2015 SADC GENDER PROTOCOL SUMMIT AND AWARDS CENTRES OF EXCELLENCE- MEDIA INSTITUTIONAL APPLICATION

This award recognises progress in mainstreaming gender in the Media Centres of Excellence. Use this form to do your institutional profile as part of your application process. The application must be accompanied by evidence to support all application form.

ALL FIELDS ARE COMPULSORY.

Title / Women In Media Management
Presenter / Emmanuel / Nkomo
Who you represent / Radio Dialogue / Reporter/Producer
Sex (tick) / Male X / Female
Country / Zimbabwe
E Mail /
Cell phone / 00 263 773 932 049
  1. SCORE CARD AND EVIDENCE TABLE

Please fill in progress on your scorecard from last year, and update the evidence. Judges will assess the progress you have made. Their score will be final.

Please upload your completed score card on the online application in the section called supporting documentation. Please name your score card as follows mediahousename _country_scorecard_your initials_date.

Please use this section to upload evidence that goes with your scorecard*

MEDIA / EVIDENCE – UPLOADED. PLEASE RECORD FILE NAMES
Policy framework / EG Gender policy
Workplace / Eg Gender action plan
Editorial practise / EG Editorial guidelines with gender and diversity considerations mainstreamed; articles, publications, productions.
Advertising and marketing / EG Gender aware adverts
Management systems, monitoring and evaluation / EG Minutes of Board and Management; Gender committee; Editorial Planning meetings where gender is mentioned.

Resource mobilisation for work on gender equality

Amount local currency (specify) / Amount in Rand
Gender specific allocation – please state the names of the projects
Gender in mainstream projects (please specify)
In kind contributions to the COE process – eg venues (please specify)
Funds raised from donors or the private sector for gender work – (please specify)
TOTAL
  1. INSTITUTIONAL PROFILE *

COUNTRY / Zimbabwe
MEDIA HOUSE / Radio Dialogue
GENDER CHAMPION / Emmanuel Nkomo
GENDER FOCAL PERSON
Baseline (2011) / Progress – 1 – (2013) / Progress – 2 – (2014) / Progress -
3 (2015)
Audience / 1.4 Million / 1.5 Million / -
% women overall / 40 / 40 / 45 / 60
% women on the Board / 25 / 42 / 50 / 57
% women in management / 16 / 34 / 50 / 80
% women sources / 30 / 35 / 45 / 60
Score card / 83 / 79 / 92 / 93

Quote *

Please provide a quote from a senior official in the organisation reflecting what has changed in the media house. Please remember name, surname and designation.

“The organization has seen an improvement in the number of women taking up crucial decision making roles in management and other departments. We have a female Director who is supported by four females in the key positions of Finance and Admin Manager, Projects Manager and the Community Safety Local Expert who runs our human resources department too, the HR department is a crucial one which needs a patient individual who while ensuring the the workforce is at it's best in production, she also needs to put the employee's welfare is well taken care of.” – Mr Zenzele Ndebele, Production Manager.

Synopsis*

Sum up the situation of the Media House – how far has it come, how far has it progressed, what evidence is there of change. If possible begin with an anecdote that demonstrates this change. 300 words

In most Zimbabwean Media Houses Women have been relegated to the simple tasks of ‘copy and paste’ journalism such as fashion, personal health and fashion while male journalists have been seen to be more capable of tackling the challenging roles of hard-core journalism such as reporting on politics and crime. In 2001 Radio Dialogue emerged in Bulawayo as the future of alternative media in a society which since independence had been used to a one sided state controlled media landscape. Moreover, that one sided state controlled media had little space for women to take commanding and leading roles both as media practitioners and sources.

One of the main objectives of Radio Dialogue was and still is to open spaces for marginalized members of society to express themselves and participate in community debate through radio. Since its inception, marginalized members of Bulawayo and surrounding communities have found Radio Dialogue as a means through which they can express their concerns, mainly Gender Based Violence, Service Delivery and Health.

Having started off as a largely male dominated institution Radio Dialogue has up to date seen an upsurge in the active participation of women both at community and secretariat level. As journalists cover community news and produce documentaries more women than men are willing to participate and raise issues of concern in their townships such as transparent governance, health and service delivery, gender violence and issues of education and unemployment. This is evident in the daily radio programs produced by radio producer Thandazani Nkomo who speaks to women from around Bulawayo who articulate issues varying from politics to single parenthood.

Radio Dialogue has surely filled the gap left by mainstream media which focuses on the elite and political leaders while shunning the views of the ordinary woman and man on the street.

Presently Radio Dialogue has a female Director who as flanked by three women playing influential managerial roles in the institution. These are the Programs Manager, Finance Manager and the Community Safety Local Expert and Human Resources. A few years ago these positions were held by male figures.

