“be 100 ragl” (worth 100 men) – an arabic radio fiction series on wom
TRANSCRIPT
“Be 100 Ragl” (Worth 100 Men) – an Arabic radio fiction series
on women’s rights and their role in society
Final report prepared by Valentina Di Felice/Womanity and based on feedback and reports received from project partners.
24 February 2015
Facebook post announcing the event to discuss sexual harassment in EL Sawy Center Culture Wheels ©SMPL
GENERAL INFORMATION 3
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY 5
PART I: PROJECT OVERVIEW 9
PART II: DETAILED PROJECT ACTIVITIES AND RESULTS 11 BE 100 RAGL (WORTH 100 MEN) -‐ SCRIPT AND PRODUCTION (ACTIVITY A.1) 11 ANALYSIS OF THE SCRIPT, PRODUCTION AND STORY LINE 11 CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS 12 BROADCASTING OF ‘BE 100 RAGL’ IN RADIO STATIONS, RADIO DEBATES AND AUDIENCE OUTREACH (ACTIVITY B.1 AND C.1) 14 RADIO BROADCASTING SCHEDULE 14 HIGHLIGHTS FROM RADIO DEBATES 15 CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS 16 AUDIENCE OUTREACH VIA SOCIAL MEDIA (ACTIVITY C.2) 17 AUDIENCE ENGAGEMENT ON SOCIAL MEDIA 18 CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS 19 EVENTS AND DISCUSSIONS ORGANIZED BY SMPL (ACTIVITY C.3.I) 19 OVERVIEW OF EVENTS ORGANIZED IN JORDAN AND EGYPT 19 CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS 22 LISTENING GROUPS AND M&E REPORTS (ACTIVITY C.3.II AND D) 23 WORKSHOP IN AMMAN 23 LISTENING GROUPS AND M&E REPORT FROM OXFAM NOVIB’S LOCAL PARTNERS 24 CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS 27
PART III: FINAL CONSIDERATIONS 28
LIST OF ANNEXES 29
General Information
Project Title: Be 100 Ragl (Worth 100 Men): Arabic radio fiction series on women’s rights and their role in society Organizations involved and their role: -‐ Womanity Foundation (Switzerland) -‐ design, coordination, distribution of the fiction series, funding (with the support of private funders) of the production, the social media component, public events in Cairo and Amman and co-‐funding of the workshop in Amman and listening sessions in Egypt. -‐ Oxfam Novib (Netherlands) and Soul City (South Africa) within “Pop Cultures With a Purpose1” -‐ strategic partners for Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E): training of members of their partnering women’s organizations (in Egypt, Palestinian Territories, and Yemen) in the organisation of listening groups and on monitoring and evaluation of activities involving the use of ‘edutainment’. The workshop was co-‐funded by Oxfam Novib (Netherlands) within “Pop Cultures With a Purpose” (supported by UNTF and Zonta); by Oxfam Novib country offices Egypt, Yemen and Occupied Palestinian Territory and Israel (OPTI) and by Womanity. Oxfam Novib, within “Pop Cultures With a Purpose”, organized and funded a side event at Convention on the Status Of Women (CSW) in New York, in March 14, 2014. -‐ Oxfam Novib country office in Egypt, in partnership with Center for Egyptian Women’s Legal Assistance (CEWLA, Egypt) and Better Life; Oxfam Novib country office in the OPTI in partnership with Women’s Affairs Center (WAC) and Women's Center for Legal Aid and Counseling (WCLAC); and Oxfam Novib country office in Yemen in partnership with Abs Development and All Girls Foundation for Development -‐ listening groups and impact evaluation. Oxfam Novib country offices funded and coordinated activities implemented by their local partners. -‐ Global Production (Egypt) -‐ production and initial distribution of the fiction series. -‐ Radio Nisaa (Palestinian Territories) -‐ broadcasting and radio debates on the fiction’s topics.
1 Pop Cultures with a Purpose is a Oxfam Novib-‐led consortium of organizations using edutainment media productions to fight violence against women.
-‐ SMPL (Jordan) -‐ social media management; coordination with radio stations; 10 listening and discussion events in Cairo in El Sawy Center and the Diwan Bookstore and in Amman at the Landmark Hotel. -‐ Radio Yemen Times (Yemen), Radio SouriaLi (Syria), Panorama FM (Saudi Arabia and Bahrain), Radio Aswat (Morocco), Radio Almahaba (Iraq), MEGA FM (Cairo, Egypt), Alexhits (Egypt, online), Sound of Sakia (Egypt); Radio Farat Al Nas (Jordan) -‐ broadcasting the fiction series and, in same cases, organizing radio debates. -‐ El Sawy Center Culture Wheels (Cairo, Egypt) – venue, promotional and logistical support for listening and debates events organized by SMPL, and broadcasting of the fiction on Sound of Sakia. Key contacts (outside Womanity/Nisaa): 1 -‐ Osama Alshurafa, Noora Sharrab, founders and directors of SMPL 2 -‐ Katinka Moonen, project leader at Oxfam Novib (NL) of “Pop Cultures With a Purpose; Noha Abdelghani, Oxfam Novib, Egypt Country Office; and Nickie Monga, Oxfam Novib, OPTI Country Office. (Please refer to Annex 1 for the list of contacts of the project). Implementation period: January 2013 – October 2014 Total program costs (in Womanity): CHF 189’436
A group photo of trainees with the Jordanian actress Saba Mubarak who visited the workshop in Amman on Edutainment Strategy, January 24 -‐30, 2014 ©Joey Ayoub
Executive Summary B 100 Ragl is a radio fiction series in 30 episodes commissioned by the Womanity Foundation. It aims at engaging Arab societies in an open and constructive debate on women’s rights and their role in society, by providing information, increasing awareness and knowledge and offering a variety of perspectives, thus creating favourable attitudes -‐ and behaviours -‐ towards women’s advancement. Through a compelling and entertaining story line, the radio fiction enacts some typical situations and problems that affect women in Arab societies. It provides new perspectives on a wide range of social issues and, centrally, on women’s social and economic empowerment, participation to public life, confrontation with domestic violence and sexual harassment, family relationships and romance. The protagonist, Noha, challenges prejudice and oppression, and becomes a role model for the whole society. B 100 Ragl, designed and produced by Global Production in Egypt, features Mona Zaki as Noha, sided, among others, by Mahmud Abdul Moghny, Ahmed Seyam, Hisham Ismail and Khaled Eleish. The singer Nancy Ajram performed the fiction serie’s theme song, with lyrics exclusively written by Amir Taema and music composed by Jean Marie Riachi. Between March and September 2014, the fiction series was broadcast on 10 radio stations across the Arab world, namely Palestinian Territories, Egypt (on 3 stations), Morocco, Yemen, Syria, Iraq, Jordan, Bahrain and Saudi Arabia. The broadcasting of the fiction was accompanied by radio talk-‐shows (on Radio Nisaa in the Palestinian Territories, Radio Yemen Times, in Yemen and Radio Aswat in Morocco) focusing on women’s issues such as domestic violence, divorce, sexual harassment, economic empowerment, and finally on the role of women in media and as social, cultural and economic leaders. Listeners were encouraged to contribute their own experiences and opinions. Conversations around these issues took also place on Facebook (over 139’000 followers on the dedicated page to date) on Twitter (@b100ragl and #b100ragl) and on the “B 100 Ragl” Blog. In addition to on air and online debates, Womanity commissioned its partner SMPL to animate 10 public debates in Jordan and Egypt, in locations such as the Landmark Hotel in Amman, and the El Sawy Culture Wheels Center in Zamalek, and the Diwan Bookstore in Cairo. Womanity established also a strategic partnership with Oxfam Novib, its country offices in Egypt, in the OPTI and in Yemen and their local partners to design and coordinate listening sessions of Be 100 Ragl and evaluate the impact of the fiction series. Following a workshop organized in Amman in January 2014 by Oxfam Novib and Soul City, 6 grass-‐roots civil society organizations from Egypt, the Palestinian Territories, Jordan and Yemen were enabled to organize listening groups and debates around the themes evoked by the show, using the series as a means to address sensitive issues. The workshop also trained organizations on monitoring and evaluation techniques of ‘edutainment’ projects, and in particular on how to evaluate the impact of B 100 Ragl as a tool to encourage a fruitful debate on the role of women in Arab societies and to favour a societal change of attitude towards gender equality.
