What do each of you see as the greatest challenges and opportunities faced by ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ Media Action right now?

Caroline: I think it’s a very changing world and something that’s very positive is that local organisations and people in the countries where we work are taking more power and wanting to make decisions themselves over how development happens, and that’s a very good thing. So we need to find out how best we, as part of a very British organisation – the ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ – can play our part in supporting that. The other big challenge of course is money. We have to raise the funds for every project that we deliver and that’s difficult, particularly in a post-Covid world where there is less funding available for the sort of work that we do.

³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ Media Action has grown extraordinarily in its first 25 years of life. We have saved and changed lives. And that’s not by accident – it’s because what we do, which is developing the media, is essential to any proper transparent and accountable state. Doing that, and using communication for good, is part of the answer for the 21st century. We are an organisation of our time. And as an NGO attached to the ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳, we have the most extraordinary possibilities, and we’ve got a brilliant staff team across the world.

Simon: I would echo Caroline on the opportunities side. Trusted, accurate, impartial information that allows people to empower their lives is needed now more than ever - we’re living in a ‘post-truth’ world, amid fake news and mis- and disinformation. Our relevance is absolutely of the moment. Couple that with our extraordinary link to the ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳, and the fact that ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ Media Action’s product, our programmes, is world-class, value for money, and an enabler for so many other parts of international development - whether that be health, education, sexual and reproductive health and rights, climate change – we can help across all of these issues through our communication. That’s very, very exciting. And I think the other opportunity is technology and how that is evolving, and will allow us to reach more people, not necessarily for more money.

We also need to celebrate our 25th anniversary next year!

And finally, Caroline – what is the one piece of advice that you want to share with Simon before you go?

Caroline: I’d say enjoy it! ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ Media Action is a wonderful organisation attached to the ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳, which is recognised worldwide, and you’ve got a great staff team.

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³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ Media Action is the ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳’s international charity, working in 23 countries and more than 50 languages, and reaching over 100 million people each year. We support independent media essential to democracy and development, and share trusted information that protects health and our planet, improves health, and saves and changes lives. Find out more at bbc.co.uk/mediaaction – and learn more about how to support our international charity on Gateway.

This sounds like a very difficult situation. All of our media partners are facing financial challenges, political pressure and lots of misinformation. How do we support our media partners and their journalists in this environment?

Arnold Felix-Elba: Training is key. We have three areas of work: We have trained fact-checkers to run the iVerify platform, a UNDP-created platform run by members of the Sierra Leone Association of Journalists and the Independent Radio Network, which helps separate truth from fiction. We have been running training sessions around the country, providing local journalists and social media influencers with the skills to help them understand the tactics, motivations behind information disorder, and how to detect and debunk it – as well as issues of safety and security for those covering elections. And we are also running training sessions for marginalised groups who are often left out of discussions around misinformation and media literacy – to ensure they understand how to detect false and misleading information, and what to do if they come across it.

Can you tell me a bit more about the iVerify platform, which is run by local journalists to address some of the misinformation that has been circulating? It’s addressed more than 40 rumours and false stories so far!

Marian Tina Conteh: We have been providing the training for the factcheckers who run the platform. It is operated as a local initiative; we do not own or run it ourselves. But it is making a huge impact with journalists and audiences. Now, when people come across some new information they’ll often ask if it should be fact-checked. And yes, they need to, especially if they think the information is not correct or if you’re not sure.

Arnold: To give you an example, there’s a popular social media commentator who put out a claim that parliament had closed and that the sitting president was no longer president. This was widely circulated online, but the information was completely false - because the constitution doesn't say that. The iVerify platform was able to demonstrate that claim was completely false and misleading.

Could you tell me more about the training we have been working on?

Arnold: Our job has been to train journalists, social media influencers and bloggers on mis- and disinformation and in media literacy. That’s what we’re focused on.

And we’ve had some wonderful testimonies about the value of our work. In one session, we discussed how promoting false information could even destabilise the democracy of Sierra Leone.

Marian: We did several sets of training, right across the country. We identified some of the main blogs in the country, and trained bloggers as well as journalists from our partner radio stations. We’re also preparing training for people living with disabilities and youth groups, because we know they often don’t get any media literacy training. Surveys often show that young people are perpetrators of misinformation.

We’ve also seen fewer female journalists taking part in the training. So we’re planning to arrange more training focused on them, for both traditional and digital media. 

The reactions have been really encouraging. Our participants say they now understand much more about the responsible use of social media, and some of the journalists have organised programmes and social media campaigns about media literacy and the danger of false and misleading information for their audiences. One blogger told us, “I thought I knew a lot in this field, but the training convinced me that I did not. I can now identify untrue news stories or fake news.”

Another blogger called the training “an exciting learning experience”.

“Survival is critical for a young guy like me, and to tell the truth, we receive huge money from politicians to spread mis/disinformation. Before this training, I did not know the impact of my actions, but from now on, I will be mindful of what I post and share online.”

Larry, can you tell us about the work we’ve been doing on social media to support this training?

Larry Tucker: During elections, people use Facebook as the main platform and it’s the place where the political parties propagate their propaganda. People then post and share incorrect information. So we’re working to help audiences understand how to use Facebook properly, how to protect themselves online and know what misinformation is.

We want people to understand how they can verify what they see online so they don’t fall victim to propagating propaganda messages. We've done a series of public service announcements with local comedians. These are interesting, entertaining, and give a clear message. They’ve performed very well on our

With less than two weeks left in the campaign, what is next?

Arnold: Because we are partners with Sierra Leone’s Independent Radio Network, we’ve been helping them form ideas for their 30-minute programmes that talk about mis- and disinformation. And as part of our training, we’ll continue to give support in producing their shows.

³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ Media Action Sierra Leone can be found on Facebook @bbcmediaactionLS and on Twitter @bbcmasl. Read more about our work in the country on our  and learn more about in Sierra Leone.

Attempts to cut off communication

At the very beginning, the Kyiv [TV] tower was struck and we understood that the purpose was to completely cut off communication. Without communication, people will be disorganised and will not understand what is happening.

At first, our radio operation was evacuated to Lviv. We moved and broadcast for three months from our Lviv branch.

With the beginning of the war, I returned to my first job, of broadcasting news on the radio. 

You know, at that time I received a lot of messages from acquaintances, friends, even from former classmates, who found me on Instagram, and I received messages saying thank you, it is so important to hear this news. People at that moment were fleeing from Kyiv, and it was not clear what was happening in the city or whether [Russians] had seized power. In certain front-line regions – like Kharkiv region, Kherson region, Donetsk, Luhansk region – in cities that were occupied, or surrounded, the Russians jammed our signal. And that's why sometimes people didn't even know whether the Ukrainian government was still present in the city, whether Kyiv had fallen, what was actually happening.

The [Russian] propaganda on television and radio began immediately and said that the Kyiv government, the Kyiv ‘junta’ - this is what they call our government in their propaganda - had already fled, and that was not true.

A 24-hour-a-day job

In those first months, it was very important for us to constantly produce news content. We referred exclusively to official and verified sources and told what was happening in each region.

For the first months, it was a 24-hour-a day job, with no days off at all.

We had to think about what thematic programmes we could make. What should you do in case of an explosion? What do you do if the windows are blown out of your apartment? Where is the safest place in the apartment, if you don't have a bomb shelter? We informed people about the air raid sirens – so people understood that it is worth hiding and being in shelter when they sounded.

The worst moment

I remember the worst moment was [the siege of] Mariupol. It was important that in addition to the air raid siren information, that we shared the evacuation routes. …The people who still retain their wired radios [an old-fashioned Soviet-style radio) would have a small radio receiver extended into the antenna and it would catch the signal.

I remember how we informed people about the first evacuation routes from the occupied territories. As soon as the official information appeared on the Telegram channels, we reported this information on the radio, within a few minutes. We repeated this information every 20 minutes.

