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Media

LESSON

Lesson Learned: Enabling Local Information and Media Literacy for a Better-Informed Society in Colombia

Projects should be designed to be adaptable, flexible, and sensitive to the context(s) in which they take place – especially when a project operates across territorially or culturally differentiated contexts. In this project, the use of intercultural and gender-sensitive methodologies such as differentiated accompaniment in Indigenous communities and allowing women to participate in sessions with children addressed different linguistic, cultural, and gender-related barriers. Additionally, challenges related to limited digital connectivity were mitigated through flexible delivery methods (print materials, WhatsApp and phone calls, recorded sessions).

UDF-19-870-COL_1
Project Partner
Fundación para la Libertad de Prensa/ Press Freedom Foundation
Project Description

This strategic four-year project works to increase the presence of local news in rural areas of Colombia, so as to encourage civic participation, sound governance and democratic discussion. Building on previous projects the grantee has implemented for UNDEF, journalism labs will expand from two regions to four, bringing more media and digital literacy training programmes to community leaders and groups, women and young people; support post-training local content production and communication to ensure at least one monthly product on local issues; and build an experimental media and digital literacy programme for local schools. The project is highly relevant in the Covid-19 world and its aftermath, where the fight against disinformation and for freedom of information, media literacy and online safety will be crucial; and where it will be essential to advance understanding of the specific impact of the crisis on women and young people, ensuring that responses uphold their rights and are inclusive of their needs.

Evaluation Date
August 2025
Theme
Country
LESSON

Lesson Learned: Enabling Local Information and Media Literacy for a Better-Informed Society in Colombia

Long-term sustainability and efficiency of a project is dependent on a building a strong network of partnerships with relevant actors such as civil society organisations, schools, and community media. Building and leaning on strong partnerships can allow projects to build on existing initiatives rather than act in isolation, duplicate efforts, and ensure longer-term funding and support from relevant actors. For example, in this project a Training-of-Trainers approach through partnering with academic institutions to implement a diploma in an academic setting could have ensured the programme’s continuation to train new cohorts of teachers and expanded its national reach. Additionally, supporting projects to develop independent income streams through partnerships with government agencies, philanthropies, or private actors could work to reduce dependence on stipends in the long-term.

UDF-19-870-COL_4
Project Partner
Fundación para la Libertad de Prensa/ Press Freedom Foundation
Project Description

This strategic four-year project works to increase the presence of local news in rural areas of Colombia, so as to encourage civic participation, sound governance and democratic discussion. Building on previous projects the grantee has implemented for UNDEF, journalism labs will expand from two regions to four, bringing more media and digital literacy training programmes to community leaders and groups, women and young people; support post-training local content production and communication to ensure at least one monthly product on local issues; and build an experimental media and digital literacy programme for local schools. The project is highly relevant in the Covid-19 world and its aftermath, where the fight against disinformation and for freedom of information, media literacy and online safety will be crucial; and where it will be essential to advance understanding of the specific impact of the crisis on women and young people, ensuring that responses uphold their rights and are inclusive of their needs.

Evaluation Date
August 2025
Theme
Country
LESSON

Lesson Learned: Enabling Local Information and Media Literacy for a Better-Informed Society in Colombia

The strategic selection of municipalities and/or participants can significantly increase the relevance and impact of a project. This project not only prioritized information deserts but focused on working with participants that demonstrated a strong willingness to engage, as well as strong embeddedness in community structures. The participants recruited reflected the diversity of local leadership that already held influence in their communities, including teachers, Indigenous communicators, women leaders, youth activists, and community organizers.