Key objectives *

Please state the key gender mainstreaming objectives of the COE – 300 words

  • Equality between women and men.
  • Recognition of differences and inequalities among women.
  • Women’s rights are human rights.
  • Customary, cultural and religious practices are subject to the right to equality.
  • Affirmative action is a legitimate way of redressing structural discrimination.
  • Empowerment of women is key to gender equality.
  • Gender equality also involves changing the attitudes of men and engaging men as partners.
  • Women are entitled to have the right to security and to make decisions over their own bodies, including their reproductive rights.

Mainstreaming gender equality involves ensuring that gender is incorporated into all policies, programmes, laws and services delivered by municipalities.

Background*

Give some background - What was the situation before the intervention? Include evidence from leaders within the institution, and those served by the institution – 300 words

Women and men in Zimbabwe remain unequal in all areas of life – political, social and economic. These imbalances reflect in the newsroom where women still comprise the majority of secretarial and lower paid staff, and only a small proportion of management. They also reflect in editorial content. According to the Glass Ceilings: Women and Men in Southern Africa (2009) study, in Zimbabwe women constitute 13% of all employees in the media industry (lower than the regional average of 41%). The study also revealed that gender divisions of labour were pronounced with women predominating in advertising/marketing while men dominate in editorial, IT/Technical departments.

The Gender and Media Progress Study (2010) has revealed that in Zimbabwe women account for 16% on news sources, down from 13% in the 2003 Gender and Media Baseline Study. Women are often portrayed in narrow range of roles most often as fashion models or as victims of violence. The 2010 GMPS shows that women’s voices are still heard in soft beats which include gender equality, health and children while men predominate in hard beats like politics, sport and economics.

Key activities *

Please list at least five in bullet form – 500 words

  • Radio Dialogue has been thriving to give employees access to staff development programmes that equally benefit women and men.
  • Radio Dialogue informs or accepts requests from employees on internal and external mentorship programmes to ensure both female and male employees have equal opportunities to improve themselves and specialise in areas of their choice.
  • Radio Dialogue has been availing regular assertiveness training targeted at female employees but also open to male employees.

Editorial Practice

  • Radio Dialogue ensures that coverage is gender aware and sensitive. Reporters and Presenters are trained to always pick out the gender element, angle or theme to any topical issue, story idea or coverage of events involving the community. This involves
  • Radio Dialogue is now giving equal importance to the gender beat as to all other beats such as politics, business, economics etc

Representation

  • Radio Dialogue has greatly improved in giving fair and equal time to women and men’s voices in its news and current affairs programmes.
  • The radio station’s reporters, editors and producers are trained to probe the gender issues that may underlie stories.
  • Radio Dialogue ensures that women sources are consulted across the racial, class, ethnic and religious spectrum.

Resource allocations *

Amount local currency (specify) / Amount in Rand
Gender specific allocation
Gender in mainstream projects (please specify) / No specific funding
Amount contributed in cash or in kind by partner organisations (please specify) / No specific funding
TOTAL

Strengths*

What have been the main strengths e.g gender focal person; skills etc

Gender mainstreaming efforts have been made through the various programs at Radio Dialogue which focus on thematic areas such as Gender Based Violence, coverage of women in politics and women in rural communities and sexual health rights. This has been done through radio programming.

Challenges*

What have been the main challenges? How have these been overcome? E.g resistance 300 words

Radio Dialogue notes with great concern that of all the female sources who participate in news beats or radio programs, most of them raise issues to do with gender based violence, unemployment, poor health delivery, marriage disputes, divorce or social issues to do with witch-craft or some other issue. This shows that women are still yet to rise to the level of discussing and contributing to the development of the community and country as a whole on issues to do with the economy and governance of the nation. When it comes to discussing economic empowerment of women, journalists find themselves talking to male economists who may not fully and practically appreciate the role of women in home and national economics. The shortage of female experts in various fields where female experts are expected to represent women is one that still needs to be addressed.

Efforts have however been made to engage active women in the Bulawayo civic society to sit on panels at for a discussing women’s social and economic empowerment

Results

There has been a remarkable increase in the number of women participating in Radio Discussions via radio interviews where reporters go into the communities and gather women’s views on is affecting women. Radio Dialogue’s Community Diary segment has the highest number of women calling in to share their opinions on the topic being discussed. These are issues such as women and religion, Gender Based Violence, service delivery, economic empowerment of women and HIV/AIDS related topics among other issues.

