resident Coordinator in Tanzania, Mr. Zlatan Milisic, highlighted the need to address gender-based violence in the media sector, citing reports by several media organizations that show that “safety of female media workers needs to be a key priority for everyone, including governments, captains of the media industry, and development partners.” He recommended investing more in building a culture of safety in the media and putting in place gender-responsive mechanisms for complaints and remedial actions to protect female journalists. “Gender-responsive media laws and policies can make way for gender transformative editorial policies and strategic action plans to better promote safety and advance women’s leadership in the media.” Mr. Milisic said failure to address challenges can sustain barriers to gender equality within the sector, and affect the quality and diversity of news, which in turn can perpetuate misleading gender and sex-based narratives against women.