To date, listening and debate groups have taken place in Egypt and in the Palestinian Territories. The report from Palestinian organizations was submitted in January 2015 and the one from Egypt is expected in March 2015. During its implementation, the program encountered challenges related to the particularly volatile geopolitical situation in the Arab region. Notably, the ousting of Egyptian President M. Morsi and the consequent re-‐establishment of a military government in Egypt; the worsening of the security situation in Iraq and Syria; and a new armed conflict in Gaza. In addition, coordination with actual broadcast timings of the episodes with field-‐work activities proved challenging in the Palestinian territories. These events inevitably delayed our activities and reshaped some of our expectations. Despite these challenges, the program was successful and surpassed its initial outreach expectations. Although we had initially only targeted Egypt and the Palestinian Territories, we gradually expanded to the full list of participating countries. Overall, Womanity coordinated directly the activities of about 15 organizations that are willing to continue their cooperation with us. Additionally Oxfam Novib, its country offices and their partners coordinated the efforts to organize listening sessions in 8+ locations and evaluate the impact of Be 100 Ragl. Although we do not have enough data and information to estimate the audience outreach of the fiction series, considering the collective share of media partners involved in the project, we believe that Be 100 Ragl was heard by a few million listeners, while radio debates might have engaged some hundreds of thousands and social media attracted a crowd of 140,000. 600+ participants attended public listening and debate sessions and Radio Listener Clubs. A more in depth evaluation of Be 100 Ragl and of discussion settings was conducted on a sample of 60 members of Radio Listener Clubs by WCLAC, partner of Oxfam Novib in the OPTI. A recurrent comment from partners was the ability of Be 100 Ragl and its outreach activities to innovate the way to deal with sensitive topics such as the role of women in the society. “I loved the radio series. The issues it dealt with and the way of presenting them through a radio show made the whole thing very relevant. Traditional awareness raising tools are no longer exciting, but this new technique is great – it’s such an innovative idea.” ~ In-‐depth interview conducted by WCLAC with Listener Club participants in Tulkarem. Our partners declared that the project created a truly open and informal space for their constituencies to express their views, and to increase their knowledge and perspectives on the topics discussed. Overall, they felt that even the ones with more conservative views were willing to enter into the conversation. Many related with the stories and situations presented by the fiction series and saw in Noha a positive example for the whole society. “The series talked about realities of society and realities of life which we see on a daily basis. I have personally experienced some of the issues dealt with in the series.” ~ In-‐depth interview conducted by WCLAC with Listener Club participant, Tulkarem.
The in-‐depth evaluation conducted by WCLAC (West Bank) included pre-‐questionnaires and post-‐questionnaires as well as in-‐depth interviews investigating the listeners’ opinions on some of the topics presented by Be 100 Ragl and discussed during the meetings organised by Radio Listener Clubs (RCLs). After having listened to the series and discussed its central topics, RLCs members changed their views on several issues: e.g. the ratio of people who agreed on the sentence “women who do not want to get married and bear children are not considered good women”, decreased to 8% in the post-‐ questionnaire (in the pre-‐questionnaire it was 36%). There was also an increase of 29% (from 63% to 92%) of people who stated “divorce should be an equal right for men and women alike”. Finally, Be 100 Ragl and Radio Clubs’ discussions were able to convince participants that violence against women is not justified, even when it is done to preserve family unity. In fact, the questionnaires asked to agree on the sentence “violence against women is justified when it is done to preserve family unity”. Initially 46% agreed with the statement but at the end this ratio dropped to 16%. While this document reports the overall positive feedback received from partners and beneficiaries, it also outlines a series of recommendations for Womanity’s future activities in the use of edutainment strategies to promote gender equality, based both on internal and external feedback collected during the program implementation.
• Overall the radio drama received extremely positive feedback and reviews; however, we felt that the script itself could have given more depth and contexts to some of the topics presented. Suggestion: engage civil society representatives sensitive to gender issues in the creative writing process, without compromising the entertainment value.
• The feedback from our partners highlights a tension between a regional and country-‐
based approach. In other words, each one requested to contextualise the fiction to his/her own country. Suggestion: episodes taking place in other countries/locations could be considered for the next production series.
• More stand-‐alone episodes intertwined in a simpler storyline will allow for more flexibility
especially in the organizations of public events (i.e. one doesn’t have to follow the full series to understand a single episode and topic). This would also favour the possibility to locate episodes in other countries.
• Overall, we were advised to consider visual media (production of a TV-‐drama or of an
animation) and to use multimedia at a larger scale to massively increase the outreach of the fiction series.2
• Womanity should negotiate a more active engagement of stars like Mona Zaki and Nancy
Ajram – who played a crucial role in attracting the audience – to promote the fiction series and the debate around it: release interviews, attend program’s events, comment on social media and promote activities on their own social media.