After a while, we realised that the Russians were shelling those evacuation points where people were gathering. And we had to think about how to make it so that, on the one hand, we could tell people that there will be an evacuation, so they might take advantage of it. And on the other hand, we wanted not to expose them to danger. …For example, the locals knew where such and such a corner was, not a street corner, but where a certain shop was. We came up with ways to inform them about evacuation routes in a way that the locals could understand and the occupiers could not understand, so that they would not start shelling.

Lives saved

For me, this is the biggest thing. If there is a person whose life has been saved with the help of our work, then that is of the highest value.

My mother’s friend had a sister in Borodyanka,  which was under occupation at the beginning of the war. She and other relatives and friends were hiding in the basement from the Russian occupiers They were completely in the occupied territory in the region, and they were completely out of touch, They hardly had mobile internet. They constantly saw tanks, they knew about the murders of their fellow villagers. And they said that the only thing that kept them going was that they were listening to Ukrainian radio on the receiver. They heard my last name, and they knew it because my mother is their friend, They wrote to me that they were just waiting every half hour for the news.

And tears came to my eyes when I heard this. They survived because they heard messages from the Ukrainian side, and they knew that Kyiv had not fallen, that they would be released.

It seems to me that now it is very important not only to be in the news marathon (a 24-hour TV 'marathon' of major TV networks), to report current information, but it is also important to look for new formats of reporting about the country and about our people. It's so that we do not forget this, so that the world can see exactly who we are and about all the war crimes Russia commits, so that the guilty are punished. Ukraine now has a huge demand for justice, which it does not have yet. …

It's scary. There is no understanding of what will happen in a year. But there is an understanding of what you want to happen tomorrow and what you want to happen a year from now.

So now we have to tell people to build this perspective, and come up with what Ukraine will do after the return of these territories. What do we want to see for Kherson, and what do we want for Donetsk Oblast? People should understand that there is a future and there is a plan.

Surviving consequences of war

Recently, we talked about how to help people survive the consequences of war. This is one of our main tasks, and helping to clarify what a person feels. Psychological help is also needed for them. For example, maybe someone is afraid of mobilisation [into the Ukrainian military]. What do you do if you have been mobilised? Maybe there are people who lost their relatives, how do you survive the loss of relatives in the war? How do you survive the loss of a child? And how do you explain to a child that she had a limb amputated? We have to help her come to terms with her thoughts, and to understand that she has survived and should continue to live.

I think there are other such topics that people really think about and worry about, It touches them, and they may be looking for answers. The radio is exactly what can help find answers to these questions. And when you are armed with this information, you can use it for psychological help and support for yourself.

I think the main task of radio during the war is providing a complete picture of what is happening in the country and bringing this information to people as much as possible. It seems to me that every Ukrainian in every village, town, and city could hear Ukrainian news, receive analysis, and receive answers to their questions. And listening to the radio, they feel that this country and these people have a tomorrow. Because it's very difficult when you've lost your home, when you've lost your family. A person may have the feeling that their whole life is over, that there's nothing to live for.

But it is not so. Here we tell the stories of people who carry on, for example, because of their trauma and because of their pain, they started helping other people. And every other person saved is like a contribution.

What is currently being heard on our radio airwaves, it seems to me that this will be history in one hundred years. This will all be a reminder that we lived in this war. And this is documentary evidence and documentary stories that we create. Even after the Second World War, those war criminals who committed crimes were sometimes punished in their old age. That's why we need to preserve all the testimonies and all the interviews. These facts are for those times, when it will be for history for our archive, and…that these will also, perhaps, be evidence in court.

Liudmyla Tiahnyriadno is a reporter/presenter for Ukrainian Radio currently living in Kyiv. She is also the producer of , a documentary about the 256 days of Russian occupation of Kherson.

This interview has been edited and abridged for clarity. 

³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ Media Action has been working with Ukraine's public broadcaster, UA:PBC (now Suspilne), since 2015, on capacity-strengthening and Lifeline training during wartime. This work is most recently funded by the UK Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office. Read more about our work in Ukraine.

Our head of communications, Carolynne Wheeler, caught up with our Afghanistan project manager, Mursal Abrar, and our Afghanistan research manager, Mahdi Zaki, to learn about our project focused on nutrition with the World Food Programme.

Carolynne: Mahdi, Mursal – thank you for joining me! Please can you tell me about what we have been doing with the World Food Programme to address the current crisis in Afghanistan?

Mursal: Our World Food Programme (WFP) funded project began because Afghanistan is in a major crisis related to food security. According to recent WFP data, 19.9 million people in Afghanistan face acute food insecurity and 6 million Afghans face emergency-level food insecurity. The concept of our project was to help build the resilience of people in this crisis – to help them to cope and to improve their diet and nutrition with what limited resources they have. We wanted to create programming that would discuss symptoms of malnutrition, and to look at how to help women eat nutritious foods during pregnancy.

We also wanted to tackle the taboos that exist around certain foods in Afghanistan. Our culture is very focused on the importance of meat and bread. Lentils, for instance, are seen as food only for the poorest people, although they are very nutritious. Vegetables are widely available but also not seen as important.

We had a lot of discussion around affordable, healthy eating, and celebrating different foods – including plants, protein and dairy - that are still widely available in Afghanistan.

Carolynne: One of the questions you had to address at the start of this project is, how can media and communication help when you have so many millions of people who are food insecure. How did you handle this?

Mahdi: Before the start of the project, we had this discussion among ourselves, especially the research team. At the time, we were saying that over 22 million people were in need of food assistance, and in the last year it has increased to 28 million. So we had this tough moral discussion. We were spending money to produce media outputs; shouldn’t this money be used to help people buy bread to feed their children?

We began with research, to find out how media could help. We did a nationally representative survey for this project, speaking with over 3,000 people around the country – men and women. Around 40% of the interviews were face-to-face because more than 40% of people in Afghanistan do not have access to mobile phones.

We also did some qualitative interviews with women, IDPs (internally displaced people), Kuchi nomadic people and people with disabilities. And we asked questions including what is their usual diet, who makes decisions about what to eat for meals, who purchases food, what information sources could they access, and what information do they have about nutrition and nutritious food?

We found two types of families – those who were really struggling to feed themselves, and those who had some food, but did not know how they could make nutritious meals.

We also learned that doctors are major influencers when it comes to health and nutrition, and that people trusted radio and TV most.

Carolynne: You have said that in Afghanistan, when people think about their daily meal, most people think first of bread, then of red meat and rice. How did you tackle these traditional beliefs in your programmes?

Mahdi: Red meat is considered as the highest standard. When you invite people to your house you have to cook meat and rice. That would be considered a proper meal. Vegetables are never welcomed! Traditionally we cook with a lot of oil.

We had to look at who is cooking – usually women - and who is buying in the market – which can be women or men. The programme encouraged audiences to discuss what they have to prepare, to make a meal plan for what they want to cook. We discussed the importance of nutrition for children, pregnant and breastfeeding women, and older people, to maintain their strength.

We also looked at how people were spending money on food. In Afghanistan, people traditionally eat a lot of bread. So the programme looked at how people could go to the market and, instead of buying 10 loaves of bread for 100 Afghanis, they could buy five loaves of bread and spend the rest of the money on potatoes and other vegetables. In this way, they could diversify their diet and consume a more nutritious meal.

Carolynne: Now that the programming has been on air, what have you learned about its impact?

Mursal: We have done an evaluation and we have heard some feedback from communities who are very marginalised that this weekly radio programme really helped them. They said that they understand they can prepare a healthy and nutritious meal with different foods, even with a limited income. Previously, they understood they could only have bread. We also shared information about how to access humanitarian aid and food distribution.

