The I Am the President TV Reality Show Narrative Quarterly Report

Award number: DSH-4000002118 Reporting Period: October 1 – December 31, 2019

Contact:

Hilde Deman Khadija Maalej Country Director Project Manager Search for Common Ground- 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]

Acronyms

Search Search for Common Ground Search-Tunisia Search for Common Ground-Tunisia Ma’an Ma’an Network CSO Civil society organization NGO Non-governmental organization INGO International non-governmental organization M&E Monitoring and evaluation ToRs Terms of Reference MENA Middle East & North Africa CGA Common Ground Approach Munathara The Munathara Initiative IIDebate The International Institute of Debate ToT Training of Trainers

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Contents

1. Executive Summary 3 2. Activities of this Quarter 4 2.1 Finalization of Broadcast Episodes 4 2.2 Outreach Challenges 5 2.4 Training and capacity building for the candidates 10 Protocol and Diplomacy 10 Presidential Debate 10 Project Management 11 2.5 Community Dialogues 11 2.6 Media and Social Media Outreach 13 Social Media 13 Facebook 13 Instagram 16 Twitter 16 YouTube 16 Media Coverage 17 3. Monitoring and Evaluation 18 4. Challenges and Lessons Learned 19 5. Next Steps 19 6. Annexes Error! Bookmark not defined.

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1. Executive Summary 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 November 19, 2018 to March 31, 2020. The overall goal of this project is to reignite Tunisian youth participation in inclusive democratic processes. This goal will 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 partner, the Ma’an Network, is leveraging 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 mobilize youth and adult audiences across Tunisia. By the end of this project, a hundred selected youth participants (18-35 years old) will have gained leadership skills; strengthened their knowledge of politics, business, and civil society; practiced democratic governance; and increased their professional networks. The young leaders will have had the opportunity to participate in an exclusive youth leadership program alongside some of the most prominent Tunisian leaders from the private sector, academia, politics, and civil society. As part of the project’s Theory of Change, Search will instil social norms on democratic governance and educate the audience on political processes, as well as trigger 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 CSOs – will facilitate community dialogues between youth and local authorities throughout Tunisia with a particular focus on rural and semi-urban communities where many marginalized youths reside, using the television show’s episodes as an entry point for discussions.

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During this quarter, Search-Tunisia completed the eliminatory phase of the televised reality show I Am the President, which included the five remaining prime episodes, the outreach challenges, and the final live episode. The communications team continued implementing the social media strategy and working closely with our broadcasting partner + to increase engagement on social media. The Search M&E team also initiated the process to contract external consultants for the independent final project evaluation.

2. Activities of this Quarter

2.1 Finalization of Broadcast Episodes During this reporting period, a total number of 16 episodes were broadcast, including five produced prime episodes, five “behind the scenes” episodes, five episodes announcing the results, and one final live prime.

Figure 1: Production and broadcast dates of remaining TV show episodes

During this reporting period, the steering committee, in collaboration with jury members and the host of the show continued to meet. These members were highly involved throughout the production phase, as they became part of the project and the project impacted on their brand and image. It was an opportunity for them to learn more about the candidates and the outreach challenges taking place during the week. The workshop-style meetings were crucial for the

4 planning of each episode, especially in the days leading to the prime episodes and the outreach challenges. In these workshops the host of the television show and the host of the “behind the scenes” episodes contributed heavily to the planning of the episodes. Assessment meetings also took place on a daily basis during the outreach challenges and post-production of prime and results episodes. This aimed at assessing the outreach challenges and filming days with the candidates, and evaluating the progress to guarantee the smooth running of the production. Program details, ranging from decoration and lighting to participants’ wellbeing and possible as well as adequate voting methods, were always discussed jointly and monitored closely.

2.2 Outreach Challenges In this phase of the project, Search-Tunisia selected different types of outreach challenges. A preliminary list was developed after consultations with the chief editor of the television show, the advisory board members, NGO representatives, and the network that Search established during the initial outreach meetings with jury members.

The choice of the outreach challenges was challenging due to the difficulty of getting authorizations from municipalities, embassies, and ministries, to hold meetings, film and be filmed for the show.

Once participants went through the elimination process with the first two primes, the remaining 16 youth candidates started to be challenged in the prime episodes with outdoor challenges. Each week candidates were introduced to a different outreach challenge to build leadership skills, increase their knowledge of government, and publicly raise awareness about community needs and democratic processes. They learned about the inner workings of a president, a ministry, ambassador, and about the issues that matter most to their constituencies. By the end of the last prime, the three finalists developed an online campaign strategy based on the Tunisian population’s needs and experts’ advice, and articulated their public policies and principles. The outreach challenges were developed by Search and the production team as a result of findings from the baseline assessment, guidance from the Advisory Board and jury members, and accessibility from institutions in terms of filming and authorizations.