• Womanity and its operational partners should consider embedding in the program
action-‐oriented activities such as online campaigns or flash mobs in order to gather further anecdotal evidence on the impact of the program.
2 A study conducted in 2012 by The Northwestern University in Qatar in 8 Arab countries and addressing 10.027 interviewees revealed that 98% of respondents watch TV (with a consumption of 22 hours of TV per week); 66% use the internet and 60% listen to the radio (with a consumption of 9 hours of Radio programs per week).
• In its internal strategy, Womanity should consider to embed media productions in the
Nisaa’s regionalization plan (Nisaa Network) to cross-‐fertilize activities; expand the network of partners and maximize audience outreach.
• While designing future projects using edutainment strategies, Be 100 Ragl can be further
distributed or published in an open source platform (including Nisaa Network).
Part I: Project Overview -‐ Goal: “B 100 Ragl” is a radio fiction series in 30 episodes produced by the Womanity Foundation. It aims at engaging Arab societies in an open and constructive debate on women’s empowerment. This goal is achieved by providing information and knowledge, offering a variety of perspectives and creating favourable attitudes to favour women’s advancement in the societies. -‐ Objectives:
a. Produce a radio fiction series for a broad audience that combines entertainment and educational contents on women’s role in Arab societies.
b. Broadcast the fiction series in as many Arab countries/radio stations as possible to showcase a positive model of women’s empowerment, and increase the opportunities to discuss women’s role in society by presenting topics relevant to the Arab contexts.
c. Maximize the online, on airwaves and in person opportunities to discuss the radio fiction series and its topics and, through them, the role and challenges of women in Arab societies.
d. Encourage a societal change in order to fully realize gender equality and grant women the right to exercise an active and constructive role in the public and societal life.
-‐ Summary of Activities:
a. Produce a radio fiction series that combines entertainment and educational contents and that addresses topics related to women’s role in Arab societies.
1. Global Production was in charge of the creative design, script writing, casting and
production of a fiction series in 30 episodes. (Annex 2: original script, translation in English and the audio of the 30 episodes). The script was developed starting from an original idea submitted and approved by Womanity and Radio Nisaa.
b. Broadcast the fiction series in as many Arab countries/radio stations as possible to
showcase a positive model of women’s empowerment, and increase the opportunities to discuss women’s role in society presenting topics relevant to the Arab contexts.
1. Between March and September 2014, The fiction series was broadcast in its entirety
by: Radio NISAA in the Palestinian Territories, 92.7 MEGA FM, AlexHits and Sound of Sakia (El Sawy online radio station) in Egypt, Radio Almahaba in Iraq, Radio Al Aswat in Morocco, Radio Yemen Times in Yemen, Radio SouriaLi in Syria, and Panorama FM in Saudi Arabia and Bahrain. Despite the initial commitment, Radio Farah Al Naz in Jordan only broadcast about half of the episodes, once a week, starting from mid-‐April 2014.
c. Maximize the online, on airwaves and in person opportunities to discuss the radio fiction
series and its topics and, through them, the role and challenges of women in the Arab societies.
1. Radio Nisaa, Radio Al Aswat, Radio Yemen Times and, to some extent, Radio SouriaLi
broadcast regular radio debates on the topics presented by the fiction series.
2. SMPL coordinated our social media pages (Facebook, Twitter – @b100ragl and #b100ragl – a Blog, a Youtube channel, an Instagram account and a SoundClouds account) encouraging opinion sharing on the topics of the series. In the last 6 months of the project, when radio stations started to broadcast the fiction, the followers on Facebook grew from 60’000 to 139’000.
3. i) SMPL organized 10 public listening sessions and debates in Jordan and Egypt on Be 100 Ragl between July and September 2014 (see Annex 7 for the agenda of the events). ii) Between August and October 2014, Oxfam Novib, in cooperation with CEWLA and Better Life (partners of Oxfam Novib in Egypt) and with WCLAC and WAC (partners of Oxfam Novib in the OPTI), organized listening sessions and debates in Egypt and the Palestinian Territories respectively. The evaluation from Palestinian organizations was submitted in January 2015 while the one from Egypt is expected by March 2015.
Similar listening groups will take place in Yemen (in cooperation with All Girls Foundation for Development and Abs Development Organisation) and in Tunisia (in cooperation with local partners of Oxfam Novib).
Representatives of the above-‐mentioned organizations (with the exception of WAC and the organizations in Tunisia) were all trained by Soul City in: edutainment strategies; the organization of listening sessions; and monitoring, evaluation (M&E) and reporting. The workshop took place in Amman, January 24-‐30, 2014, and brought together 16 participants.
d. Encourage a societal change in order to fully realize gender equality and grant women the
right to exercise an active and constructive role in the public and societal life.
This report aims at presenting reflections, comments, findings and feedback on whether and how well the fiction series encouraged a dialogue and also a change of attitudes towards gender equality. Initial positive evidence on the impact of the fiction series were provided by the evaluation report of local partners of Oxfam Novib in the OPTI and additional pieces of information are expected from Oxfam Novib and its partners in the countries of implementation of listening groups.
The project was presented to numerous organizations via phone and in meetings. It was also presented in New York on March 14, 2014 during a side event to the Convention on the Status of Women organized by Oxfam Novib. BBC World Impact (17 July 2014), A Woman’s Hour -‐ BBC Radio 4 (23 July 2014) and BBC Arabic presented Be 100 Ragl and interviewed representatives of the Womanity Foundation. An article on YOUM7 (an Egyptian daily newspaper) on September 21, 2014 reported on the events organized in Egypt by SMPL and The Communication Initiative promoted all program activities. Radio SouriaLi interviewed Antonella Notari Vischer, director of Womanity, when they premiered the fiction series. The artist, Tasleem Mulhall presented the project on her blog (see Annex 9 for complete the press review).
Part II: Detailed Project Activities and Results
Be 100 Ragl (Worth 100 Men) -‐ Script and Production (Activity a.1) Title: Be 100 Ragl Casting: Mona Zaki, Mahmud Abdul Moghny, Ahmed Seyam, Hisham Ismail, Khaled Eleish and others. Soundtrack: “Banouta B 100 Ragl” performed by Lebanese singer Nancy Ajram, lyrics exclusively written by Amir Taema and music composed by Lebanese producer Jean Marie Riachi. Description: Radio Fiction Series Topics presented: Women’s role in society; women’s social and economic empowerment; their participation to public life; women’s conditions at work; domestic violence and sexual harassment; family relationships and romance; divorce; girls’ education; single women in a traditional society; how to build up healthy relationships in a love story; and corruption. Duration: 15-‐20 minutes – 30 episodes. Audience: Male/Female urban and peri-‐urban aged 16-‐60. Synopsis: Be 100 Ragl tells the story of Noha, a young Arab radio journalist who has an under-‐qualified job as a speaker in a radio station. Noha is a bright and ambitious young woman who decides to politically and socially challenge the establishment and the widespread corruption. This theme is intertwined with a number of episodes related to Noha’s private, family and professional lives that put under the spotlight the role and the main problems of women in the contemporary Egyptian society. Noha will emerge as a positive role model of women’s empowerment.