Mahdi: The most satisfactory finding is when we found that the information provided by our radio programme was helpful to people. It had provided them with a perspective that they could diversify their meal, instead of just eating bread. The programme provided them with the information that vegetables could be very nutritious. It helped people who are very poor, earning maybe just 100 or 200 Afghanis a day. In the past, that person might think we can only buy some loaves of bread, and it has changed their perspective of what they can have for a meal.

Mursal: This finding was very touching for us, and it was the highlight of the programme, because we really wanted to build the resiliency of people in this crisis.

Madhi: Here is what some of our listeners said about our work:

“In the past, we used to buy a large flour bags and consume within two weeks. After we listened to [the radio programme], now we consume the same bag in one month. I have started work with livestock. I have learnt about these after listening to this programme and I want this programme to continue.”

 - A 50-year man living in an IDP camp in Herat province

“I am pregnant and the programme has helped me a lot. After listening to this programme, I have started consuming vegetables and diversified my diet. Vegetables are cheap and we can make nutritious food, and also they are very useful for women who breastfeed their child and pregnant women like me. And the programme also talked about beans which are also very important to us.”

 - A 28-year woman living in an IDP camp in Herat province

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Our media and communication for development project with the World Food Programme ran from July 2022 to February 2023, and included a radio magazine-style programme, Destarkhan (Dinner Table), with community members and nutrition experts discussing nutrition and food security; a radio drama with messages on nutrition; and public service announcements on how to access food assistance from aid agencies. To learn more about our work in Afghanistan, please see our website.

Newal Abubeker, presenter

"The concerns of Ethiopia’s young generation include education, jobs, and our wellbeing. For me, as part of this young generation, producing Negat was not just producing a programme about something I barely know. It was like exploring my own life. From the drama series we have produced, and from the contributors and guests we have talked with, I have explored my own environment, challenges, and opportunities. That is what makes producing Negat special for me.

"Through the characters in our Negat drama series, we have tried to reflect the lives of many Ethiopian young people. Negat creates a place where young people who are involved in volunteerism, apprenticeship, entrepreneurship, and art can share their experiences in education and in building a career path. Family and community members also share their thoughts on these experiences and goals.  

"Producing Negat helps me to understand that, in their day-to-day life, Ethiopian young people face challenges that make them feel hopeless and unable to find work. The challenges are different from place to place. Their perceptions of work, of access to information, of unreachable opportunities and a lack of skills are some of the challenges that many young Ethiopians are facing.

"While producing the show, we have tried to cover such problems. We have tried to show possible ways to find opportunities and information, and ways that young people can develop their experience and skill. We have also talked with experts and officials on how government and society can create a better place for young Ethiopians.

"The very interesting thing about our Negat TV and radio programmes is that we have put a lot of hard work to make them interactive and entertaining. We believe that delivering the programmes in a very interesting and entertaining way helps us reach the heart of audiences easily."

"As a young person, being involved and working on a project that highlights the challenges of employment, job creation, wellbeing, and other issues youth face in our country, and that points out ways to inspire and help them better explore their options, has been a very interesting learning experience for me.

"Our research findings were an important element behind the programme. They helped us to come up with a well-structured communication framework to design the episodes.

"We put a lot of hard work into planning and preparation, while setting specific communication objectives to address, and including contributors that resonate with urban and rural audiences.

"Traveling to places and meeting contributors, interacting with youth, producing the episodes, and the teamwork required to deliver our 12 episodes were what I most enjoyed from this journey. Of all the profiles we featured, a group of young people in Adama city who produce bicycles out of bamboo was the story that surprised me the most. 

"One thing that I hope sets a good example for other programmes is our approach to gender inclusion on the show. We followed the ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳’s 50:50 Project to ensure we fully included women and girls in our programmes. Female experts, decision-makers and role models were our advisors, and presented as part of our solutions.

"We also featured profiles of young people, young contributors and young decision-makers and experts - defying the old narratives that portray young people as the cause of a problem, and elders as part of the solution. Many young people in Ethiopia are fed up with this stereotype, and felt they were not being represented in shows made for young people. And I think that makes Negat unique and paves the way forward for future TV programmes."

Negat (Dawn) is broadcast on one television and one radio station in Addis Ababa, and one radio station in Amhara region, and accompanied by social media content. It is funded by the David and Lucille Packard Foundation as part of our ‘Engaging young people through media’ project, working to gain a better understanding of young people in the country: their aspirations, and what factors hold them back from succeeding in employment, and living healthy, active lives. Learn more about the project on our website. Read our research here.

“A message to the girl and boy child! Have ambition, know your goals, and don’t let anyone pressure you!”

The words of Elizabeth (left). Elizabeth and Rehema are friends who had their dreams snatched away from them after they got excluded from their respective schools because of getting pregnant.

“My dad did not even want to talk to me after he found out and our relationship completely broke down,” Rehama says. She blames bad company and peer pressure for influencing her decisions.

However, Elizabeth and Rehema now have reason to smile, after a change in the laws here have allowed teenage mothers to return to school. Rehema is now reunited with her parents and hopes to pursue her dream of becoming a nurse. Elizabeth hopes to pursue a career in arts and crafts.

Meet Aisha or as she is popularly known ‘Hijab DJ’ - the first woman DJ in Zanzibar. She fought stigma from her community and even her own family to become one of the most popular DJs in Zanzibar.

“The community needs to understand that the world is changing. People have different dreams, not everyone is going to be a doctor or a teacher. Some DJs will be born, some musicians will be born…”

“How can a woman change a tyre?”

This is one of the many statements that have been thrown at Amina. She doesn’t let it affect her.

“If you tell yourself you can’t do it, then that’s how it will play out. If you go in with confidence, then others will automatically respect you.”

Amina is a mechanic in Mtwara. It was her dream to become a mechanic ever since she was a child - a dream she has since fulfilled.

Judy is a tour guide based in Moshi, Kilimanjaro. In a short space of time, she has moved from being a porter to being a tour guide for clients looking to scale Mount Kilimanjaro.

Despite her success, some of her colleagues are still hesitant to fully accept her. Her goals remain clear: continue working hard, be the boss of her life and eventually open her own tourism company.

“Just because I’m a girl, it doesn’t mean I have to work in a bar as a waitress or do household chores as others may expect. I am young and I have a thirst for success!”

Want to know more about these stories? Check out the full interviews on Niambie Tanzania’s social media platforms.

Niambie’s work and Tanzania’s story is still ongoing, but we hope that with each story we tell and with each voice we give a platform, we are building a more equal Tanzania. Be sure to follow the SBCC Summit in Marrakech this December as we look to tell Niambie’s story to the world!

You can also see my Instagram takeover of the – it includes some male champions striving for gender equality too.

Thanks for reading.

Huge inequality between men and women in media

The inequality is even more pronounced in the geographical divisions outside Dhaka or in rural areas. 

The story of Sopna Debnath is inspiring because she beat all of these odds to pursue her dream of becoming a reporter, and PRIMED has been helping her achieve her full potential while also creating more opportunities for women at Gramer Kagoj.

A good student, always keen on extracurricular activities and volunteering, Sopna also engaged with different cultural groups, and she started working at Gramer Kagoj as a volunteer in 2019 because she wanted to learn something new. She always had the desire to reach as many people as possible through her work and make a difference in her community, so she didn’t let the challenges she faced as a young female reporter discourage her when she was starting.

Breaking the barriers - at home and in the field

For instance, being a female reporter is not well accepted by rural people; they have some misconceptions about how media outlets work, and she felt some resistance while gathering news. Also, being the only female reporter in the outlet has its own challenges. Media representatives often say it can be difficult to engage women in leadership roles in the newsroom because they find it difficult to combine this with the many responsibilities they usually maintain at home, and there is a lack of support and mentoring to help women to tackle challenges and discrimination.

Many female media practitioners remain at a junior or editor level, with correspondingly lower pay grades. Perhaps more critically, female journalists are often prevented from covering subjects considered the exclusive domain of male journalists – such as politics, sports, economy, and conflict. They may be pigeonholed in journalism roles, more often covering topics of a social nature or that are otherwise considered “feminine”.

