StandWithWomen in the Middle East to Create Change

In June 2020 Equality Now surveyed all our partner Women Rights Organizations in the region to gauge their specific needs for advocacy capacity building.

The survey responses revealed that:

1. The groups rely on conventional means of communication (emails, sms, press/media relationships). However, in national contexts where state censorship is often exercised, many are realizing the importance of using social media platforms to attract new audiences, in particular youth activists, to their campaigns
2. Most organizations do not have a designated department or representative responsible for media advocacy, due to lack of funding
3. Organizations needed to develop their storytelling capabilities and filmmaking techniques, to be able to create more visually appealing content that could bring their mission and the stories of individuals to life

Developing the Content of New Media Advocacy Training
Equality Now enlisted renowned Lebanese filmmaker and human rights activist Khalil Dreyfuss Zaarour to conduct media advocacy training.

Dreyfuss Zaarour reviewed a total of 20 social media advocacy toolkits that the organizations currently use. None of the toolkits offered information about how to develop visual/video content, shoot it, and edit it.

Based on the survey feedback and the toolkit audit, training material was specially designed by Equality Now and the Social Media Trainer to empower participants–many of whom are generally tech-savvy and avid users of social media–to be able to confidently generate their own impactful audio-visual content.

In a regional context rife with untold stories of discrimination and gender-based violence, the training material focused on the best means of identifying, presenting, and visually capturing these stories in order to engage the target audience, to affect social change and, in turn, drive legal reform.

Most small rights organizations in the region are underfunded and thus unable to hire professional PR firms to produce a campaign film. Reflecting this, the training was designed to enable the time-efficient and accessible production of “zero-cost short films”. These short, captivating clips can be shot on smartphones or home-owned amateur cameras, edited using fee-free Apps, and then posted–either on personal or organizational social media accounts–in order to create awareness around a specific human or women’s right for which they are advocating.

Training Delivery and Outcomes to Date
In the arrangement of what were originally intended to all be in-person training sessions, many challenges were encountered and several overcome. These included multiple significant changes to visa requirements, ambassadorial approvals and travel restrictions for young participants to leave their home nation for training. Some of these were related to the pandemic, others to shifting political tensions between nations; there was also the explosion in the port of Beirut, close to Equality Now’s regional office.

These ongoing challenges led to several postponements and changes of host country/city for our training days. In spite of these varied hurdles and last minute changes, we succeeded in delivering two in-person events, with the other two sessions delivered virtually.

In late September, in the Lebanese city of Tripoli, 12 young people (aged 18-25) were brought together for a two-day workshop introducing key principles of filmmaking and legal advocacy.

Following these in-person sessions, the Trainer continued to follow-up with participants in order to guide the development of their stories into scripts and storyboards ready to be filmed and edited. Within two weeks, the result of the training was the production of three short films covering a variety of human rights and gender equality issues (sexual harassment, child marriage, and child labor).

In December, a further three training sessions were delivered:

• Two days of online training for Moroccan youth activists
• Two days of in-person training session for Tunisian and Egyptian youths, delivered in Beirut
• Two days of online training session for Jordanian youths delivered online

It is expected that more short advocacy films will be generated by the end of January 2021 by the youth participants from the recent sessions, when one-on-one follow-up sessions are completed.

The recipients of the training have given positive feedback on the difference the program has already made to the storytelling and technical skills which they can apply to engage their audience, grow their reach, and become future champions of women’s rights in their country and the region.

Links:

• Video of Equality Now's advocacy training workshop in Lebanon