The I Am the President TV Reality Show Final Narrative Report

Award number: DSH-4000002118 Grant Period: October 1, 2018 – March 31, 2020

Contact:

Hilde Deman Khadija Maalej Country Director Project Manager Search for Common Ground-Tunisia Search for Common Ground-Tunisia 3, Rue Florence, Mutuelleville, Tunis 3, Rue Florence, Mutuelleville, Tunis Tel: +216 98 743 803, [email protected] Tel: +216 24 222 666, [email protected]

I. Project Summary and Highlights On November 19, 2018, Search for Common Ground-Tunisia (Search-Tunisia) and the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ Stabilization and Humanitarian Aid Department signed a Grant Decision to fund “The President TV Reality Show: Empowering the Next Generation of Tunisian Democratic Political Leaders” for the period of October 1, 2018 to March 31, 2020. The overall goal of this project was to reignite Tunisian youth participation in inclusive democratic processes. This goal was to be achieved through the following two specific objectives and expected results: ❖ S.O. 1: Increase Tunisian youth’s knowledge of and support for democratic political processes at the local and national levels. o E.R. 1: Tunisian youth have an increased understanding of and support for local and national democratic processes. ❖ S.O. 2: Promote a conducive environment for youth’s participation in formal politics. o E. R. 2: Communities and decision-makers are aware of the importance of the inclusion of young women and men in local and national governance in Tunisia. Fostering youth engagement in the political sphere holds the potential to develop a lifelong engagement in the democratic process and sustain Tunisia’s democratic transition. Search-Tunisia, together with its partners, the Ma’an Network, Baramij production house and Carthage+ TV Channel, leveraged the role of mass media by producing and broadcasting a reality television program, called I Am the President, combined with a significant social media component and outreach campaign, to reach and mobilise youth and adult audiences across Tunisia. Throughout this project, a hundred selected youth participants (18-35 years old) have gained leadership skills; strengthened their knowledge of politics, business, and civil society; practised democratic governance; and increased their professional networks. The young leaders had the opportunity to participate in an exclusive youth leadership programme (the Academy) alongside prominent Tunisian leaders from the private sector, academia, politics, and civil society. As part of the project’s Theory of Change, Search instilled social norms on democratic governance and educated the larger audience on political processes, as well as triggered positive intergenerational conversations about democracy, inclusive governance, and youth leadership through the television show. Also, in order to connect youth to decision-makers and illustrate the importance of political participation of youth, Search-Tunisia, together with local civil society organisations (CSOs), facilitated community dialogues between youth and local authorities throughout Tunisia with a particular focus on rural and semi-urban communities, where many marginalised youths reside, using the television show’s episodes as an entry point for discussions. This final narrative report covers (1) the project key results, (2) the challenges faced during implementation, and (3) lessons learnt and recommendations for future implementation of similar projects.

II. Project Results This section seeks to present actual results towards the achievement of the project’s expected outputs.

Inception Phase: Output: One Tunisian broadcaster is selected. One telecom provider is selected to organise the SMS voter messaging. In order to ensure a smooth implementation of the project, the project team initiated an internal protocol for project start-up in the first five months. The identification of local production and broadcasting companies was one of the most challenging steps the team faced in this phase. Search-Tunisia and Ma’an, as the leader of the selection process, planned meetings with 10 local production companies and 5 broadcasters to analyse the production and broadcasters’ landscape in Tunisia, and assess the extent to which there was an interest in media for social change programming. After an exhaustive mapping, and based on a clear set of criteria, the project team agreed on Carthage+ as a broadcaster and Baramij as its production company, based among others on their neutrality and non-political affiliation. The broadcaster provided the SMS voting system. The contract agreements between Ma’an and both companies were signed on March 20, 2019.

