Strengthening Media and Civil Society in Yemen

The immediate goal of the Engaging Media and Civil Rights Activists in Rights-based issues in Yemen (EMCAR) program, funded by the US State Department's Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor (DRL) is to increase the capacity of Yemeni media and civil society organizations (CSOs) to identify, address, and engage the public around social issues related to the rights of women and children. This will ultimately lead to the program's long-term goal of raising public awareness on these issues to empower citizenry to improve the status of women and children throughout the country. 

The program focuses on three main objectives to increase the capacity of Yemeni media and CSOs: (1) enhance the ability of national and local media to provide accurate and gender-sensitive reporting; (2) develop the advocacy and leadership skills of CSOs, with a specific emphasis on engaging the media to disseminate their messages; and (3) promote national and local media campaigns on social issues to empower CSOs to disseminate their messages.

By the end of the program, 450 journalists, editors, and producers will be trained in advanced reporting methods on social issues, 60 CSO participants will be trained to engage the media, and 8 media campaigns will be implemented by CSOs. In terms of long-term impact, EMCAR will increase the number of stories printed or broadcast by trainees, the perceived importance of reporting on social issues, and the number of participating CSOs with advocacy and media action plans, and the frequency of media coverage for CSO-led events. The program will report on additional indicators as outlined in the Performance Monitoring and Evaluation Plan.