Alliances

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.

Another multi-faceted benefit of regional partnerships are the synergies that are created on the national level stemming from local partners that bring different experiences and lessons learned to the fore. In this case, the Moroccan partner focuses on producing stories in multiple vernacular languages for community-level resonance and highlights the role of communitarian media as garnering legitimacy among listeners and readers at the local level. In Tunisia, the local office brings a large network of journalists, media professionals, and engaged civic organizations to the project that helps informing on navigating complex legal frameworks governing information access.