Mona Zaki in the studio recording © Global Production
Analysis of the script, production and story line Overall, the storyline addresses topics related to the role of women on Arab societies and succeeds in showcasing a female hero who is strong and assertive and who takes a leading role in fighting corruption, and advocating for women’s rights. The fiction series balances brilliantly information, education, advocacy and entertainment. Based on the comments and feedbacks received to date, as well as on an in-‐depth analysis of the script, the pros and cons related to the fiction series are summarized as follows.
Pros 1 – The fiction series is successful in portraying the main character as an assertive woman with leadership skills, courage and determination, who in her investigative reports fights corruption (a role usually interpreted by male characters), and, by doing so, challenges the stereotypical role of women in journalism and, more generally, in society. 2 – Be 100 Ragl offered a number of episodes centered on women’s issues with cues that spark a further debate on women’s role and challenges. For example, Noha’s family members repeatedly discuss the divorce of Shereen (Noha’s sister) in a way that represents the different societal perspectives; Noha and Hazem discuss how to build a healthy relationship between a man and a woman that is based on reciprocal respect, love, support and equality including in pursuing one’s own personal and professional aspirations; Shereen demonstrates how a woman can flourish when she is free from an abusive relationship and violence and able to determine her goals. An episode was entirely dedicated to sexual harassment and topics such as girls’ education, living conditions of widows in Arab societies, societal perception of single women, prejudices on women driving, etc. are presented throughout the storyline. 3 – Consequently, a competent facilitator could use the fiction (or snippets from it) to discuss these and other topics by adding more information, giving more depth and provide a local contextualization of the issue. He/she can also suggest societal solutions based on his/her own experience and knowledge. 4 – Overall, our partner organizations (mainly radio stations) evaluated the fiction positively. 5 – Egyptian media productions are widely consumed in the Arab region, and Mona Zaki, cast in the lead role, attracted a vast audience, as did Nancy Ajram, with the theme song. 6 – Albeit with delays, Global Production was able to produce a fiction series of a very good technical quality. Cons 1 – Comments highlighted that while the fiction was a good starting point, some topics would have benefit from more depth and context. 2 – Attendees to the listening groups organized by SMPL reported difficulties in following topics whose development was addressed in multiple episodes. 3 – Radio drama are less popular than TV dramas in Arab societies.
Conclusions and recommendations Overall Be 100 Ragl was a quality production with a strong entertaining and educational value, able to engage top stars and a mass-‐media audience in a broader discussion on the role of women in Arab societies. Suggestions linked to the storyline, the plot and the creative production received from the audience and from partners (radio stations, online followers and people attending the events organized in Cairo) include: • A consultation with 2-‐3 civil society representatives during the creative process will enable
the fiction to give more depth and context to some topics related to women’s issues, to facilitate the comprehension of the listeners.
• Use of visual media (TV drama or animated series, available on You Tube or similar channels). • Make episodes as stand-‐alone while connected in a storyline easier to follow.
• Use comedy rather than drama (SMPL). • Present country-‐specific topics. • Negotiate with actresses, actors and singers a more active engagement with the program
activities including releasing interviews, attend events and contribute to the promotion of the program.
• Post the fiction series on an open web-‐platform (i.e. Youtube or SoundCloud), adding a commentary to each episode. Multimedia platforms can create a direct relationship with the audience and possibly allow for online advertisements. Caution: mind the exclusivity required by some radio stations prior to a first broadcasting of the series.
Nancy Arjam recording Banouta B 100 Ragl © Jean Marie Riachi
Broadcasting of ‘Be 100 Ragl’ in radio stations, radio debates and audience outreach (Activity b.1 and c.1)
Radio Broadcasting Schedule Radio Station Starting
date Program Schedule
Were all episodes broadcast?
How many radio debates were organized?
Estimated audience share
Radio Nisaa, Palestinian Territories, 96FM, 96.2 FM, 92.2FM
March 1, 2014
Daily at 5pm with re-‐runs the day after at 12pm
Yes Following the re-‐run of each episode, Radio Nisaa interviewed experts and influencers to discuss the topics presented by the series.
Specific data on the audience outreach of the fiction series are not available (NA) -‐ Radio Nisaa estimates to have 9% audience share (127,000 of which 4,000-‐5,000 loyal daily listeners.
Radio Farah Al Nas, Jordan, 98.5FM
March 27, 2014
Every Thursday at 12pm with re-‐runs Fridays at 4:40pm
Not to our knowledge
NA-‐ community radio station in Amman
MEGA FM, Egypt, 92.7FM
March 30,2014
Daily at 12-‐12:30pm with re-‐runs the day after at 9-‐9:30am
Yes None NA – However, Mega FM has a wide geographical reach covering most of the Egyptian governorates and maintaining the number one position in Alexandria and largely followed in Cairo.
Radio Almahabba, Iraq, 96.1FM
April 1, 2014
Bi-‐weekly, Saturday and Thursday at 1:30 pm with a re-‐run at 7:30pm
Yes, with continuous problems due to the worsening of the security situation in Iraq
None NA -‐ Radio Almahaba broadcasts in a circle of 200Km radius covering the capital Baghdad and the outskirts of the six surrounding governorates: Diyala, Wasit, Babil, Karbala, Salah-‐Eldin, and Anbar with over 10 million inhabitants in the seven governorates
Radio Yemen Times, Yemen, 91.9FM
June 28, 2014 – first day of
Daily, 8pm and re-‐runs at 1:30am
Yes Yes, daily. The radio outlet was very active and engaged.
NA -‐ However, Radio Yemen Times’ signals reach 6 million people
Ramadan living in the districts of Sanaa, Thamar, Al Mahweet, and Amran.
Radio SouriaLi, Syria, internet
June 28, 2014 – first day of Ramadan
Daily, 7pm Yes Honey Al Sayed, presenter and producer of Radio SouriaLi, interviewed Antonella Notari Vischer to kick off the broadcasting of the fiction. In September 2014, she also interviewed 2-‐3 role models in the Arab region as part of the Be 100 Ragl program.