Content *

Radio Dialogue has improved coverage by broadcasting on free to air satellite. The daily four hour broadcast ensures that 50% of the time is dedicated to community diary, gender issues, human rights and coverage of rural communities. All this segments are expected to open spaces for women’s issues to be discussed in the topics covered. The Community and Rural Diary segments tackle issues ranging from unemployment, access to information and the health delivery system especially for women who have the task of looking after children and their spouses.

The human rights segment deals mainly with discussing the constitution such. The program simplifies the provisions of the laws of the land such that the ordinary Zimbabwean may not what the law means and how it can best serve them. Members of the community may suffer injustice or may be unfairly treated by the authorities due to lack of knowledge of what the law says and how it should be applied.

Radio Dialogue being thrives on informing the community through radio and believes in broadcasting real issues faced by the community on a daily basis. This is seen through the categorization of programing such that all issues which are at the chore of the community’s concerns are brought out in the open through radio programing.

Women’s empowerment

How have women been empowered as a result of the COE work? – 200 words

Women in the community have attended focus group meetings, live broadcast meetings, road shows and community safety fora organized by Radio Dialogue. The Community Safety forum runs meeting discussing how best members of the community can create a safe living environment for men, women and children in the neighbourhood. Its main aim is to involve members of the community in reducing and ultimately eliminating internal conflict which in most cases leads to violence and crime. Women are mostly victimized by their spouses and other men in the community due to their vulnerability and inability to resist their physically stronger counterparts.

To help eliminate this violence against women and children the Radio Dialogue Community Safety Forum has helped communities in the most crime ridden areas (Pumula and Makokoba) to set up Community Safety Committees, some of which are headed by women and supported by men. Their task is to identify homes faced with domestic violence or criminal elements in the area so as to engage them and try to talk them out of engaging in violent activities. These committees are also trained on the procedures to take should there be need to report a matter to the police.

In instances where women cannot report their abusive spouse women have been taught and made aware of the responsibility as a third party to make a report of such a crime to the police.

Evidence

Please provide at least one quote from a woman beneficiary to support your statement on women’s empowerment. Please remember name, surname and designation.- 100 words

“Makokoba is the oldest township in Bulawayo and people around here are quite close as neighbours. But when it comes to issues of domestic violence people hesitate to intervene when a neighbour is a victim. The crime rate here is also high and everyone thinks all the thieves come from Makokoba. When the Community Safety Forum was formed most people were not sure whether to participate or not because some people think it’s politics. With time things were explained and we as women realised such an activity would reduce crime and domestic violence as we the residents will be taking part and implementing measures to deal with any form of crime or disturbances in the homes. The only way we as women can feel safe in our homes is when we know that everyone in the community is trying by all means not to be involved in crime or violence and also discouraging those who commit such crimes. “ – MaBanda, Makokoba, Community Safety Forum Member.

Men for change

Have men become more supportive of gender equality as a result of the COE work? Please give examples – 300 words

Male reporters at Radio Dialogue have shown support for gender balance and improvement in the representation of female sources by taking up roles that are traditionally reserved for women. In most media house women are relegated to reporting on health, fashion and style, social and light news and opinion columns on women while male reporters occupy the news desk. For the past year the institution has had a female news editor who before she was promoted to the position assisted the Production Manager and Editor with producing and publishing news and current affairs programs. At present three male reporters covers three crucial areas in the coverage of news and stories on women. These programing areas are Gender Issues, Community Diary, Rural Communities Diary and Human Rights Issues. All these key areas are covered and reported on by male journalists.

Evidence

“ We have a reporter who gathers program content from women in rural areas and produces hour long programs some of which outline the challenges women in rural areas face such as access to adequate health services, reliable transport and unemployment and food to mention a few.” - Anele Dube – Rural Media Officer

Please provide at least one quote from a man involved in the COE process to support your statement on the improvement of service delivery. Please remember name, surname and designation - 100 words

“Gender issues and lobbying for women empowerment is not the sole responsibility of women. As a male reporter have taken it upon myself to produce programs challenging women on what exactly they mean when they say they need to be empowered. It seems weird that a man should produce a program on the challenges women and girls face with obtaining sanitary wear that works perfectly for their individual menstrual system which varies from woman to woman due to one’s health and physical make up. As a reporter and a man, a father, a brother the knowledge l get from listening to women’s health issues enables me to tolerate and render support to my spouse, partner, sister or daughter should they be face with any such health challenges. I see women empowerment not only as achieving equality but also understanding the physical and social plight of the ordinary woman. Men should take a keen interest in the health of their female counterparts. It all starts with dealing with challenges within us, issues of healthy and fulfilling human existence before we go out into the offices and spaces of political and economic influence and power.” - Thandazani Nkomo, Reporter, Community Diary, Presenter, Midmorning Broadcast.