UDF-19-870-COL_2
Project Partner
Fundación para la Libertad de Prensa/ Press Freedom Foundation
Project Description

This strategic four-year project works to increase the presence of local news in rural areas of Colombia, so as to encourage civic participation, sound governance and democratic discussion. Building on previous projects the grantee has implemented for UNDEF, journalism labs will expand from two regions to four, bringing more media and digital literacy training programmes to community leaders and groups, women and young people; support post-training local content production and communication to ensure at least one monthly product on local issues; and build an experimental media and digital literacy programme for local schools. The project is highly relevant in the Covid-19 world and its aftermath, where the fight against disinformation and for freedom of information, media literacy and online safety will be crucial; and where it will be essential to advance understanding of the specific impact of the crisis on women and young people, ensuring that responses uphold their rights and are inclusive of their needs.

Evaluation Date
August 2025
Theme
Country
LESSON

Lesson Learned: Enabling Local Information and Media Literacy for a Better-Informed Society in Colombia

The impact of this project could be amplified through strategic communication and advocacy efforts. Stories that illustrate the transformative impact of local journalism on governance and community empowerment can serve as strong advocacy tools to expand the reach of local initiatives. Through collaboration with mainstream outlets or national journalism forums, the experiences of communities could even influence national policy discussions.

UDF-19-870-COL_5
Project Partner
Fundación para la Libertad de Prensa/ Press Freedom Foundation
Project Description

This strategic four-year project works to increase the presence of local news in rural areas of Colombia, so as to encourage civic participation, sound governance and democratic discussion. Building on previous projects the grantee has implemented for UNDEF, journalism labs will expand from two regions to four, bringing more media and digital literacy training programmes to community leaders and groups, women and young people; support post-training local content production and communication to ensure at least one monthly product on local issues; and build an experimental media and digital literacy programme for local schools. The project is highly relevant in the Covid-19 world and its aftermath, where the fight against disinformation and for freedom of information, media literacy and online safety will be crucial; and where it will be essential to advance understanding of the specific impact of the crisis on women and young people, ensuring that responses uphold their rights and are inclusive of their needs.

Evaluation Date
August 2025
Theme
Country
LESSON

Lesson Learned: Enabling Local Information and Media Literacy for a Better-Informed Society in Colombia

In contexts affected by conflict and/or institutional neglect, participatory methodologies should be incorporated into the project design. Projects that rely on top-down or pre-defined agendas risk rejection or superficial engagement, whereas participatory methods strengthen both social cohesion, and democratic outcomes. The project worked in municipalities with low social cohesion and high distrust towards external actors. The implementors of this project responded by holding preliminary dialogues with local stakeholders, enabling participants to define their own reporting agendas and more.

UDF-19-870-COL_3
Project Partner
Fundación para la Libertad de Prensa/ Press Freedom Foundation
Project Description

This strategic four-year project works to increase the presence of local news in rural areas of Colombia, so as to encourage civic participation, sound governance and democratic discussion. Building on previous projects the grantee has implemented for UNDEF, journalism labs will expand from two regions to four, bringing more media and digital literacy training programmes to community leaders and groups, women and young people; support post-training local content production and communication to ensure at least one monthly product on local issues; and build an experimental media and digital literacy programme for local schools. The project is highly relevant in the Covid-19 world and its aftermath, where the fight against disinformation and for freedom of information, media literacy and online safety will be crucial; and where it will be essential to advance understanding of the specific impact of the crisis on women and young people, ensuring that responses uphold their rights and are inclusive of their needs.

Evaluation Date
August 2025
Theme
Country
LESSON

Lesson Learned: Strengthening Independent Media in the Arab Region

Inclusive partnership strategies and local participation during project design and at the project start-up stage are critical for more precise and consistent alignment with contemporary priorities. Consistent involvement in project implementation by local offices and coordinators is necessary to mitigate contextual challenges and effectuate activity redesign, including bottom-up involvement in the development of training materials and knowledge-sharing. In this case, the presence of country offices has been critical in mitigating project delays, changes in collaborative work with local authorities, and relying on broader networks of civic and media actors to ensure timeliness and impact. 

