Launch of UNESCO’s Women Make the News project grants
What is UNESCO’s Women Make the News Thailand project?
In Thailand, there is a striking gap between the actual contributions women make to the society and economy, and their participation and visibility in the media. The country has one of the highest percentages of women scientists (more than 50%) or women in senior corporate positions (37%).
But studies show that in the media of the region women are most commonly depicted as “victims”, “family figures” or “sex objects”, and Thai media are not an exception. A study that looked at one month of news coverage on Thai television showed that only 1 in 4 experts interviewed was a woman. A similar trend is observed for the public interviewed for their views on the news of the day: 75% men, 25% women.
Why should we worry? Because media messages have a powerful impact on our behaviours and values. More women voices in the media is essential to reflect and encourage the active participation of women in society.
The project Women Makes the News Thailand launched in March 2017 aims at addressing this gap by providing journalists with a direct link to the contact database of over 280 profiles of Thai women experts they are struggling to find as sources of information.
What are UNESCO’s WMN project grants?
UNESCO’s WMN project grants provide up to 5,000 USD to media development projects submitted by a media institution that meet one or several of the following objectives:
- To develop, expand or replicate the WMN Thailand project or database within the media house
- To train the staff of the media on gender equality and/or gender sensitive reporting
- To develop and adopt internal policies for gender equality either in human resources or editorial line of the media
Grants are administrated by UNESCO Bangkok Office and only media houses based in Thailand or Singapore are eligible to apply. Projects have to be submitted by 15 August and implemented between September and December 2018.
Who can apply?
Any media institution (newspaper, radio, TV, online media, etc.) based in Thailand or Singapore can apply to the grant. The media institution must be committed to promote gender equality policies in the media and the Women Make the News Thailand project through their communication.
How to apply?
The application form must be completed by a person authorized to submit the application on behalf of the media institution and must be submitted by email to ci.bgk@unesco.org by 15 August 2018.
As part of your application you may be requested to submit supporting documentation such as scanned copies of official letters, bank account details, etc. Submission of an application does not necessarily result in funding approval. Successful applicants will be contacted by the end of August 2018.
Reporting and publicity guidelines
At the conclusion of the project, the media houses beneficiaries of the project grants, are required to submit a final project completion report. Upon validation of the report, the institutions will be granted the use of the logo of Women Make the News Thailand on their website as a way to demonstrate their successful completion of the project and commitment to UNESCO’s gender sensitive indicators for media.
For further questions and inquiries, please contact Ms Oksana Iatsenko (o.iatsenko@unesco.org)