Other steps were taken during the inception phase to maintain clear and coherent communication channels between all partners involved and to plan accordingly for the upcoming activities. For instance, different training workshops took place for the management and production teams, including on Search’s Common Ground Approach, on Do-No-Harm, and on Common Ground Media. The project team held multiple meetings with 60 representatives of civil society organisations (CSOs) with expertise in elections, democracy, peacebuilding, women’s rights, and youth engagement. The purpose of these meetings was to develop a database of potential national judges, trainers, and facilitators, political parties, guest speakers, and media to be leveraged during implementation. Six courtesy visits to major political parties and government bodies - including the office of the President of the Republic - were conducted to give an overview of the project, explain the project’s political neutrality, and gain their support for the program. The objective of liaising with public and private institutions was to secure their support in the implementation phase, especially for the outreach challenges. From the onset, the Search team ensured close coordination and regular communication with key staff at the Dutch Embassy to keep them abreast of major developments and seek their guidance for important decision points. Activities and Results Under Objective 1: “Increase Tunisian youth’s interest in and knowledge of democratic processes” 1.1 Participants Recruitment and Selection: Output: One Recruitment Campaign launched through 6 radio and TV spots and on social media (Facebook, Instagram) to recruit participants to be aired 1,000 times over 2 months. All applications are reviewed, 5 regional auditions are organised, and 100 candidates are selected. A digital recruitment campaign was launched on March 30, 2019 to call for young people (18-35) to showcase their innovative ideas and leadership abilities. 200 TV spots and 135 radio spots were aired during the recruitment campaign. The team targeted community radios to reach out to a maximum number of youth. By the deadline for applications (June 15, 2019), the team had received 1,971 applications from the 24 Tunisian governorates and with a female

3 representation of 38.1%. Auditions took place from June 23 to July 7, 2019 in eight (instead of five) regions (Tunis, Manouba, Gafsa, El Kef, Sousse, Sfax, Medenine and Sidi Bouzid) to provide more chances to youth from interior regions to participate.

After the pre-selection phase, a total number of 292 young Tunisians (176 men and 116 women) presented themselves to the jury across all auditions. Jury members directly accepted 86 candidates (51 men, 35 women). The jury also decided that 27 candidates should be added to the waiting list (12 women, 15 men). The waiting list was used to ensure gender and regional balance, in case candidates could not manage to make it to the Academy, or in case appropriate and suitable candidates could not be identified in the following auditions. The jury members and project team managed to ensure an open and transparent selection process⁠—from the pre-selection process on through the auditions⁠—that provided equal opportunities for all young people. The profiles were varied according to gender, age, region of origin, educational level, employment status, religious orientation, political ideology, sexual orientation, and so forth.

1.2 Selection of Judges and the Advisory Board: Output: 3 judges selected to contribute to choosing the winner of the reality TV show. A pool of 10-12 Tunisian experts from various sectors identified and selected.

A pool of carefully selected Tunisian experts (23 in total, 11 men and 12 women) served as the Advisory Board for the project starting from April 2019. Their participation ensured buy- in from the private and political sectors, the media, academia, arts, and civil society and helped broaden the reach of the show by mobilising different constituency groups. The Advisory Board advised on the production of I Am the President, including its content, audience, challenges, outreach and jury members. Several of the Board members would also be involved as trainers in the Academy.

A preliminary list of jury members' names was put together by the project team, with inputs from the Advisory Board, based on a clear set of criteria, including: (1) expertise in journalism, political sciences, or other relevant fields; (2) strong media, debate and communication skills; (3) strong knowledge of Tunisian politics, laws and current affairs; and, (4) well-known among the larger public. From the list of potential names, the team managed to get the confirmation of three jury members who met all the criteria and were available to travel to the different Tunisian regions to judge the auditions.

1.3 Development of Youth Leadership Programme: Output: One training curriculum developed

A training programme was designed for 100 candidates in the form of a bootcamp - gathering them all in one place for 10 days - with a tailor-made curriculum developed based on consultations with the participants to best fit their needs. The following topics were part of the programme: Communication, Leadership and Values, Human Rights, Governance, Rule of law, Political Map of Tunisia, Common Ground Media, Protocol and Diplomacy, Project Management, Presidential Debate Skills, and Psychological Support. The programme consisted of sessions composed of discussion panels, simulations, and activities that allowed participants to better analyse and practise their skills and deal with various situations. The evenings allowed for teambuilding and social gatherings with the participants, the facilitators, and the project team.