Online: Average measured during the month: 364 (based on 8 checks of the number of people online during the broadcasting) FM: Average estimated during the month: 12’800 based on a survey conducted on 36 people of which only one reported to listening to the fiction series.
Radio Aswat, Morocco, 106.6FM
June 28, 2014 – first day of Ramadan
Daily at 02:07 pm and re-‐run at 10.00 pm
Yes Radio debates organized on Saturdays and Sundays
NA – an important country-‐wide reach and broadcasting on 47 FM frequencies
Panorama FM, Saudi Arabia, 96FM and 102FM and Bahrain
June 28, 2014 – first day of Ramadan
Daily at 12:30-‐1pm
Yes None “The reach and share of audience was 10.1%, ranking as nr. 3 in comparison with other shows on other radio stations (total of 7)” email from the program manager of Panorama FM
AlexHits, Egypt, online
June 28, 2014 – first day of Ramadan
Daily at 2pm Yes None The radio show received a total of 1’931 ‘Likes’ and a total of 26’400 listeners (including the promo). On average each episode was listened to by 720 persons. The first episode was listened by 5,400.
Sound of Sakia, Egypt, online
August 10, 2014
Daily Yes Originally planned, but for logistics reasons it turned difficult to organize them
An average of 15+ listened online to each episode (53% male vs 47% female)
A map of the distribution of the radio series is enclosed in Annex 3. Although we do not have sufficient data to estimate the total listenership, considering the overall audience share of the media partners, we can confidently say that B 100 Ragl audience outreach was in the order of a few millions across the region. Radio Talk Shows might have engaged hundreds of thousands.
Highlights from radio debates The relationship was extremely positive with those radio stations truly interested in using the fiction series to promote women’s rights (and fight corruption) in their debates. In particular this happened with Radio Nisaa, Radio Yemen Times and Radio Aswat.
While Radio Aswat mainly facilitated a discussion with the audience on key topics of the fiction series (the relationship a couple, gender equality in society, at work and in the media), talk shows in Radio Yemen Times and Radio Nisaa hosted in-‐depth interviews of key experts and influencers (see annex 4 for a complete list) who could complement the information presented by the series, contextualize it and explain the subject in legal, academic, economic or sociological terms depending on the interviewee’s background. Both Radio Nisaa and Radio Yemen Times discussed several topics with their speakers including:
• Defining and combating violence against women in all its forms; • Gender discrimination in rights and duties; • Definition of sexual harassment in all its forms; • The role of women in media and in raising awareness on women’s rights in media; • Community awareness about the importance of women's rights, equality and gender
justice; • Awareness and legal counselling on women’s rights; • Women’s economic empowerment.
Radio debates encouraged the audience to express their opinions, views, and thoughts on the subjects presented. Comments were varied: the majority were positive in terms of encouraging gender equality and supporting women’s rights; and some were negative and supportive of a conservative view of the role of women in the society. The title also sparked a lively debate on the meaning of Be 100 Ragl (Worth 100 Men) and starting from this, on how, in general, societies values men and women.
Conclusions and Recommendations The security situation worsened in several countries associated to the project during its implementation and this directly affected the activities. However, despite challenges, the series broadcast in 9 countries (originally we planned only for 2) and in 10 radio stations with a good mix of community based media outlets and large/nation wide commercial radio stations, FM based and/or online. We estimate that the total listenership was in the order of a few millions while radio talk shows might have be followed by hundreds of thousands. Reports from activities and relationships with radio stations clearly show that the project was more impactful when stations had both a commercial and a social agenda and were willing to contribute to women’s empowerment with their programming. This guaranteed a meaningful reach that combined listenership with community discussions around the role of women in society. These radio stations were also more cooperative and willing to share information with us. On average, radio stations assigned to the series a score of 7.4/10. Each station suggested casting local actors and being more focused on topics related to their own country. Radio Yemen Times suggested including additional topics on women’s rights. All radio stations are interested in continuing the partnership if a second series is produced.
According to Radio Yemen Times: “The program provided a space to negotiate and address various topics. Positive feedback (from the audience) included that the idea is new, fresh, and very attractive. The topics discussed were interesting and important and helped the audience to see the issues presented from a different perspective. The audience liked the fact that the series and the discussion were informal and open to different views”. In conclusion, if Womanity intends to replicate similar projects using radio dramas, it can definitively rely on the network of media outlets that partnered on Be 100 Ragl. However, there is also potential and a recommendation to substantially increase this network by engaging a committed regional distributor and by increasing Womanity’s visibility, reputation and contacts in the sector. Be 100 Ragl could be still broadcast in a number of additional media outlets in the region and on a platform like Sound Cloud. A last consideration to be made is related to a possible change of media channel. If Womanity prefers to produce a new series that uses visual media, then a different relationship with these radio stations has to be explored. This includes evaluating with them the possibility and value to post videos on their websites (if any) and their availability to host talk shows and debates on the topics presented by a new video series.
Audience outreach via social media (Activity c.2) SMPL, led by Osama Alshurafa and Noora Sharrab, was our partner for community outreach and social media management. During the period of March 13 -‐ September 30, they actively animated the Facebook page (www.facebook.com/B100Ragl), the twitter handle (@b100ragl and #b100ragl), a blog (b100ragl.com), a soundcloud account (http://soundcloud.com/b100ragl), an Instagram account (http://instagram.com/b100ragl) and a You Tube channel (www.youtube.com/channel/UCDMrNJ5vohFx5OZ9FxokjpA). Data show that the majority of followers connected via the Facebook page, which reached 139’000 likes of which 53% male and 47% female. Details on the social media page outreach are enclosed in annex 5. Overall, the countries of origin of the people engaging with the Facebook page were the ones in which we were able to carry out outreach activities (radio debates and/or public events and listening sessions). The peak of new followers in late August is due to the announcement of Aya Mustafa as a guest speaker in one of our events in Cairo. She is a popular Egyptian comedian and make up artist and sponsored our event in her social media pages. By doing so she substantially contributed to increase our followers’ base. Twitter had about 650 followers.
Other social media did not attract a significant crowd of viewers with the exception of some videos on You Tube (for example the song of Nancy Arjam posted in our channel3 was viewed 4.8k+ times for our channel and the promo of the fiction series was viewed 2.8K+ times).
