Girls and Young Women Movement Content Creation Challenge 2023 (Deu date: June 25, 2023-CLOSED)

Are you a young Ethiopian creative looking for a platform to showcase your talent/content? NEWA’s Girls and Young Women (GYW) Movement Creative Challenge is here to provide you with just that.

Background

The Network of Ethiopian Women’s Associations (NEWA) is a pioneer women’s coalition of 35 member organizations, works vigorously to advocate for the enforcement of the existing gender-related laws, policies, programs and financing (GRB) and the formulation of gender policy, revision of national policies. NEWA’s goal is to reignite progress on gender equality by addressing the largest, least-recognized factor preventing women to reach their full potential. NEWA promotes a just society where women and girls have more choices across all stages of their lives, in economic, social and political activities, and where women voices are heard in decision-making about policies and budgets at all levels.

In Ethiopia, norms ingrained in the society are ones that generally discourage girls and young women from speaking about their rights and on matters that affect their lives. There are some youth/women associations, but they are often adult led and government initiated, established for political purposes.

Due to above-mentioned gaps in inclusion and representation, the existing laws, policies and government plans at the various levels as well as social norms fail to adequately reflect the perspectives of GYW. As such, the intended impact and the strategic objective of the She Leads Programme are perceived to be relevant to the Ethiopian context. 

She Leads is a joint strategic partnership between other consortium members, TdH and NEWA. She Leads brings together child rights organizations, feminist/women’s rights organizations, and groups led by girls and young women (GYW-led groups) and aims to increase the sustained influence of girls and young women (GYW) on decision-making in political spaces and the transformation of gender norms in formal and informal institutions.

Summary

To support the acceptance of positive social gender norms and increase the participation of GYW in decision making in both formal and informal institutions , this exciting challenge is open to all Ethiopian Girls and Young Women Right’s advocates creatives aged 15-35.  It offers a platform to showcase your skills in any artistic medium, for instance, through short stories/Videos, poetry, art, short films, and photography using social media platforms. Participants will be prompted to submit works that relate to one of Four important themes:

1. Girls and Young decision making in political spaces
2. Employment and Job opportunity for Young Women
3. GYW Sexual Reproductive Health
4. Gender Based Violence

Participants must showcase a creative link between Girls and Young Women and the listed themes. Submissions will be evaluated on their creativity, originality, and relevance to the chosen theme.

Objectives

The primary objectives of the GYW movement Creatives Challenge are to:

• Empower and inspire young creatives from all backgrounds in GYW movements
• Foster exchange and collaboration between young feminist activist and celebrate the unique voices and perspectives of girl and young women
• Promote She Leads Objectives such as of collective action of GYW, gender equality and create high level advocacy messages for the above themes

Themes

Participants are required to submit their entries based on at least one of the themes, while showcasing a link between GYW and the themes. Bonus points for submissions that include cross-cutting themes.

Girls and Young decision making in political spaces: Submissions can explore innovative ideas that solutions to Gender responsive political environments, GYW participation in political spaces

Employment and Job opportunity for Young Women (Information, skill development, access for GYW with disability)

GYW Sexual Reproductive Health: Topics such as Child and mother mortality, Awareness on SRH, access to family planning)

Gender Based Violence: Submissions can explore the impact of Child Marriage, abduction, FGM, Sexual Harassment, Abuse, Psychosocial support for survivors

Application process

Open to Youth. Female applicants are highly encouraged
Aged between 15-35 years old
A creative, photographer, storyteller, video maker or artist
Passionate about feminist movements and gender equality
Entries must be original and not published anywhere else

The participants must consent to having their artistic work published on NEWA’s and other She Leads partners Social Media pages.

A panel of selection evaluation team will evaluate the entries and select the top three submissions for each theme. The finalists will be invited to attend an award ceremony in June.

Evaluation Criteria

Entries will be evaluated based on the following criteria:

Creativity and Originality (25%)

Clarity and Coherence (20%)

Content focusing on Girls and Young decision making in political spaces (15%)

Relevance to remaining Chosen Theme (15%)

Overall Quality of the Submission (10%)

Intersecting identities and disability inclusion (15%)

The committee will be looking for submissions that demonstrate a deep understanding of the theme, provide new insights, and showcase the participant’s abilities to promote advocacy messages.

The winners will be selected based on the evaluation committee scores.

Prizes

The winners of the competition will receive prizes that recognize their creative achievements.

1. The first prize winner in each category will receive prizes worth 80,000 ETB
2. The second and third prize winners will receive prizes worth 35,000 ETB and 30,000 ETB, respectively.
3. The Fourth and Fifth place winners will receive 25,000 ETB and 22,000 ETB, respectively

All winners work will also be published on the NEWA’s social media platforms and other She Leads related platforms.

We are excited to see the submissions that will come from young creatives, and we hope this challenge will help to foster a vibrant and dynamic girls and young women led movements in Ethiopia.

The deadline for submissions will, June 25, 2023, at 11:59pm GMT+3. The submissions will be through NEWA’s email: newarecruitments@gmail.com or telegram address at +251 91 302 1695 / @tsedsol_N