This is deeply problematic and leads to an absence of women’s voices and perspectives on issues that directly and indirectly influence their rights. How incidents and decisions affect women, and what information they need to respond, should also be a critical component of coverage during any crisis, but this is often lacking from more traditional coverage.

This is where PRIMED works to help Gramer Kagoj draft, adopt and implement more gender-sensitive editorial guidelines and internal policies to make a difference. This work is geared towards ensuring more gender equality and adequate protection for female staff; it includes policies to deal with sexual harassment, the use of gender quotas in recruitment, and editorial policies aimed at improving gender balance and representation in content. At the same time, PRIMED has been providing training, mentoring, and networking opportunities to female journalists and other female media practitioners, to help mitigate the disadvantages they face in accessing senior and decision-making levels. We and our partners use a solidarity-based approach that positions men and women as agents of change, always including men in the debate.

'I want to tell stories that will bring real change'

As a result, the Gramer Kagoj representatives now have a better understanding of gender inclusion in content, be it written or audio-visual. They now make a conscious effort to make their content gender-sensitive, include more female voices, and produce content that considers the female audiences. They are in the process of developing editorial guidelines, and house practices have improved too. Now, Sopna Debnath can give her inputs more openly, and see herself reflected in the content more clearly.

“I love my role – that of a local news reporter – and would quit a comfortable job in any other organisation, because I want to tell stories that will bring real change. For me, this newspaper has been a turning point, because I know while I report, I’m talking about not just social issues and injustices, but also about values that our audiences will relate to and act upon!” says Sopna.

She also celebrates how PRIMED has helped in increasing reporters’ awareness, understanding, and engagement on issues that matter to women, while acknowledging there still is much to be done. She says that even though the editor and co-workers are very supportive and do not treat her differently from her other colleagues, she has always wished there were more female reporters like her, so she could work more comfortably. And this necessity is now also acknowledged by the senior management of the media house, who have realised the importance of having more female employees and have taken some conscious steps to include more female voices in their workforce.

Including women in content and on staff

The paper has taken the ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳’s 50:50 challenge, aimed at ensuring more women are included in content, and is also targeting local universities and cultural associations, circulating exclusive employment opportunities to attract more employees like Sopna Debnath.

 “We always knew that having a balanced workforce is necessary for any organisation, But PRIMED has shed light on the ‘why’ it is important”, said Gramer Kagoj’s editor, Mobinul Islam. “Though we consciously try not to treat our female employees differently by favouring or discriminating against them in any way, now we have a better realisation of the things we need to do to truly minimise discrimination.”

In the meantime, Sopna keeps proving her commitment and dedication. She hasn’t confined herself to the role of a reporter but has also started working as a presenter and as a digital content maker, hopefully paving the way for more women. 

Inspiring through better representation

Gender norms are a constant subtext, where breaking gender stereotypes and examining non-traditional career options for women is challenging. The media sector is special because it tells important stories, while walking the tightrope between entertainment and achieving social impact. Mainstreaming gender equity at both the content and outlet level is a strategic priority of PRIMED and ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ Media Action, and we are addressing this issue at both policy and implementation levels.

With public interest media under threat around the world, we are committed to continuing our efforts to ensure that women’s voices are meaningfully represented - throughout media organisations, and in the content they produce – to properly reflect the audiences they serve. Our vision is to create an environment so that more women like Sopna are inspired to pursue this as a career.

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Shahrin Ahsan is project officer, media development for ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ Media Action in Bangladesh.

Learn more about our media support consortium Protecting Independent Media for Effective Development (PRIMED). PRIMED is funded by the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office.

UN figures indicate that over 90% of girls and women in Somalia have been subject to female genital mutilation (FGM). Discussions over FGM remain a taboo in many places in Somalia and the devastating health ramifications – including pain, bleeding, permanent disability, trauma and even death - remain prevalent.

The most commonly cited reasons for carrying out this harmful practice include cultural norms related to social acceptance, religious misconception related to cleanliness – including the belief that those who have not been cut are unclean or unworthy, and the preservation of virginity before marriage, while some believe that it is a rite of passage to adulthood.

Whatever the reasons given, FGM is a physical assault conducted on girls too young to consent, and a violation of their rights.

³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ Media Action seeks to support people in understanding their rights. The level of FGM we are witnessing in Somalia is significantly alarming and I believe needs to be addressed from the grassroots to national level.

With support from German aid agency GIZ, we are producing radio magazine programmes broadcasting in all member states of Somalia through our local partner stations, to share trusted information about the harm caused by FGM and share the perspectives of health experts, religious leaders and survivors.

These ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ Media Action-produced programmes include voices from all member states of Somalia, and all Somali dialects including ‘the Mai’, which is spoken in the South West state of Somalia. This helps builds a sense of belonging for all Somalis in relation to the programme, which is rebroadcast by seven local radio partner stations across the federal republic of Somalia and Somaliland.

The truth about FGM

The World Health Organization has created four medical classifications of FGM; level 3 is the most extreme and is also most prevalent in Somalia and Somaliland.

All classifications of FGM can cause complications at childbirth and increases risk of newborn death; other complications include fistula, bleeding, chronic pelvic infections, urinary problems and infections. FGM is often carried out under unsanitary and primitive conditions without anaesthetic, which causes severe pain, bleeding and swelling that may prevent passing urine and faeces. 

We met Farhiya Abdi Ali when she featured on our weekly radio programme, Tusmada Nolosha (Lifeline). She described going through the painful FGM process:

"I am one of the many girls [who] encountered a lot of problems such as blockage of menstruation. I was taken to hospital and the only option was to open me by removing the stitches. If not opened [it] could have caused a bigger problem."

It is often believed that FGM can prevent girls from becoming pregnant. We featured Mrs Foosia Muse, a midwife at Hargiesa group hospital, in our social media clips about FGM, who clarified this is not the case.

"They believe that if the girl is stitched, she cannot be touched. But they are touched and some are brought to us stitched and pregnant. The small passage that you make for the girl for urination is the same passage that the baby enters the womb."

Laws and religious perspectives

In our formative research, we also found that some mothers believed that FGM is a religious act, that a family that does not practice FGM will face stigma and the girl will be considered to be a non-Muslim.

"FGM is a huge part of the religion because it an act of worship, and a family that doesn't perform FGM on their daughters will be discriminated within the community," said a mother in Garowe, whose daughter has undergone FGM.

To help counter this, in Somaliland, the government introduced a fatwa which bans the practice of female genital mutilation in the country and vowed to punish perpetrators. The fatwa, issued by the Ministry of Endowment and Religious Affairs, pledges punishment for those who carry out FGM, and asks for compensation for FGM victims.

However, it does not clarify whether this compensation will be paid by the government or by those who violate the ban, and appears to be restricted to only the most extreme form of the practice.

This fatwa is so far only in writing. The practice of FGM has not stopped and as yet, there are no reports of fines, punishments or compensation given.

But Islamic clergy are divided on zero tolerance of FGM. Although they all agree that it is unreligious, most of them still support the ‘Sunna’, or Level 1 FGM practice; some see that FGM is part of religion, in the same way that prayer is.

Yet the Islamic religion prohibits anything that is harmful to people’s lives, and views differ among religious leaders. When we spoke with Sheikh Abdikadir Deria Adan on our programme, he said:

"It is not compulsory, as indicated in the Prophet’s teaching; nowhere have the wives of the Prophet spoken of or practiced FGM."

We realised that to reach zero tolerance for FGM, raising awareness on the harm caused by the practice was imperative. We also understood that religious leaders with academic, scientific and medical knowledge would be more likely to understand and help convey the risks.