Some facebook post ©SMPL
Audience engagement on social media The social media team created and posted relevant contents ranging from videos and photos to statistics and questions to the followers on topics such us domestic violence, sexual harassment, early marriage and divorce, women in the workplace, and women and leadership. These posts were liked and commented by a different number of followers from very few to hundreds. Some posts were liked, shared or commented by as many as 700+ followers. In terms or relevance of topics for the different countries, SMPL noted that Egyptians commented predominantly on sexual harassment and domestic violence; while Saudis interacted more on the topics of domestic violence and women’s freedom. Jordanians highly commented on the issue of women in the workplace; and Yemenites on the issue of early marriage. Both women and men commented our posts: some of them defending conservative views of the society, others defending women’s rights and denouncing issues like gender inequality, insecurity for women, sexual harassment and a widespread difference in the way boys and girls are raised. Followers’ engagement and their comments and feedback were partly summarized in two articles (annex 6), jointly written with SMPL, and published on the blog. As an example, “some (followers) see the issue of domestic abuse as the consequence of living in an environment that promotes and exemplifies the use of force and intimidation as ‘the appropriate way’ to treat a woman. Others note that the way the community condones such violence determines whether it becomes openly accepted in the private and public spheres. Like
3 The song was also posted on other channels and received thousands of viewers
the elephant in the room, domestic violence affects many women globally, but is very often not addressed”, from one of the blog’s articles. Conversations on facebook offered also deeper thoughts on the difference in social role, freedom, education and responsibilities at home assigned or granted since the childhood to boys and girls and indicated these as causes of harassment, male dominance and ultimately of inequality.
Conclusions and Recommendations As confirmed by statistics, people in Arab countries and predominantly in Egypt are actively engaged on Facebook and enter into conversations and discussions easily and without restrains, expressing liberal and conservative views alike and interacting among themselves as well as directly with the page manager. Lively debates emerged on the main topics presented in the facebook page. Two final important considerations have been highlighted by SMPL: (1) as demonstrated by the post of Aya Moustafa, it is key to engage opinion leaders, stars and public personalities to comment, share, and promote our activities and messages on social media and this aspect could be further developed in a new phase of the project; (2) we could include in our communication strategy ‘action-‐oriented’ requests to our followers to gauge better the level of engagement on social media, for example, in the form of online campaigns (i.e. asking followers to post something specific in support of one of our statements), or flash-‐mobs.
Events and discussions organized by SMPL (Activity c.3.i)
Overview of events organized in Jordan and Egypt In partnership with SMPL, we organised 10 public events (see annex 7 for the detailed agenda) aimed at discussing the radio fiction topics. They included an event in the Landmark Hotel in Jordan, an initial press conference and 6 events in El Sawy Culture Wheel center, based in Zamalek, Cairo, and 2 events in Diwan Bookstore Cairo. Overall the events were attended by 480-‐490 people 59% of which were women and 41% men. Details on single events are described below, however it is worth mentioning that each event was unique and all of them received overall positive feedback from the audience. According to SMPL, the event with Hussain Alshafei (Harassmap), and the one hosted by the journalist Naglaa Emary were the most effective because they were very interactive, presented many new ideas and views, and were open to comments and questions from the audience. The event with Zeinab Sherif in Diwan Bookstore was equivalently effective for different reasons. It was very informative and the audience was enriched with a set of new skills (work-‐life balance) that they could apply in their private and professional life.
Jordan
A group photo with Ghada Saba after the event in the Landmark Hotel, Amman ©SMPL
On July 5, 2014, SMPL held a first listening session in Amman at the Landmark Hotel in partnership with Hopes for Women in Education (http://hopesforwomen.org ) attended by 20-‐30 people. Lina Khalifa, the founder of Shefighter talked about sexual harassment and self-‐defence and Ghada Saba, a Jordanian actress, director and producer and currently working on a documentary on domestic violence, spoke about both domestic violence and the role of women in Media using herself as an example. Snippets from Be 100 Ragl introduced the speakers. Egypt
A group photo with Aya Moustafa ©SMPL
SMPL organised an initial press conference and 6 events in El Sawy Culture Wheel center, based in Zamalek, Cairo, and 2 events in Diwan Bookstore Cairo following the availability of both institutions to grant their premises and technical instruments to discuss topics related to the role of women in Arab societies. The events in Egypt were attended by a total of 455 men (43%) and women (57%). Given the celebrity of Aya Mostafa, the event that she hosted in El Sawy was particularly successful and gathered 200 people. 32 people attended the event she hosted in the Diwan Bookstore. The other events gathered on average 36 people each. The typical audience in El Sawy was from the
low and middle class with the majority being between their early 20 and 30 with a few elders. The audience in Diwan Bookstore was from the middle-‐upper class. Each event was unique. Discussions and speakers were introduced by snippets from the radio series focusing on the topic of the event. Some guest speakers favoured a more interactive discussion; others gave more depth to the topic, including mentions of the legal context and traditional customs. Each debate enabled a diversified array of views to emerge and be discussed. All speakers were inspirational and added knowledge and information to the topic. Discussions were always free and healthy. Some topics were considered more relevant than others. For example, the discussions on sexual harassment sparked considerable interest, but also showed how controversial the topic is and how blaming the victims still prevails over exposing the harassers. The event presented a good balance of discussion and information. The event on domestic violence was extremely informative, but allocated less time to interaction and debate. However, at the end, there was the overall feeling that the audience knowledge on the subject increased significantly. The event with Aya Mostafa focused more on her personal story of success. She fought traditional customs in her family and pursued her career as a comedian and make up artist. Dr. Zeinab Sherif animated a debate on women and leadership using examples from the Quran as well as from real life to show unjustifiable differences in rising of boys and girls. The first are expected to pursue their aspirations, to study and succeed in their careers. The second are expected to sacrifice their personal aspirations for family’s duties. Naglaa Emary discussed the lack of women in leadership positions in Egypt and its reasons. She also discussed the lack of clarity in labour laws in relation to maternity leave, which makes difficult for employers and employees to understand their rights and responsibilities, and ultimately creates obstacles to women’s employment. The debate shifted in the direction of the freedom of choice for women. The overall conclusion was that there is no pre-‐defined path of empowerment. The important principle is that each individual, men and women alike, is granted freedom of choice. The Legal Prosecutor Heba Salah discussed the topic of early marriage per se and early marriage linked to human trafficking (cases of children married of to people abroad). Overall the audience felt that this problem was far less relevant in urban Cairo than in rural areas or other countries. Whereas, Aya Mostafa’s presentation at the Diwan Bookstore was overly polemic and not constructive, the event with Dr. Zeinab at the Diwan Bookstore was very successful. She gave a workshop on work-‐life balance attended by 50 people (with a 90% women in the audience).
