EOI: Supporting Media Initiatives in Western Region of Afghanistan

The takeover of Afghanistan by the Taliban has profoundly impacted the media sector – a new media landscape is emerging where women and gender perspectives are missing. The Taliban has issued various rules aimed at removing media freedoms and excluding women from public broadcasting comprehensively, including their faces, perspectives, and their needs.

Afghan women media workers who have found ways to continue their vital work in country have requested the internationally community to support them. Their specific recommendations include:

• Support the new cadre of journalists in the country who have joined and/or run media outlets.
• Ensure financial and livelihood support for women journalists to apply the training and experience gained over the past 20 years within the parameters of the current situation.
• Sustain media outlets struggling to survive financially, by means of funding support.
• Improve opportunities for women journalists to continue working and sharing their experiences in their own words by ensuring they have the skills, knowledge, and resources to work safely and make the shift where necessary to online reporting.

In this context, UN Women Afghanistan is seeking to identify and scope out what women media outlets remain in the western region in Afghanistan with the aim to find ways to support their vital work safely given the ecosystem of restrictions facing them. This includes a range of media – including radio, community-based, and digital.

Required Services/Results 

• The Expressions of Interests (EOI) is accepting three types of work:
  • Area 1: Supporting women in radio and TV stations
    • This area of work focuses on supporting women-led/owned or gender-focused radio stations that operate from the western region. Applications should include the following information:
      • Name of radio station
      • Radio frequency
      • Broadcasting location(s) (this should be in the Western Region, Provinces of Herat, Farah, Badghis, and Ghor)
      • Year of establishment
      • Link to website/any digital presence (if applicable)
      • Partnerships with other media outlets/organizations (if applicable)
      • Breakdown of radio staff (disaggregated by sex and function)
      • Current activities (including type of content produced and broadcasted)
      • Proposed activities for 1 year
      • Training needs
      • How the radio station is navigating restrictions and challenges impacting the media sector and women
  • Area 2: Supporting women and community-based media initiatives
    • This area of work focuses on supporting community-led media initiatives run by women for women. Applications should include the following information:
      • Name of community-based initiative
      • Location (s) of initiative (this should be in the Western Region, Provinces of Herat, Farah, Badghis, and Ghor)
      • Year of establishment
      • Link to website/any digital presence (if applicable)
      • Partnerships with other media organizations or women’s organizations
      • Breakdown of staff (disaggregated by sex and function)
      • Current activities (including type of content produced)
      • Proposed activities for 1 year
      • Training needs
      • How the community-based initiative is navigating restrictions and challenges impacting the media sector and women
  • Area 3: Supporting women-led digital media initiatives
    • This area of work focuses on supporting digital media initiatives run by women for women. Applications should include the following information:
      • Name of digital media initiative
      • Online platforms used
      • Year of establishment
      • Link to website/any digital presence
      • Partnerships with other media organizations or women’s organizations
      • Breakdown of staff (disaggregated by sex and function)
      • Current activities
      • Proposed activities for 1 year
      • Training needs
      • How the digital media initiative is navigating restrictions impacting the media sector and women

Who can apply?

• Technical/functional competencies required;
  • Active work in Afghanistan, specially western region (provinces of Herat, Farah, Badghis, and Ghor)
  • Women-led/owned and/or majority (over 51% women staff)
  • Ways of working in current context and navigate restrictions impacting media and women
• UN Women will prioritize applications:
  • Submitted by civil society organizations/entities legally established and operating in Afghanistan;
  • Submitted by women-focused organizations focusing on media operating from the western region of Afghanistan;
  • Directly benefitting Afghan women and girls, with an emphasis on marginalized women and girls at the intersection of multiple forms of discrimination (i.e. rural women and girls, women and girls with disabilities, women-headed households, women and girls living in extreme poverty, etc.);

For more information, visit UN Women.