Killing one to save thousands

In our radio drama, we created two characters who were sisters - Qamar and Amina - who hold contrasting views on FGM. In the storyline both Qamar and Amina have daughters who are of age for the practice. Qamar was preparing her two daughters for FGM, and she tried to convince her sister to bring her daughter for the procedure, too.

Amina was hesitant and seeks advice from her friend, a qualified nurse. The two of them tried hard to stop Qamar, who believed in the traditional myths, but their efforts failed. Qamar believed that as FGM was conducted on her great grandmother, her grandmother, her mother and herself, there was no way she was going to break the cultural chain.

Qamar went ahead and had FGM performed on her two daughters. As the drama progresses, listeners hear how the procedure on one of her daughters, Yasmin, goes wrong and they were unable to stop the bleeding. The women take Yasmin to hospital in an effort to save her life, but she sadly dies.

We know that drama has great power to help address cultural sensitivities and taboo topics like this by building empathy with characters based on real-life examples. Our research showed that stories and characters can help listeners to reflect on their own lives in a less direct way, and challenge entrenched gender norms.

"The death of the girl in the drama made me sad… this ending of the story can also be a lesson to mothers who are thinking of making their daughters undergo FGM," a young woman in Kismayo, who herself has undergone FGM, told us.

We hope that the death of Yasmin’s character in our radio drama will help save the lives of thousands of Somali girls.

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Mohammed Gaas is Deputy Country Director for ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ Media Action Somalia

Learn more about our work in Somalia here.

Back then, they said little by little, their attempts to protect girls had become known. Chowa described how initially they didn’t get told the details, “we just heard there was a marriage happening nearby and then we tried to get the information – was it a child marriage or not? After, stopping a few child marriages in this way people from our area got to know us.”

We asked why they do it… their reply?

"Someone must do it"

“If, we only think about ourselves then there is no point… many people don’t do anything because their family is not supporting them, or they have social bindings. But if all of us sit by then society will never change.” Tabassum said that from the bottom of their hearts they wanted to help stop child marriage and eve teasing.

By 2019, the Grasshoppers had stopped over 50 child marriages.

Part 2: Grassroots, keep going, keep growing

Four years have passed, and I decided to find out what had happened since then. Chowa is now on her way to university but her work with Ghashforing has never stopped. More teenagers have joined the team and now Chowa diligently guides the new girls.

In Bangladesh, over 50% of girls are married before they turn 18.

Chowa told me about a particularly memorable child marriage they helped prevent.

They had learned that a senior girl from their school was being forced into an early marriage. Due to financial difficulties, the girl's family was unwilling to continue her education, and had decided to marry her off. But the girl’s family denied they were arranging her marriage.

First, Chowa and her friends went to the headmaster of their school and asked if the school could pay the expenses for the girl to continue her studies. Then they entered the girl’s house, disguised as wedding guests!

They sought out the bride who confirmed the wedding had been arranged against her will. The Grasshopper team then met the bride’s parents and explained the negative impacts of early marriage and told them that the school would pay for the girl's education. It was a tense, nerve-wracking but momentous moment when the family agreed to put a stop to the wedding.

Chowa said that moment shines brightly in her memory.

Amplifying the voices of women and girls

When the Grasshopper girls appeared on ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ Media Action’s Hello Check! Chowa found that many people in all corners of the country, and even outside the country, heard about the work of Ghashforing and it helped other girls be more aware of the issues.

"Many are showing courage and initiative… maybe the situation of early marriage would have changed only in this area. However, because of this publicity, now there is an opportunity for everyone to be aware and change the situation. Of course, you must continue to study if you want to get rid of the injustice, torture and dowry"

She explained that it’s a societal effort. Girls need the help of someone they can trust – a schoolteacher or an older sibling - and there is a government helpline for the prevention of early marriage. She added that the relationship between a girl and her parents needs to be handled with care – and reflected on another child marriage they stopped.

They found out from the girl’s friend in their school, that an early marriage was taking place against her will. But Chowa described how the family will often deny that there are plans for a child marriage.

On this occasion, they set up a vigil near the family home and – as suspected - the marriage started happening one evening. Ghashforing stopped that marriage with the help of Nandail's Teenage Women Football Team! The good news is that the girl then returned to school and is continuing her studies - which Chowa describes as the most satisfying part of their work.

Spreading the word and wings

Times are changing, early marriage used to be publicly celebrated, but this happens much less now – and Chowa thinks this is down to the success of the Grasshoppers – shared across Bangladesh by ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ Media Action’s Hello Check!.

Teenage girls in Bangladesh face many pressures as they grow up. Many of them cannot study because of financial problems. Many families think that daughters are a burden - that they will get married and leave for another house, so there’s no point spending money on their education. If we can change this kind of thinking, teenagers will grow up wonderfully.

When we asked Chowa about her future, she said she wants to study law at university. She wants to establish justice in our country. She said that if women study law, they will understand their rights. She wants women and girls to be better able to distinguish between right and wrong – and tackle injustice.

Chowa is determined to work with Ghashforing all her life. She wishes that girls should fly freely in the open sky, Grasshoppers is a belief, an idea, and a name to be trusted. Those who have followed in the footsteps of the original seven girls – will always be supported by Chowa.

Together they will keep stopping early marriages.

Final words of conviction from Chowa?

"There will never be a shortage of Grasshoppers in the open sky."

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Tasnim Khandoker is an Assistant Producer for ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ Media Action in Bangladesh.

Learn more about:
Our work in Bangladesh here
Our work to support women and girls here
Or listen to the ‘Voices of women and girls’ here

She told us that it was very tough for her going out everyday and returning in the evening during the hot, dry and dusty season and even worse during rainy seasons. Her struggle would mostly make her feel sad, she described living with a disability, struggling to make a livelihood, and how often people looked down at her and made her feel like she wasn’t fit to be within society.

With thousands of girls out of school in Sierra Leone, our EAGER (Every Adolescent Girl Empowered and Resilient) project aims to change the negative attitudes and perceptions about girls, including those living with disabilities within society. The radio programme gives opportunities to girls to tell their stories on air, discuss the challenges they face and help find solutions by shining light on the issues.

We interviewed Aminata Tholley for a segment on Wae Gyal Pikin Tinap, the topic of the episode was girls finding opportunities for themselves. And Aminata certainly did that!

Now 27-years-old, Aminata told us how she started her business at the age of 13 and how she continues to live with a disability, using a wheelchair.

"I used to keep half of whatever amount I got from begging and keep it in a cash box. I did this till I got 1,000,000 leones which I used to start a business’’ says Aminata.

She told our producer Marian Tina Conteh how she used to go out in the streets to beg but always saved half of it and used the other half to live. Until she turned 13 that is, when she had a bright idea, “I sat on my wheelchair shivering with a plastic bag covering some part of my body. An idea crossed my mind that I can change my current situation by using the money I have been saving to start a business.” She told Marian that she hurried home to see how much she had saved in her money box.

Soon, she had a plan and naming her business ‘Article’ she used her hard earned money to buy items to sell. She quickly stopped going out begging and started selling items coming from Europe and USA like body lotions, soaps, roll-on deodorants, toothpaste and body wash – and her business grew quickly.

“I chose to do business because of the numerous challenges I was facing when going out begging, and the aspiration to be a better person in society. I wanted to be independent and be able to take care of myself and my family’’, she said.

She is still using her cash box which she opens time to time to buy more items as her business keeps growing, and she has good relationships with her customers – many of them come back to her. Aminata told us she feels so good now that she can take care of herself, her children, and her immediate family members, by providing food, paying school fees, medical, and other basic needs.

She told us how proud she is to be featured on Wae Gyal Pikin Tinap, and that she hopes other younger women and girls, especially girls living with disabilities, will be inspired by her story and will try to find opportunities for themselves.

Based on our research we know our listeners find the programme engaging and like Wae Gyal Pikin Tinap because it features marginalised girls in relatable, real-life situations about issues that are relevant to their lives - as well as potential solutions. I believe in focusing on inspiring and empowering girls in our programmes to bring about the changes needed within our society.