Some of the speakers of the events in El Sawy center and Diwan Bookstore: from the left Dr. Zeinab Sherif, journalist Naglaa Emary and Prosecutor Heba Salah ©SMPL
Questions from the Audience in El Sawy center and Diwan Bookstore ©SMPL
Conclusions and Recommendations All the events were positively received, contributed to public debates on the role of women in Arab societies and increased the attendees’ knowledge on the issues discussed. SMPL felt that some events would have been more effective if the guests would have allocated more time to discussion, questions and comments from the audience. The recommendation is to find a good balance between three components: listening to the media production and initial feedback, expert information on the issue (e.g. from a legal or a human rights perspective) and open debates. Pre and post short questions to attendees on their opinions on key gender issues can also help gauge the influence of the debates on the audience. SMPL gave an overall score of 6/10 to project (in all its components) for its capability to engage the audience in fruitful debates. The score is largely due to the preference of the company in the use of social and online media (not radio); and to the suggestion to opt for short independent and funny videos (with a commentary to explain topics in depth and more seriously).
Listening groups and M&E reports (Activity c.3.ii and d) Oxfam Novib and its country-‐based offices were in charge of coordinating and funding their local partners to organize public listening and debate sessions and to produce a final evaluation report on the impact of Be 100 Ragl. The countries involved were Egypt, Palestinian Territories and Yemen. Recently (January 2015), Oxfam Novib involved also local organizations in Tunisia. In particular, Oxfam Novib in the OPTI funded its 2 long-‐standing local women’s rights partners to pilot the listening and evaluation of Be 100 Ragl within a program addressing Gender Based Violence. Listening sessions were organized between August and October 2014 in Egypt (Cairo and Menia) and in the Palestinian Territories (West Bank and Gaza). To date, we received reports from Oxfam Novib’s Palestinian partners while the report from Egyptian organizations is expected by March 2015 (see Listening groups and M&E report from Oxfam Novib and its partners). Activities in Yemen are substantially delayed due to a lengthy process of approval by the Government of Yemen. In order to enable local organizations to carry out their tasks a training workshop was organized in Amman in January 24-‐30, 2014.
Workshop in Amman
©Joey Ayoub
The workshop in Amman (Jan 24-‐30, 2014) hosted by Oxfam Novib and Soul City, trained organizations on how to organize listening sessions and debates, and how to monitor and evaluate edutainment projects. Michael Jana and Basimenye Nhlema from Soul City, a leader in the sector of edutainment, shared their experience in using media productions to fight gender violence and walked trainees through all phases of such a program from the creative production, to community outreach activities, creation of listening clubs, pre and post evaluation and techniques to conduct social studies and assess societal phenomena including the change attitude towards women’s issues. The training was attended by 16 participants including one to three representatives of each partner organization. They were: CEWLA and Better Life (Egypt), WCLAC (Palestinian Territories – West Bank), and All Girls Foundation for Development and Abs Development (Yemen). Wanda Grimaldi from Oxfam Novib in the OPTI (in charge of training the second Palestinian partner,
WAC, whose representatives, based in Gaza, were not allowed to travel to Amman), Valentina Di Felice (Womanity), Joey Ayoub (social media consultant) and Samia Kurdieh (Radio Farah Al Nas) also attended the training. Furthermore, Noha Abdelghani (Oxfam Novib Egypt), Katinka Moonen (Oxfam Novib) and Marina Awwad (Open Society Foundation Jordan) were present for a few days. The training faced some challenges, mainly due to the language gap that made any conversation between the trainers (and English-‐speaking attendees) and the Arabic-‐speaking attendees impossible without a translator. On the other hand, the trainees seemed energized to get involved in such a project and showed good competences in discussion facilitation and knowledge of women’s issues in their countries. During the training, Womanity organized a workshop on social media to encourage these organizations to actively engage on Be 100 Ragl social media pages. We noted that a couple of attendees interacted on the Facebook page (from their personal account) throughout the program duration. The workshop successfully provided the knowledge needed for the project implementation and both Soul City and Oxfam Novib addressed additional concerns, questions doubts from the organizations during activities. A key recommendation for the future is to use the workshop to familiarise local partners with the actual media production, and use some of the training sessions to design together the implementation plan, and M&E framework and plan.
Listening groups and M&E report from Oxfam Novib’s local partners After the training, local organizations were in charge of organizing listening sessions and send us a report on the impact of the fiction as a tool to advocate for gender equality in their communities. Local partners of Oxfam Novib in Egypt and the Palestinian Territories organized listening sessions and debates between August and September 2014. Based on the report of Oxfam Novib’s partners WAC and WCLAC in the Palestinian Territories, we can draw some conclusions on the impact of the radio fiction series.
Radio Listener Clubs organized by WCLAC
Radio Listener Club ©WCLAC During the second half of 2014, WCLAC organized 4 Radio Listener Clubs (RLCs) in 4 locations (Bethlehem, Hebron, Tulkarem and Jericho) in 40 sessions engaging a total of 60 participants (12 men) and 19 volunteers in charge of facilitating the clubs. Participants included University students and youth in Hebron, Tulkarem and Jericho and female community activities in Bethlehem. Radio Listener Clubs were preceded by 4 days of training of RLCs facilitators (in April 26 to 29, 2014) and a final workshop (August 16,2014) aimed at introducing the project, the radio series, and the functioning of RLCs. Topics identified for the discussion settings were: the patriarchal society; violence against women and sexual harassment; violations of women’s rights; familial support; familial problems; women and economic independence; women and decision making; women and law (divorce, personal status but also criminal law); the role of women in fighting corruption; the role of religion; the right to health and medical negligence; unemployment; the role of the media in affecting societal change and the political participation of women. WCLAC monitored activities in two ways: (1) they conducted pre and post quantitative questionnaires to evaluate how the perception of participants on the topics discussed changed at the end of activities; and (2) 8 collective and qualitative interviews to collect in depth feedback on the program. Quantitative results include: (a) while 36% of the participants stated in the pre questionnaire that ‘women who do not want to get married and bear children are not considered good women’, this ratio dramatically decreased to 8% in the post-‐ questionnaire.
