New projects planned and launched, government policies influenced, awards\u00a0won\u00a0and taboo-busting discussions\u00a0facilitated. 2018 was a year of growth for RNW Media\u2019s Citizens\u2019 Voice programme \u2013 growth in number of projects, numbers of followers and numbers of interactions. All adding up to growth in impact.\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n
As\u00a0well as celebrating its fifth anniversary, the Yemen Youth Panel, adopted a new local identity \u2013\u00a0Manasati30<\/a>\u00a0(Arabic for\u00a0\u2018My Platform\u2019\u00a0and for those under 30) and the change in name and look have already stimulated increased audience participation. Our Yemen project also took a big\u00a0step for our global advocacy aims with the participation of\u00a0Ruba\u00a0Mimi, on behalf of the team, in the Yemen Peace Talks hosted by the United Nations in Stockholm.\u202f The Yemen team have been leading the way for RNW Media in surfacing data on youth needs and opinions and\u00a0Ruba\u00a0was able to bring to the Peace Talks data gathered on young Yemeni\u2019s thoughts on the peace process.<\/p>\n The\u00a0redesign of the\u00a0Huna Libya<\/a>\u00a0platform\u00a0enabled it to become\u00a0more accessible and more engaging for its target audience.\u00a0Aiming to pave the way for a more inclusive\u00a0society,\u00a0a major focus for the local team was\u00a0championing the rights of women. They\u00a0broke through\u00a0norms by introducing Libya\u2019s first female vlogger into the Libyan media landscape.\u00a0The team also began conducting surveys to gauge young Libyans\u2019\u00a0attitudes on\u00a0social and cultural issues. Participation rose rapidly with 580 responses to the first survey jumping to more than 6,000 later in the year – a 1,000% increase. And\u00a0a survey on\u00a0Libyan women in the workforce\u00a0saw\u00a078% of\u00a0the responses coming from women \u2013 a big increase in\u00a0female participation.<\/p>\n Congratulations\u00a0were\u00a0very much\u00a0in order for\u00a0Habari\u00a0RDC, our platform\u00a0for\u00a0the Democratic Republic of Congo. The team of young\u00a0activists received the\u00a0Francophone Award\u00a0for\u00a0Innovation in Media on 23 March in Paris, with DRC\u2019s\u00a0Information minister Lambert Mende personally congratulating\u00a0Habari\u00a0RDC.\u00a0In April, came the\u00a0Index on Censorship<\/a>‘s 2018 Freedom of Expression Award for Digital Activism. These prestigious awards,\u00a0both recognising\u00a0innovation, were\u00a0international acknowledgement of the ground-breaking nature of\u00a0Habari\u00a0RDC\u2019s work.<\/p>\n In Burundi our\u00a0Yaga<\/a>\u00a0platform\u00a0made news on\u00a0France 24<\/a>\u00a0for a\u00a0series of videos<\/a>\u00a0on entrepreneurship, showing\u00a0examples of successful and innovative start-ups created by young Burundians.\u00a0\u00a0Yaga\u2019s\u00a0most successful campaign\u00a0in 2018\u00a0tackled one of Burundi\u2019s most taboo but widely prevalent social issues affecting young people- the use of the drug \u2018boost\u2019.\u00a0The campaign focused on raising awareness of the effects of the drug on young people as well as the society. Since the campaign, the Ministry of Public Security has made the fight against boost a national priority.<\/p>\n June saw the launch of a new Citizens\u2019 Voice\u00a0platform\u00a0for Mali \u2013\u00a0Benbere<\/a>. The project\u00a0has rapidly grown its community with almost 60, 000 followers on Facebook and is\u00a0carving out a reputation as an alternative, credible and inclusive media source in Mali. In October it\u00a0created\u00a0a buzz in\u00a0Spain\u2019s\u00a0el\u00a0Pais<\/a>\u00a0newspaper which praised its\u00a0work on encouraging different communities in Mali to come together\u00a0and participate in debates on everyday but seldomly discussed topics, such as early marriage or ethnic-based disagreements.<\/p>\n After extensive local research and consultations\u00a0in Egypt, the Citizens\u2019 Voice programme resolved to pilot\u00a0its first project working on the theme of economic inclusion.\u202fThe foundations were laid in 2018 including the start-up of a new team. The new platform, to be called Masar@ (meaning \u2018pathways\u2019) will be fully launched\u00a0in early 2019.<\/p>\n Justice4Her<\/a>\u00a0\u2014our project in China on rights and gender equality for women migrant workers,\u00a0began implementing activities\u00a0co-funded by the\u00a0European Union\u00a0in 2018.\u00a0One of those activities was the creation of a\u00a0short film about gender based violence ‘Silence Hurts<\/a>‘. It\u00a0went on to win the Silver Prize for Best Video at the 8th\u00a0STDecaux\u00a0Public Service Awards.\u00a0The\u00a0video\u00a0features a couple arguing in the street\u00a0and\u00a0is\u00a0filmed from the perspective of a stranger passing by, inviting the viewer to ask, \u201cDo I intervene? Do I help?\u201d By following the argument in an outsider’s role, the audience is\u00a0made\u00a0aware of\u00a0how vital it is to help those affected.\u00a0The video\u00a0has been viewed more than 500,000 times, and its hashtag\u00a0#\u66f4\u597d\u7684women# reached\u00a0over four million views on Chinese social media channels.<\/p>\n The successes of 2018 have been generated by the hard work and dedication of local, country-based teams. Working in difficult, often dangerous circumstances, in countries where those who raise their voices may be putting themselves at risk, the young women and men who drive our Citizens\u2019 Voice platforms and communities are RNW Media\u2019s People of the Year.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" 2018 was a year of growth for RNW Media\u2019s Citizens\u2019 Voice programme \u2013 more projects, more followers and more impact.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":5734,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false},"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5731","news","type-news","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rnw.media\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/5731","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rnw.media\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rnw.media\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rnw.media\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rnw.media\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5731"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rnw.media\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5734"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rnw.media\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5731"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rnw.media\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5731"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Accessible,\u00a0engaging, ground breaking<\/h2>\n
Awards, campaigns, influence<\/h2>\n
New challenges<\/h2>\n
More awards<\/h2>\n
Thank you<\/h2>\n