1.4 Youth Leadership Programme: Output: Five three-day training sessions held for 100 candidates.

Instead of planning five three-day training sessions for the 100 candidates, the project team changed the training into a ten-day bootcamp named the Academy. One of the goals of the Academy was to build relationships between Tunisian experts and youth. In accordance with this goal, Search’s team managed to invite 12 Tunisian experts in elections, foreign affairs, and local governance to participate in discussion panels with the candidates and talk about their experiences in their respective fields. 82% of the candidates believed that the Academy had added to their knowledge enormously and shifted their personal aspirations. The major added value to participants through the Academy was participating in political life (78%). The sessions provided during the Academy had contributed to the improvement of candidates’ skills and capabilities to be engaged in the political sphere. The Academy facilitators were perceived as well-selected and enhanced the effectiveness of the learning process.

The Academy was followed by an audition to select the 24 candidates who would proceed to participate in the prime episodes. Upon drawing a topic randomly among various topics that were inspired from the training materials and the constitutional presidential duties, the candidates were requested to give a two-minute speech to the jury about an initiative that s/he would implement related to that topic, or about how they perceived the topic. The pre-recorded audition episodes were broadcasted by August, when there was a real presidential debate that was broadcasted on TV. The fact that real elections were taking place in concomitance with the show contributed to increasing the audience's attention and generated a key partnership with the Munathara Initiative1.

Activities and Results Under Objective 2: “Promote a conducive environment for youth’s participation in formal politics”.

2.1 Youth Outreach Challenges (24 participants): Output: 28 Youth Outreach Challenges implemented and recorded.

Once participants had gone through the Academy, the 24 remaining youth candidates started the outreach challenges. Each week candidates faced a different outreach challenge to build leadership skills, increase their knowledge of government, and publicly raise awareness about community needs and democratic processes. They learnt about the inner workings of a president, a minister, a governor, and about the issues that matter most to their constituencies. They also developed a campaign strategy and projects based on the ministries’ strategies, and articulated their public policies and principles. 23 different outreach challenges were recorded and broadcasted, tackling real-life issues in a transparent manner. Five finalist candidates designed five (5) youth-led local initiatives meant to be implemented as part of the project with the close collaboration of local authorities and support from Search. However, the initiatives could not be implemented due to delays in preparations and planning, especially in terms of securing approvals from relevant public institutions and coordinating with supporting local CSOs.

1 The Munathara Initiative is an independent civil society group that was founded in 2012. It has organized 38 televised debates broadcast from six MENA countries to the region. In seven years, Munathara has trained over 10,000 youth from 13 countries in the Arab world on the skills of democratic debate. Munathara is the leading implementer of the official Tunisian presidential and legislative debates.

During this phase of the project, youth managed to understand the important role of collaboration with local authorities, while people in key roles understood the crucial role of youth in developing innovative projects. This was emphasised during the candidates’ participation in the International Day of Democracy, during their meetings with decision-makers, as well as during their participation in the Munathara Initiative’s show “99 Days: the Parliament” in which seven I Am the President candidates asked questions to the real elected candidates.

2.2 Elimination Rounds (16 participants): Output: 36 TV episodes of The President produced and broadcasted (including 8 live shows). A total number of 37 TV episodes of I Am the President were produced and classified into three different categories: 1) recorded and edited (auditions, Academy, and related results episodes); 2) As Live (the primes and related results episodes); 3) Live (the final prime). Seven episodes using the technique of “As Live” and one live episode were produced, instead of 8 full live episodes. The decision was made in collaboration with the production partners to avoid any potential inconvenience or negative live reaction from candidates. All the mentioned episodes were broadcasted on the Carthage+ TV Channel at prime times. The prime time airing increased audience engagement and was complemented by live streaming on both the Facebook page of Carthage+ and the TV show’s official Facebook page. 69% of viewers surveyed in the independent final project evaluation thought that the I Am the President TV show was a good or excellent programme. The final prime reached more than 1,100,000 viewers and it was broadcasted live on Carthage+, the Palestinian TV channel Ma'an Network, and on the social media channels of the show with simultaneous translation. In order to increase youth engagement with the show, the project team decided to produce a theme song that served as an anthem and added a specific visual and sound identity to the show. The videoclip of the song features the 24 final candidates. The song reached almost 2,000,000 viewers and interactions on the different social media platforms. It was produced during the second round of the official presidential campaigns and both presidential candidates chose the project song theme for their campaigns.