(b) while initially 63% of participants stated that divorce is an equal right for men and women, this ratio increased to 92% at the end of activities. (c) while in the pre-‐test 46% of participants agreed that ‘violence against women is justified when it is done to preserve family unity’, this ration decreased to 16% in the post-‐questionnaire. (d) 54% of participants stated in the pre questionnaire that divorced women should work to become economically independent and should have an active role in the decision making process. This ratio reached 83% following the discussion on the radio drama. Qualitative comments from participants were divided into 3 main groups: (i) Opinions on the radio fiction series: “I loved the radio series. The issues it dealt with and the way of presenting them through a radio show made the whole thing very relevant. Traditional awareness raising tools are no longer exciting, but this new technique is great – it’s such an innovative idea. I found that my way of thinking changed through participating in the sessions and discussing the series. I liked the fact that Noha [the female protagonist] was very courageous.” ~ In-‐depth interview with Listener Club participant, Tulkarem. (ii) Knowledge of participants on the issues addressed in Be 100 Ragl: “I found out that women have a right to many things; she has the right to work; and she can play a role in all parts of life. The role of the woman is effective and dynamic. It also became clear to me how bribery always makes someone else worse off so that the person bribing can get what they want.” ~ In-‐depth interview with Listener Club participant, Bethlehem. (iii) Opinions and recommendations of the participants concerning the changes they would like to see happen locally and how to continue building awareness through Listener Clubs: “We should focus on all sectors of society, and try to represent the reality more accurately in the villages, cities and refugee camps … issues like women trafficking … and to take examples from the rural parts of society… For example we could address the issue of girls who go out and how they deal with difficulties…and to try to suggest an ideal model in order to encourage social change.” ~ In-‐depth interview with Listener Club participant, Tulkarem. WCLAC concluded that participants found that the meetings and the listening sessions addressed real-‐life topics and sensitive issues and created a safe space for deep and meaningful discussions and for sharing experiences and feelings in an inclusive setting. Recommendations include to expand the distribution of the radio drama and of RLCs in remote locations and on social media; to produce contents tailored to the Palestinian reality (maybe in a theatrical play); to engage more men in RLCs and to involve RLCs in planning and implementing outreach initiatives including advocating for legal reforms. Radio Listener Clubs organized by WAC WAC organised 4 listening clubs that have listened and discussed the series between September 20 and October 22, 2014. They were based in 4 different locations in Gaza. Each club comprised 15-‐20 participants (a total of 60-‐80) including media operators, graduates, law activists and representatives of local NGOs.
Listening sessions were followed by discussions on a range of topics presented by the fiction but adapted to the Gaza and Palestinian context including divorce, access to inheritance, children’s custody, violence against women, women and leadership, women’s rights at large and the concept of manhood and male dominance. Members of the Radio Listener Clubs reflected on the fact that despite women have the right of vote, often they accept to delegate men to the decision making position and rarely promote themselves in those roles. They also identified as a root cause of gender inequality, the role of old traditions in raising boys and girls. Finally, they highlighted how the access to media can help families and communities to enter in contacts with different ideas and social contexts. Radio Listener Clubs members created a facebook page and resolved to support each other in their outreach activities. There was a consensus among participants that listening clubs represented an innovative way to address women’s issues and represent a way to promote role models and gender equality.
Conclusions and Recommendations Oxfam Novib and the consortium Pop Culture With a Purpose were generally very helpful and supportive of the project. For example, Amy Bank founder of Puntos de Encuentro (a member of the consortium), provided an in-‐depth overview of edutainment theories and key elements to put in place to ensure the correct implementation of the project and the possibility to identify and measure results/impact of the project. As the report from WCLAC and WAC confirmed, there is a need to include different and fresh tools in promoting gender equality and fighting gender violence. Pre and post questionnaires conducted by WCLAC enabled to track and highlight the impact of Be 100 Ragl and of community discussions in changing societal attitude towards sensitive topics. “The series talked about realities of society and realities of life which we see on a daily basis. I have personally experienced some of the issues dealt with in the series…I discovered that women have many rights including the right to work, to make decisions and so on, but that certain social and cultural practices and perceptions present obstacles which may hinder our ability to enjoy these rights.” ~ In-‐depth interview with Listener Club participant, Tulkarem.
Part III: Final considerations Despite a few challenges, Be 100 Ragl was overall successful and went beyond its initial outreach expectations involving 15+ organizations in 10 Arab countries. As demonstrated by partners’ reports, it created positive synergies across the region; sparked positive debates around many topics related to the role of women in the Arab societies and reached a number of listeners in the order of a few millions. While the presence of the stars (Mona Zaki and Nancy Ajram), the fiction format and the captivating plot played a key role in attracting and entertaining the audience, conversations on social media, radio talk shows, public events and the listening clubs ensured information sharing, and provided socio-‐economic and legal contexts to the topics presented and an opportunity for opinion-‐sharing. The in-‐depth evaluation conducted by WCLAC on 60 participants to the Radio Listener Clubs highlighted a significant impact of the radio series and of the debates that followed on shifting the opinions and mind-‐set of participants towards a more favourable attitude on gender equality. Activities in the Palestinian Territories were possible thanks to funding from Oxfam Novib in the OPTI to the 2 local organizations (WCLAC and WAC) to pilot listening sessions and evaluate Be 100 Ragl. Comments from partners stressed also the efficacy of the tools as a fresh and non-‐confrontational way to address social and gender issues. Participants to activities, Facebook followers and the audience felt free and empowered to share their opinions even when it meant to express a conservative view thus opening the way to a dialogue even with the most conservative elements of the society. Finally, to build on this success and increase even more the outreach of similar strategies, our partners provided suggestions and recommendations that can be summarized as below. 1. Use multi-‐media and not only sound, and using web-‐based distribution; 2. Facilitate access to the plot with stand-‐alone episodes intertwined lightly in a storyline; 3. More “didactic” structure of the content tested with civil society representatives but without
loosing its entertaining value; 4. Mix local and regional (topics, stars and distribution); 5. The inclusion of action-‐oriented campaigns in outreach activities; 6. Involvement of actors and opinion leaders in the outreach activities; 7. When possible and available, a more rigorous collection of data to evaluate the impact of the
program (radio stations’ listenership; and any information available to partners that can enrich the knowledge on the program impact);
8. Embed the project in the overall business strategy for Radio Nisaa’s regionalization, i.e. Nisaa Network for a larger outreach and distribution.
Additional feedback include a further distribution of Be 100 Ragl or at least its publication in an open source website for further use and outreach maximization.
List of Annexes Annex 1: Contact Lists Annex 2: Script in Arabic and in English and audio files of the fiction Annex 3: Map of the geographical outreach Annex 4: List of interviewees during the radio talk shows in Radio Nisaa and Radio Yemen Times Annex 5: Social Media Outreach graphs Annex 6: Three articles published in the Be 100 Ragl blog Annex 7: Agenda of the events in Amman, Jordan and Cairo, Egypt Annex 8: Reports from partners: radio stations, SMPL, and organizations in charge of listening groups Annex 9: Press Review Annex 10: Financial Report