Having girls like Aminata in the show helps identify and highlight issues affecting out-of-school girls, including those living with disability, I was truly inspired to meet her and to learn how she has tried to break the bias for women living with disabilities, and sought to overturn the challenges she faced.

Her story also brings back memories of my own teenage years – I used to have a cash box and operated it for a very long time, using my saved money to buy basic toiletries. And sometimes gave it to my mother to add to her business. And two of my teenage girls are currently operating theirs!

Aminata’s final words with us on Wae Gyal Pikin Tinap? "I plan to have my own shop in the future.’’

Aminata, we have no doubt you will!

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Mariama Sesay is a Senior Producer for ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ Media Action, Sierra Leone

Learn more about the EAGER project here 
Read our new commitment to equity, diversity and inclusion here 

Good News Radio was named Most Trusted Radio in South Sudan 2021, based on research by Internews South Sudan. It is led by Marial Deng, a multimedia journalist with more than 10 years’ experience, and operates under the Catholic Radio Network, a religious media entity managing numerous media houses across South Sudan.

It is difficult to manage a radio house in the fragile Lakes State, an area renowned for revenge killings and cattle raids. Marial describes it as a tough and stressful task.

“Apart from funding inaccessibility, you will find there are situations where the radio lacks some very important equipment. For example, currently, we are lacking a biometric door lock system, on-air light, backup transmitter, and new computers for staff,” he said.

“The station also lacks field relay live broadcast to broadcast live events, recorders for the broadcast journalist to conduct recordings and headphones for the on-air studio and the broadcast journalist.”

His staff need technical training on equipment maintenance and management, he said, and would benefit from training on more general reporting and content creation skills.

Marial added that the station also faces the challenge of a low coverage area; his station uses a 2.5KW transmitter that covers a 150-kilometre radius.

Still, he said the station has over 1.2 million listeners, according to the 2013 UNMISS assessment report – demonstrating the continuing importance of radio as a source of information, entertainment and connection in the country.

Meet our partner - Nile FM

In 2013, the popular Malakal Town of Upper Nile was devastated by a series of civil wars that forced almost all of the town’s population to seek refuge at the United Nations Protection of Civilians Site (POC). Malakal POC is home to 31,095 internally displaced persons, according to September 2021 UN-IOM data.

Our call for applications to receive our training included radio stations from war-affected areas, and Nile FM – a humanitarian radio operating at the UN Hub – more than met the required standard qualifications. Originally managed by Internews South Sudan, Nile FM is now part of a local Community Engagement Network with support from international organisations, but struggles for sufficient funding.

Because of this, the radio station, which previously was run by more than 10 employees, is now operated by only three people. Dau Nyok, Nile FM station manager, says the institution lacks a lot of important equipment.

“We lack new computers for staff and a desktop for the on-air PC, field relay live broadcast to broadcast live events at the POC or at the Freedom Square, and recorders for the broadcast journalist to conduct recordings.

“Other missing equipment includes a studio console to improve quality and increase the number of phone lines and headphones for the on-air studio and the broadcast journalist,” said Dau.

Closing knowledge gaps

From October 2021 to March 2022, we carried out training to boost our partners’ future outlook and sustainability. These sessions were not limited to cities; three current Nile FM three staff and former seven employees in November 2021 attended a four-day training on editorial policy governance, safeguarding, disability, production skills and gender-sensitive reporting in Malakal Town.

Two senior staff from Nile FM were also part of five days of training on radio management, fundraising, sustainability and financial management, to help them generate funds and grow the institution in the absence of donors.

Nile FM staffer Aban Christopher said one of his main take-aways was from the safeguarding session. “This unit will help to protect myself and respect others, especially my colleagues, so that I don’t hurt them but instead take care of them while at work and at home.”

“As a journalist, the presentation on editorial guidelines was really important for my ethical growth. Secondly, the session on production was so good, because it will always make me prepare myself ahead of an interview or a program,” said female journalist Amani Ibrahim.

Journalist Malek Bol added: “The training has touched on a lot of very good things, especially what I really wanted to learn. The topic of gender sensitive reporting is a key, because gender issues are happening in our communities and we as media need to report a lot on that topic, so that our communities can change and even start prioritising issues for example taking girls to school.”

Quality in reporting

Good News Radio staff – of whom 10 attended our October 2021 editorial, safeguarding and production skills training – said the mix of theory and practical sessions has built their knowledge and skills.

“The training was excellent, and I have gained a lot from it, especially on topics such as considering inclusion when reporting, why it’s important to know the rights of people with disabilities not to be left out and ensuring equality when reporting,” said Monica Amesio, who presents a daily programme, The Evening Experience.

Mary Agum, presenter of Good Morning Lakes State – a daily current affairs programme – said: “Personally, the most enjoyable part of the training was production and content moderation sessions. This is simply because the skills will immediately help on how to improve my interviewing skills and others.”

Renewing our spirit

Station manager Marial Deng said the training had “renewed our spirit to work harder to deliver. I could see the staff so engaged and attentive during your presentation- meaning the sessions were interesting.

“Honestly, we have not been doing programmes on disability, safeguarding, although airtime is there for such programmes. The radio station staff will make use of the knowledge they have acquired,” said Marial.

With ongoing training, we are providing our radio partners with support to create editorial policies and in many cases, equipment to help them sustain their operations to provide trusted information and space for dialogue in this young nation.

About Life in Lulu 

Life in Lulu is a peace and conflict resolution project aimed at promoting peaceful co-existence, tolerance, and stability among the people of South Sudan, through radio dramas and community mobilisation. Our radio drama explores the day-to-day lives of the inhabitants of Lulu village, an imaginary rural location in South Sudan.

The project also builds the capacity of our radio station partners, so that they are better able to sustain their operations, bring trusted information to their audiences and create space for dialogue.

The civic education, peace engagement and capacity building project is co-funded by the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs (NMFA) and Global Affairs Canada (GAC).

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This was originally posted by CONFER on 8th March 2022 – .

Climate Change is a global challenge that affects all people, regardless of ethnicity, gender, or geography. Even though it affects us all, it does not, however, affect us in the same way. Climate change does not care about gender, and although women and men are in theory just as likely to be affected by climate change, the impact of climate change is not the same. Women are increasingly more vulnerable to climate change due to economic, social, political, and cultural factors.

Social, economic and cultural factors

Women and men have different roles in many parts of the world, and women’s work is typically not visible in the country’s GDP. In Uganda for example, women account for a lot less of the human capital wealth compared to men (39% vs. 61%). Furthermore, many societies prevent women from owning land and having their own capital, and they are therefore financially dependent. In addition, women’s livelihoods are often disproportionately dependent on natural resources, and it is not uncommon that they have to work for free on the family farm.

"A lot of the responsibility on the African family falls on the woman. Among the semi-nomadic pastoralists of Northern Kenya, women are the ones responsible for building the houses for the family and the kraals for the animals whenever they settle down in a location. Women are also the ones responsible for the household chores, which includes finding food to cook even during the drought season, taking care of children and walking long distances to fetch water for household use", says Diana Njeru, project director at ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ Media Action Kenya.

Women are also limited when it comes to mobility. Socio-cultural norms and childcare prevent women from leaving their homes to seek refuge in the case of a climate-induced emergency. Thus, women’s disaster mortality is noticeably higher than men’s. 90% of the fatalities from Cyclone Gorky in Bangladesh were women, and of the fatalities from the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, four out of five were women.

Furthermore, women do not participate in decision making as much as men do, even though they are just as able to understand the importance of environmental sustainability and resource management. When women do not have access or control over environmental goods and services, they lose economic, political and social autonomy.

