Broadcasting for Change: Empowering Young Women Through Media in Tanzania

The project aims to empower young women and girls across Tanzania to make their own decisions regarding their social economic and political rights by launching a new iteration of its nationally recognized youth radio show "Niambie" centered on transforming young women and men's attitudes towards women's rights and gender equality. Project activities include weekly radio programmes daily social media content and live community events that focus on a wide range of women’s rights issues and promoting gender equality. From April to December 2020 the project's media interventions focused on tackling COVID-19 related issues in Tanzania. The initiative provided the opportunity for the project team to increase their knowledge of the gender implications of COVID-19 and how that affects women and girls compared to men and boys. In the course of producing COVID-19 focused media outputs their understanding of how a public health emergency such as COVID-19 affects different groups in the community increased significantly. The stories documented showed how school closures for instance put adolescent girls in danger of different forms of sexual exploitation including rape and sexual abuse by close family members and relatives early marriage physical and emotional violence. This knowledge led the national and local radio station partners to produce episodes focusing on children protection amplifying the risk children are facing and the role of individuals in ensuring children are safe at home.

The expected outcomes for this project include: (1) strengthened production of gender-sensitive and gender-transformative media that supports the social economic and political rights of young women and girls; (2) increased supportive attitudes by young women and men towards young women’s social economic and political participation; and (3) increased use by target audiences of services and resources that support the social economic and political rights of young women and girls.