Media and digital media play essential roles in citizen participation and inclusive governance. We are also witnessing global civil servants and NGO professionals finding themselves at a loss on how to strategically and effectively use and engage media to amplify their messages to broader audiences.

Last month, we had an incredible time at our RNW Media Welcome Event to commemorate our new office space in the Koepel in Haarlem and our 75th anniversary! We were delighted to be joined by a panel of changemakers who shared their experiences using digital media and data to co-create safe digital (civic) spaces for change and advocate for digital rights.

With the kind support of UNESCO, we are delighted to announce that at RNW Media, we are setting up an online community of practice (CoP) for digital content creators developing and sharing information about sexual and reproductive health well-being, relationships, and much more.

In the digital age, young people turn to online spaces to find reliable information and plurality of narratives, to participate in political discussions. It is important for us to shed light on the significant digital challenges and opportunities of the African context and to make sure that these are given their due importance in global discussions about digitalisation.

Another year has passed with its challenges and wonders. As we rapidly transition to the world as we knew it before the pandemic, let us take a moment with you to look at the past year at RNW Media, with gratitude and pride in our 2021 Annual Report.

While the number of digital health interventions providing access to information on family planning in low- and middle-income countries is growing, little is known about the quality of these services. FHI 360 decided to bring clarity, by assessing the comprehensiveness and accuracy of eleven tools and selected Love Matters as one of the top interventions.

The Manasati30 team consists of changemakers coming from all regions of the country. Both online activities and offline events ensure that young people’s voices are heard by mainstream media and other influential actors and their agendas are gradually being represented in policy and social changes.

With a rise in gender-based violence and diversion of resources from SRH services around the world as a result of the pandemic, Global Affairs Canada responded by providing funding to MSI Reproductive Choices, International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF) and RNW Media to fortify women’s access to sexual and reproductive health and rights.

We recently held the exciting 3-day online interactive event: ‘Brave Digital Spaces! The Online Sexuality Education Exchange’, together with the Love Matters Global Network as part of the RHRN2 programme. The event focused on building digital communities to address sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR).

We recently conducted research into the long-term impact of RNTC trainings on participants media careers. A survey was shared among participants focusing on trainings held between 2000 and 2015 to explore the long-term impacts of these trainings on participants careers by 2020.