Access to climate services

CONFER is working to co-produce sustainable climate services for East Africa. These will enhance the ability of people in the region to plan for and adapt to seasonal climate fluctuations. The most effective climate services are the ones tailored to users, and this is an important part of CONFER’s work. To do this, the providers need to know their users in all their diversity. They need to know their challenges, but the challenges of women and men are different. Consequently, if providers do not get to know the women and get their feedback, the services will not be suitable for women in the region, only men.

In Mali, for example, Advisory Programs for farmers have shown to be quite successful, but only for a relatively short percentage of men in certain areas. has shown that women hardly ever engage with advisories to give feedback.

Why? Firstly, women’s products are often seen as secondary to men’s. Also, as mentioned, women generally cannot own land, and thus have little opportunity to make independent decisions regarding rain-fed agriculture. The study also found that particularly in polygamous households, “gender-exclusive decision making” – meaning the man makes the decisions – is practised.

Roles and patterns of association are deeply embedded in the culture. Women, especially junior women (but also junior men), are systematically disadvantaged in agricultural communities in the region. Nevertheless, no one challenges this system, although they are aware that it disadvantages them, and they are unhappy about it. Women neglect their own farming because they have to wait for their husband to use the equipment, or they have to work in his field before they can do their own work. Climate services designed from a supply-side perspective (from the provider of the service) risk delivering information that nobody wants, needs, or can act on. Understanding the cultural norms of the users is crucial for making climate services that are useful.

"In some areas, we found that the men were guarding the water points to ensure that providing water for their animals is prioritized. Women were not allowed to fetch water there but were still expected to secure water for the household and provide food for their families. These women were therefore sometimes forced to walk longer distances to find water elsewhere or wait until nighttime when the men are sleeping to access the water pumps, which puts them at risk of sexual violence. This is one example of how donor-funded projects – such as setting up water points for community use – when not properly implemented can further disadvantage the very people it seeks to support, particularly women and the children they care for," says Njeru.

Accountability and implementation of projects in the region are also important factors. Holding people accountable for finishing the projects they start and focusing on the actual implementation and continuation of them. To do that, you need to get to know the culture and the norms in the communities where the projects are supposed to be implemented. Setting up water points that are eventually controlled by men who refuse women to fetch water does not benefit women. Focusing on ensuring that these services reach the people they are intended to reach, particularly women and children, is therefore extremely important.

Women and Health

One of the challenges that will increase with climate change is floods, which can destroy infrastructure, including Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) facilities. A health survey conducted by the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics in 2014 indicated that only 59 per cent of households in rural Kenya have access to improved water sources, and only 10 per cent have a place to wash their hands with soap.

A related issue arises with increasing drought, which is another impact of climate change that is expected to increase. Women have to walk longer distances to get water, which is often dirty. They dig holes about 2-3 metres deep with their hands where the rivers have dried up due to longer droughts and increase in temperatures in search of water.

Water shortage has a major impact on women’s health, not only in terms of menstrual hygiene management but because women and girls bear the biggest burden in terms of finding water for household use. Consequently, they face the economic and physical challenges that come from moving in search of clean water for their families.

Climate change also exacerbates issues related to Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights (SRHR). Food insecurity, for example related to the makes women particularly vulnerable to transactional “fish for sex” relationships. This, in turn, increases the risk of HIV. Furthermore, the impact of drought on livestock and food production has , as younger girls are sent across the border to Ethiopia at an earlier age for cutting ceremonies and later returned to Kenya to be married in exchange for a dowry. A similar observation has been made in , with the drying of Lake Chilwa being associated with an increased number of early marriages, and , as families attempt to reduce the number of mouths to feed.

Finally, maternal health is also affected by climate change. In many of these communities, women are expected to work until labour, and start working again as soon as possible. However, the work gets harder and harder with the impacts of climate change, and the strain on pregnant women makes miscarriages and stillbirths more common. Furthermore, pregnant women and their unborn babies are particularly vulnerable to malnutrition as a result of food shortage.

"The subject of one of our short films was a woman named Esther who was 8 months pregnant and had to walk 2 hours to get 20 litres of dirty water several times a day. After carrying out her household chores, Esther then has to walk 25 km to the clinic on an empty stomach for her prenatal checkups," says Njeru, "and when we stopped filming to give her something to eat, she immediately gave it to her children, whose well-being is always a mother’s priority."

See the video of Esther by ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ Media Action and read more about Njeru’s reflections behind the scenes.

Potential solutions

The challenges mentioned above are only some of the many, many challenges women least responsible for climate change but at the forefront of the climate crisis face today, and will continue facing as the impacts of climate change increase. But what can be done to prevent women from becoming more vulnerable, and what can be done to turn it around and help women to instead become more resilient?

Many of the people in the East African region do not have the luxury to think about net-zero by 2050 as the impact of climate change is affecting them today. It is already 2 degrees warmer in Northern Kenya, which means that water points are drying up faster, land is becoming less arable and these areas are quickly becoming inhabitable. Should we then be educating the most vulnerable communities about net-zero by 2050 if they will not live to see it? No, we need to focus on increasing their capacity to adapt to increased extreme weather events, especially among women. What can women do to adapt to increased temperatures and longer droughts? What drought-resistant crops can they grow and how can they recycle water for their kitchen gardens? How can we empower women to demand services from their governments? How can donor-funded projects ensure increased accountability from implementers of their projects to ensure that these projects are meeting the needs of the communities they set out to support?

"We should focus on helping rural women in areas like Northern Kenya to adapt to climate change so that they can be more resilient. Teach them how to set up kitchen gardens and grow their own food, as this can also provide them with a source of income if they sell some of their harvests in local markets. Empower women to demand services such as water from the government and speak out when donor-funded projects intended to support them are not doing so. There is no doubt that ensuring that women have access to food and water will mean that the family will have access to food and water as like anywhere else around the world, women will more often than not prioritize the well being of their children. Empower the woman and you empower the family," Njeru says.

Empowering women is especially beneficial for their daughters. Young girls are often pulled out of school because they have to help their mothers carry back as much water as possible, given that they are forced to walk longer distances because nearer water points have dried up due to longer drought and increased temperatures.

"We have spoken to women who walk from 6 up to 13 hours in search of water which means they will not be able to make several trips a day to those water points. This is one of the reasons why we need to focus on empowering women, in order to ensure that the next generation of girls is given the opportunity to go to school," Njeru points out.

Sustainability means investing in women and girls, empowering them to be more self-sufficient and helping them get the skills and knowledge they need to adapt to climate change.

Engaging women and increasing their knowledge

Though they no longer create pure entertainment programmes, Hareem Zan is back delivering a variety of social, political, cultural, and informative programmes across the province. Their women-centric content makes it easy for women to contact them to ask questions and fill in any gaps in their information. Their programmes engage with female audiences, increases their level of knowledge and empowers them to cope with existing challenges. Their programmes also suggest approaches on how to tackle challenges in their daily lives, looking at them from different social perspectives.

³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ Media Action is still working with local media partners like Hareem Zan, providing mentoring and advice. We are also running Lifeline training to make sure journalists know what their audiences need is in a time of crisis – including how to access humanitarian aid and medical care.

We have continued to reflect the information needs of women through one of our health programmes. In the first days and weeks after the fall of Kabul and when medical services were collapsing, we conducted rapid research that found that 62% of people wanted information about mental health. Some 43% of them were women. ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ Media Action’s ‘Where There is No Doctor’ programme connected people, especially women, directly with medical professionals, and provided information and support around both physical and mental health. Information ranged from how to recognise and respond to a panic attack, to how to care for yourself in early pregnancy.

Our radio programmes now also get questions from across the country about how to access humanitarian aid – how to register, what happens if someone is registered but not receiving aid, who can I count as part of my family, what if I need more than just wheat and oil? We also support people to provide feedback in a way that doesn’t involve leaving the house to drop a card in a collection box, which many women may feel is unsafe.

