MRCG Conducts Workshop On Women’s Contribution To Governance And Peace Building
The Media Reform Coordinating Group has conducted a workshop that captured and showcased the contribution of women to governance and peace building efforts in Sierra Leone on the 6th September, 2019 at Mile 91, Tonkolili district, Northern Region and to discuss their challenges and success stories. It targeted women representatives of political parties and institutions, and 16 female journalists across the 16 political districts of Sierra Leone. The baseline result before the intervention showed that there were no specific radio programmes produced and broadcast, and newspapers articles published on women’s political participation. From the workshop, key challenges faced by women in governance and peace building highlighted were: intimidation, high level of illiteracy, lack of mentorship among women, awards of symbols issues, lack of financial support for women in governance and peace building, unsafe political seat for women, lack of unity and support among women, political in-fight, tribalism and regionalism.
The participants also highlighted some of the meaningful contribution of women ranging from holding political positions (councillors, MPs, Ministerial positions, Chairwomen of parties etc.) to heading advocacy and campaigns on women issues and serving their communities in different forms.
The success stories and challenges of women highlighted and deliberated upon during the meeting were used to design and produce radio programmes in 16 radio stations across the 16 districts of Sierra Leone through IRN and Guild of Editors developed feature articles for newspaper publications.
On the project impact, over 70 editions of radio discussions programmes were produced, over 600 slots of jingles broadcast and 10 feature articles were produced and published. A network of female journalists was created from those who had been trained on reporting and doing programmes on women’s instrument of power and women’s contribution to governance and peace building. There is already an existing WhatsApp group where they all can interact and learn.
From the output of the program, there has been increasingly high level of awareness on women’s issues through these radio discussion programmes and jingles on women’s contribution to governance and peace building in Sierra Leone.
The participants also highlighted some of the meaningful contribution of women ranging from holding political positions (councillors, MPs, Ministerial positions, Chairwomen of parties etc.) to heading advocacy and campaigns on women issues and serving their communities in different forms.
The success stories and challenges of women highlighted and deliberated upon during the meeting were used to design and produce radio programmes in 16 radio stations across the 16 districts of Sierra Leone through IRN and Guild of Editors developed feature articles for newspaper publications.
On the project impact, over 70 editions of radio discussions programmes were produced, over 600 slots of jingles broadcast and 10 feature articles were produced and published. A network of female journalists was created from those who had been trained on reporting and doing programmes on women’s instrument of power and women’s contribution to governance and peace building. There is already an existing WhatsApp group where they all can interact and learn.
From the output of the program, there has been increasingly high level of awareness on women’s issues through these radio discussion programmes and jingles on women’s contribution to governance and peace building in Sierra Leone.