Background
The Girls Advocacy Alliance (GAA) programme is a lobby and advocacy programme jointly implemented by 3 Netherlands based organisations, namely Plan Netherlands, Terre des Hommes Netherlands (TdH-NL) and Defence for Children-ECPAT with funding from and in partnership with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Dutch Government (Dialogue and Dissent – Strategic Partnerships framework). The programme aims at ending gender based violence and improving economic empowerment of girls and young women in Eastern Africa focusing on three countries; Kenya, Uganda and Ethiopia; the programme also has a regional focus, aimed at engaging with the regional bodies such as the AU and EAC.
In Kenya, the GAA programme is implemented in Kwale County by Terre des Hommes Netherlands (TdH-NL) in partnership with the Coalition on Violence Against Women (COVAW).
In order to support GAA activities, the programme intends to apply Youth-Led Advocacy via Edutainment; using stories and media for social action and behaviour change in a multimedia approach. The community-based, interactive media programming will be linked directly to community activities and advocacy efforts.
At the heart of the Youth-Led Advocacy are three critical components for social and behaviour change:
Media: including film, radio, print and Social Media, SMS platform
Advocacy: tackling policies to enable individual and social change
Social mobilisation: engaging with communities to support actions for change
The campaign
The different campaign elements and approaches will be anchored on two of GAA´s strategies:
Awareness Raising: media campaigns and communication; and
Use of ICT and Social Media.
The edutainment will target community leaders (local, religious, cultural and traditional), community members, policy makers, duty bearers and decision makers in government, private sector and in the CSOs within Kwale County.
Meaningful social change requires active involvement and participation of the targeted communities (youth, women, men) to build personal and community skills while creating agency. For inclusion, active and meaningful involvement of youth/girls advocates engaged in the project (i.e. at least and minimally through collecting their input and feedback in the design & development of all materials/products) is a key requirement in order to provide them with a platform where their voices can be heard and acted upon by decision makers. This will ensure that girls are engaged in policy dialogues as active stakeholders and not just beneficiaries which is key for the mobilisation of a critical mass.
A multimedia approach will be used which will be specifically designed for the local audience in Kwale county. This will include a film, radio talk shows, social media and on-the-ground community dialogues and advocacy efforts by the GAA Kwale project. This combination will build onto the popularity of various forms of edutainment, and act as a catalyst for community and interpersonal dialogue, debates and actions.
More information
For more information and guidance on how to submit Expressions of Interest, please refer to the Terms Of Reference for this edutainment project consultancy (See link below).
