CFI launches the Makanati project aimed at strengthening the participation of women in the Iraqi and Yemeni media

With the support of the French Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs, CFI, the French media development agency, is launching the Makanati project, which aims to promote greater participation of women in Iraqi and Yemeni society and a better understanding of their concerns by the population.

More than 200 Yemeni and Iraqi journalists will benefit from a range of activities to raise public awareness of the importance of women’s rights and gender equality, to strengthen their professional skills to enable them to access positions with decision-making responsibilities and to promote the distribution of media content covering the challenges that women face.

The virtual launch seminar will take place on 28 and 29 September 2020. More than 100 women, in their roles as journalists, media and gender experts, activists, journalism students and representatives of civil society and government organisations, will come together to discuss the current situation facing women in the Iraqi and Yemeni media.

This seminar is also an opportunity to report on the latest developments and the difficulties encountered by female journalists in their professional environment, to highlight the current initiatives seeking to strengthen their role in the media and, ultimately, to propose a common vision of the position that women should hold in the media of their respective countries, on the basis of their specific contexts.

Makanati is a CFI project conducted in partnership with the Aide Humanitaire et Journalisme NGO (AHJ) the Iraqi Women Journalists Forum (IWJF) and the Studies and Economic Media Center (SEMC) in Yemen.