EU Development Cooperation in MENA : Mainstreaming Gender In Media Development. Case study: Tunisia

Sammanfattning: Following the increasing recognition of the media’s considerable potential to achieve gender equality and women’s empowerment, different media development interventions have been launched to fuel development cooperation efforts structured around a North-South binary. However, the dynamic interplay of forces behind these efforts puts the effectiveness and sustainability of their results into question. National interests remain hegemonic in the agendas of Northern donors, and challenges to progressive social change are indeed formidable. Based on pilot research, this project investigates gender strategies in media development initiatives funded by the European Union (EU) in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA). It interrogates the evolution of communication for development (ComDev) theories under a feminist lens in a regional context of development cooperation. Exploring the gap between the EU gender policies and practices in media assistance programmes in Tunisia, this project put forward a proposal for improvement. The findings are based on participant observation, in-depth interviews, and related work materials analysis. Despite the commitment of the EU to promote a transformative intersectional gender strategy in all its external actions, the findings suggest that having a gender strategy is not enough and that lack of methodological approaches in media development, weak commitment, and failure to engage with local stakeholders, are severe impediments to implementation. They show, therefore, that the gap between policy and practices has not been bridged. As such, the proposed model aims to liberate existing gender approaches inmedia development efforts from manipulative and restrictive policies – of donors and receivers – and overcome ambiguity and uncertainty in programming these interventions