2.3 Campaigns (3 participants): Output: Three national campaigns conducted (one by each young finalist). After the challenges, three finalists (two males and one female) made it to the final live prime episode. Before and during the episode, the candidates implemented an online presidential campaign to boost their social media presence and win the support of followers. In addition, within the pre-final episode period, they received training on debating, public speaking and protocol from the Munathara Initiative. On November 24, 2019, the final live episode was filmed and broadcast. At 10:30 pm, when the SMS voting stopped, the Tunisian people chose Mehdi Ben Ameur as the fictional elected President of the Republic of Tunisia. An interesting debate between the three finalists took place where they presented their electoral program to the Tunisian public and debated on a range of topics such as national security, foreign policies, the issue of environment and sustainable development, the Palestinian issue, and other important topics. This aligned with the real

presidential debate that took place in 2019 between presidential candidates Kais Said and Nabil Karoui.

2.4 Broadcast and Social Media Engagement Strategy: Output: A social media engagement strategy is developed by month 3 of project implementation, based on the findings from the baseline assessment.

From the start of the recruitment campaign, social media engagement represented a strong component of the project’s implementation. A social media engagement strategy was developed in the early stages of the project that led to the creation of Facebook, Instagram, YouTube and Twitter profiles for the TV show. These channels were used to disseminate both awareness-raising content regarding political processes in Tunisia and promotional content for the TV show. In total, the programme’s social media channels reached almost 50,000 users, with Facebook representing the most effective channel with over 46,000 followers. As found by the independent final project evaluation, the project’s social media component generally enhanced programmatic effectiveness in the achievement of the project’s second objective. The Facebook post with the strongest impact was a video that was posted on April 25, 2019. The video had over 128,000 views, over 1,400 likes, and 2,428 shares. It must be noted that the TV show made a total of 53 media appearances in news articles, radio and TV interviews with different national and international media outlets.

2.5 The President Community Dialogues: Output: 5 dialogues per selected communities (6 communities, two in the southern region, two in the interior central regions, two in the northern regions of Tunisia).

In partnership with local CSO International Institute of Debate (IIDebate), Search conducted in total 30 community dialogue sessions across the six regions of Manouba, Sfax, Gafsa, Gabes, Kasserine, and Jendouba (five dialogues per region). The dialogues gathered in total 485 participants (52% were women) whose age ranged from 17 to 60 years old. The community dialogues worked on promoting democratic consolidation and youth leadership at a local level. The dialogues discussed the challenges faced by youth within their respective communities. At the same time, they identified opportunities within each community that can positively contribute to the advancement of the national democratic process. The dialogues engaged community members in discussions to develop ideas and recommendations for the development of their region.

III. Impact

In addition to the successful achievement of its intended outputs, the following successes in terms of impact and achievement of intended outcomes emerged from the final project evaluation:

• The majority of candidates but also viewers confirmed learnings and skill development as a result of the project. 59% of the TV show’s candidates agreed (completely or somewhat) that they know more about democratic political processes at the local and national level as a result of the project. Furthermore, a total of 83% of surveyed viewers assert that they (strongly) agree that the show increased their knowledge of the political and decision-making process. In addition, close to 80% of viewers (strongly) agree

that the show encouraged them to reflect and get informed on the social issues and challenges that were discussed. The surveys also show that most candidates and viewers (partly) believe that changes produced by participating in the programme or watching the show will last in the long term. • Programmatic impact was highest on the participating youth, as candidates believe that the project has aided them in increasing youth’s understanding of political processes and tackle existing stereotypes including those related to gender. At the same time, more than a third of the participants agree completely or somewhat that, as a result of the project, they feel more part of the political process than before. As a result of their project participation, close to 30% of TV show candidates took part in a local initiative, including online awareness campaigns for gender-based violence, election campaigns, cleaning campaigns and campaigns to raise awareness of the novel Coronavirus. • A positive unexpected outcome that has the potential to boost the sustainability of the programme is represented by the relationship born between candidates and the possibility of it to lead to long term actions. In fact, 64% of candidates have stayed in touch with other candidates of the programme, and 60% confirmed that their relationship with other candidates has led or might lead to concrete community actions.