Project Partner
Journalist for Human Rights
Project Description

The project aims to strengthen independent media in the Arab region so as to build greater accountability and better governance, by improving the working environment for journalists; advancing media freedom and accessible information and data; enhancing the capacity of freelance and full-time journalists to cover sensitive human rights stories; and improving journalists’ legal knowledge through strong working partnerships with civic actors. Project activities also incorporate responses to the Covid-19 crisis for journalists on the front line.

Evaluation Date
February 2025
Theme
LESSON

Lesson Learned: Strengthening Independent Media in the Arab Region

Inclusive project designs that rely on human rights actors from diverse professions and backgrounds have a high potential for engaging stakeholders and local authorities. In this case, inclusive project designs in Tunisia and Lebanon allowed to effectively work with local authorities towards understanding and addressing issues related to access to information and data-driven journalism.

Project Partner
Journalist for Human Rights
Project Description

The project aims to strengthen independent media in the Arab region so as to build greater accountability and better governance, by improving the working environment for journalists; advancing media freedom and accessible information and data; enhancing the capacity of freelance and full-time journalists to cover sensitive human rights stories; and improving journalists’ legal knowledge through strong working partnerships with civic actors. Project activities also incorporate responses to the Covid-19 crisis for journalists on the front line.

Evaluation Date
February 2025
Theme
LESSON

Lesson Learned: Strengthening Independent Media in the Arab Region

An alternative strategy to foster more impactful and sustainable practices among media and civic actors in multi-country projects is to focus on specific themes of common interest, such as climate justice and gender or minority rights (which figured prominently in this project) across countries. Not only would this allow for the design of catered trainings, skill-and-capacity-building activities that focus on specific human rights areas but would sustain the network of journalists and civic actors focused on common interests regionally and internationally. In this case, project participants from different countries have been able to share experience, lessons, barriers, and solutions resulting in productive media outputs.

Project Partner
Journalist for Human Rights
Project Description

The project aims to strengthen independent media in the Arab region so as to build greater accountability and better governance, by improving the working environment for journalists; advancing media freedom and accessible information and data; enhancing the capacity of freelance and full-time journalists to cover sensitive human rights stories; and improving journalists’ legal knowledge through strong working partnerships with civic actors. Project activities also incorporate responses to the Covid-19 crisis for journalists on the front line.

Evaluation Date
February 2025
Theme
LESSON

Lesson Learned: Strengthening Independent Media in the Arab Region

For journalism projects, access to information trainings and data-driven journalism capacity-building/sensitization workshops are essential. In all four project countries, project participants emphasized the increased difficulties in accessing information to engage in data-driven reporting to counter rampant disinformation and the positive impact of specifically catered initiatives to help access information and data.

Project Partner
Journalist for Human Rights
Project Description

The project aims to strengthen independent media in the Arab region so as to build greater accountability and better governance, by improving the working environment for journalists; advancing media freedom and accessible information and data; enhancing the capacity of freelance and full-time journalists to cover sensitive human rights stories; and improving journalists’ legal knowledge through strong working partnerships with civic actors. Project activities also incorporate responses to the Covid-19 crisis for journalists on the front line.

Evaluation Date
February 2025
Theme
LESSON

Lesson Learned: Strengthening Independent Media in the Arab Region

Flexibility in project design is key to successfully implemented projects in rapidly changing contexts, especially in cases of deteriorating security, war, and (previous) pandemic-related lockdowns. In this project, the Implementing Partner has been able to effectively and efficiently shift activity implementation by relying on synergies from previous UNDEF-supported activities, networks of journalists and civic actors, as well as in-kind contribution to ensure successful project continuity. 

Project Partner
Journalist for Human Rights
Project Description

The project aims to strengthen independent media in the Arab region so as to build greater accountability and better governance, by improving the working environment for journalists; advancing media freedom and accessible information and data; enhancing the capacity of freelance and full-time journalists to cover sensitive human rights stories; and improving journalists’ legal knowledge through strong working partnerships with civic actors. Project activities also incorporate responses to the Covid-19 crisis for journalists on the front line.

Evaluation Date
February 2025
Theme