A worsening humanitarian crisis

The situation in Afghanistan is devastating and rapidly worsening. Violent conflict, a devastating drought, and food insecurity affecting over half the population in Afghanistan are driving one of the worst humanitarian crises in the world. The current situation and crises have created an enormous information gap for women when it comes to accessing to services.

This is why media and communication are playing an even more essential role in Afghanistan now – unlike other humanitarian efforts, which rely on face-to-face contact, women can get information, participate in surveys, make complaints and give feedback through radio and mobile phones.

At a time when women are not permitted to travel long distances without a male relative, it has become more challenging to make sure we are seeking out their opinions and understanding their needs. We continue to conduct research through mobile phones, so that we can reach women across the country at home, rather than sending someone door-to-door who may only be able to speak to male members of the household.

Our aid is communication

Our aid is communication, and this is our strength – through radio, television, mobile phones and social media, we are able to reach everyone, especially if they aren’t able to go out to seek information on their own. Radio is so popular here that it has an almost magical power to reach everyone - wherever they are and whatever they are doing. Media and communication have become even more powerful tools for aid.

With programmes across ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ Dari and Pashto services and across 35 local radio stations – including Hareem Zan - we continue to deliver important information, connect people with experts and with each other, and inspire new ideas.

Mursal Abrar is our Afghanistan humanitarian project manager, now based in London. This article was written with support from Auliya Atrafi, senior content producer in Kabul.

“I sometimes used to sit and cry but then feel determined at the same time to change my situation from what society perceives [about] people living with disability – that we’re not able to do anything in life. Some parents [even] refer to their disabled children as ‘half pikin’ (half child),” Madi Sefoi tells our radio presenter Marian Tina Conteh.

In Sierra Leone, many people live with different forms of disabilities, but often girls in wheelchairs are seen begging from people passing by in cities around the country.

We met Madi on a production visit to the south of Sierra Leone for our radio programme Wae Gyal Pikin Timap (When a Girl Child Stands). Thousands of girls are out of school in Sierra Leone, so the show aims to turn up the volume on the barriers to education. Increasingly, we identify the issues for girls living with disabilities and give them the opportunity to tell their stories on air and discuss challenges.

We sometimes bring girls to our studio to present alongside our presenter, by acting as the presenter’s friend. We interviewed Madi as a co-host when we visited her province to record with our partner radio stations. She told us that growing up in Bo City (known as ‘Gari town’) wasn’t easy,

‘’I had to put up with the difficulties of going to a public school which was not disabled-friendly in terms of moving around the compound. I used to feel discouraged to be crawling among thousands of students.”

People living with disabilities faced lot of discrimination in their daily lives, she said. Often, families, communities, and society see them as a burden. Some people treat them with disrespect and sometimes mock, provoke, laugh, or call them names like ‘gbenkelenkie’ (bend foot), or believe they are a result of witchcraft or are a curse on their family.

“Transport to go to school and other places was always a nightmare for me because I had to be taken off my wheelchair and helped into it again. People look low at me and that makes me feel unhappy,” Madi continues.

She describes that she finished high school and took the West Africa Senior Secondary Certificate Examination (WASSCE) but unfortunately did not achieve the requirements for university. She wanted to re-sit but could not afford the entry fees for the exams.

Determined for change

“I decided to start doing something to raise money to be able to take care of myself and save some to fulfill my dream of re-sitting and going to college or do something meaningful in life,” says Madi.

She started plaiting hair for her family and because she was creative with different hair styles, she quickly had friends, family and new customers coming to see her every day. Her reputation grew, she told us people started calling her ‘Madi Sefoi the Bluffay’ (for us this means a lady who is well presented and immaculate), quickly she started earning enough to start taking care of her immediate needs such as food and clothes, and eventually enough to save for her next step.

After hearing an IT course advertised on the radio, Madi left Bo and traveled to Freetown to complete the course. She continued to plait hair to support herself and enrolled for a customer care training course back in Bo City. “I learned how to attend to people and how to manage my time as well,” says Madi. “With all these training experiences, I continue with my passion of plaiting hair… earning some income that I’m using to take care of myself and my immediate family.”

“Disability is not inability”

On our show, Madi told her story. She said people living with disabilities need people to give them attention, support, and encouragement. People should include girls living with disabilities in opportunities that are available to others – in her words “…our disability is not inability. Girls living with disabilities are greatly in need of those opportunities”.

She went further during her Wae Gyal Pikin Timap interview and called on government to address the issues of people living with disabilities, especially girls, to create more opportunities that are accessible and disabled friendly.

Inviting girls like Madi onto the radio programme helps shine light on the issues girls are facing as part of our project called Every Adolescent Girl Empowered and Resilient (EAGER). We identify issues affecting girls who are out of school, including those living with disability, and give them the opportunity to discuss and tell their stories, and most importantly to share their creative solutions.

Meeting Madi was truly inspirational. She featured in an episode called ‘’Disability not holding girls back’’ and we know by inviting young co-hosts on the show it’s helping other girls. Last year, our research found listeners find the programme engaging and they like Wae Gyal Pikin Tinap because it features girls in relatable, real-life situations about issues relevant to their lives, as well as potential solutions. I believe it is how our programmes focus on inspiring and empowering girls which makes the difference.


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Mariama Sesay is a Senior Producer for ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ Media Action, Sierra Leone

Learn more about the EAGER project here 
Read our new commitment to equity, diversity and inclusion here

The safety and welfare of colleagues was the first priority. But the other priority was our audiences. Many radio stations stopped broadcasting, out of fear, and we knew our audiences needed us more than ever.

No one was asked to come into work – but some did, at great risk, while others worked from home. In this difficult and dangerous situation, we have tried to focus on audience needs. Within the first few weeks, 2,000 health centres, including major hospitals, were closed down across the country.

We had been producing a radio health programme twice per month, focused on COVID-19 and broadcast on ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ Afghan service and on 30 community radio stations, reaching up to 12 million people. Now, people were without meaningful public health services, so we increased our programme frequency to twice per week – once in Dari and once in Pashto. We enlisted doctors to help us in a new programme segment, Where There Is No Doctor – covering topics like how to nurse patients at home.

Skyrocketing mental health needs

All of ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ Media Action’s work is based on audience research. In September, we were able to carry out research, mainly by mobile phone, to assess our audiences’ needs for health information. What came back was startling: 62% of respondents identified a need for mental health support. Stress, anxiety and depression had skyrocketed.

We created a question-and-answer segment for our radio programme, and asked our audience to send in voice messages with their questions and experiences, to be addressed with a counsellor on the next show. We were overwhelmed with hundreds of calls, from both men and women.

Amid all the hardship and risk, we have had this incredible feeling of being able to respond in an emergency with information that really matters. People are without incomes, without healthcare and without the information they need to make informed decisions. Where do they turn? In a crisis, radio is still the most important source of media for Afghans.

We realised that we could reach more people if we used our Lifeline programming to train more community journalists to report effectively in a crisis. We worked around the clock to adapt training materials into Dari and Pashto - a month’s worth of translating, editing and subtitling in one week. We weren’t even sure anyone would turn up. But in our first session we were amazed to see 25 participants, including six women. We have further built these connections through WhatsApp groups: answering questions, helping with story ideas and interview questions, and assessing listener needs.

We have also carried on working with the humanitarian response community, conducting research and sharing our findings to help aid agencies respond to people’s needs more effectively.

Proud to serve our audiences

The last days and weeks have been a blur of constant work and worry. The humanitarian emergency is only deepening in Afghanistan, while security continues to be a grave concern. Some of us have elected to remain behind; we are also exploring a model where we work alongside some of our colleagues who have been evacuated from Afghanistan to the UK.

We don’t know what the future holds, but we are proud to be serving our audiences with the trusted information they so desperately need, and to help make the emergency response in Afghanistan as effective as it can be.

Learn more about ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ Media Action’s work in Afghanistan or through JustGiving (leads to a third-party site).