During the outreach challenges, candidates learned the role of each position and the process related to each position. Afterwards, in the studio, participants were asked about the lessons learned from the experience and how they can improve the situation or implement local initiatives. After discussions with jury members and the production team, Search set the selection criteria for the elimination process during the final rounds of the program. There were basic and common criteria for all episodes that jury members were following, such as the ability to communicate in a coherent and methodological manner, respect for timing, integration with the team, and gender and regional

5 balance, which were considered where possible to ensure integrity. Meanwhile, some episodes were also based on specific criteria, for example the originality of candidates’ proposed initiatives.

In this reporting period, 16 candidates managed to move to the next step in the television show episodes, which continued until the final live episode with three finalists.

The following outreach challenges were implemented as part of the show:

Social Initiative

16 candidates from different Tunisian regions (El Kef, Tunis, , , Monastir, Gabes, and ), in collaboration with local civil society organizations in the mentioned regions, tried to address the main problems faced in their communities. The discussed topics were as follows: i) rural women, ii) gender-based violence, iii) informal sector and economy, iv) pollution and environment, v) preventing violent extremism, vi) education, vii) health, and viii) youth.

Participants were challenged to find a region-specific solution for the most pressing issues in their local communities. The challenge aimed to familiarize participants with existing issues in their communities. Each two candidates were assigned randomly through a draw a specific topic that they addressed in collaboration with a local NGO working on the same topic. In order to measure the impact of this challenge and monitor the process leading to fulfilling the assigned task, the M&E team conducted several interviews with participants. The majority of participants were satisfied with their assigned challenges and considered them a great opportunity to learn more about their communities and shed light on critical local issues.

However, a few participants did not share the same positive experience, but rather feared the challenge and its focus on addressing sensitive and controversial issues that involve many local actors and individuals. Some participants highlighted that addressing the topics that were assigned to them could create tensions and divisions. Thus, they did not enjoy the challenge in the same way as the rest of the participants.

The elimination round for this challenge took place during the third and fourth prime episodes based on the same criteria mentioned above, which clarified well in advance. Candidates were evaluated based on their approach, methodology, ideas, communication, and presence. By the end of this round, only 10 candidates were selected. Throughout every elimination process, the jury tried to ensure gender and regional balance in selecting the pool of candidates.

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Local Governance 12 candidates conducted a visit to the Municipality of , and to the Governorate. Candidates spent one day in each place having discussions with the mayor and the governor, followed by field visits to current project sites.

Ministries Seven candidates conducted visits to four different ministries: Environment and Local Governance, Transportation, Youth, and Health. After the visit, candidates were able to come up with project ideas to be implemented based on the discussions had in the ministries.

Participants were divided among ministries as follows: two visited the Ministry of Environment and Local Governance, two visited the Ministry of Youth and Sports, two visited the Ministry of Transportation, and one visited the Ministry of Health. These field visits allowed participants to meet with high officials and discuss important topics. Following the visits, participants had to prepare a project initiative to address an issue that they observed in the specific ministry or in the field visit to the communities. Jury members discussed with the candidates later on during the TV show the relevance of the idea according to the SMART1 indicators and its sustainability. The seven participants expressed their satisfaction with this challenge as it allowed them to utilize the skills gained during the Academy, such as critical thinking, time management and teamwork.

As mentioned, for this round of elimination, the seven candidates were scored based on the quality of their project idea, engagement during the field visit, communication skills and approach adopted to tackle the issue. Only five candidates managed to move to the next round.

Embassies Five candidates visited the Embassy of the Netherlands and the Embassy of the State of Palestine. Diplomacy and international relations training was provided to the candidates, in order to build their diplomatic skills. Candidates learned more about the role of an ambassador in a country, his/her role in maintaining diplomatic and international relations between the two countries and how ambassadors implement a country's strategy in the host country.

This outreach challenge created a good environment for participants to ask questions and understand political dynamics in depth. It provided them with another opportunity to gain international experience through having meetings and discussions with foreign diplomatic mission representatives. During the TV show candidates were asked about their opinions regarding major international conflicts and the decisions that they would make or the sides that they would choose

1 SMART is an acronym for the five elements of specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound.

7 if they were responsible for foreign policy. This round of elimination was the last round where jury members had a degree of influence over the candidates who passed to the next round.

Presidential Campaign 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, with in the pre-final episode period, they received training on debating, public speaking and protocol from the Munathara Initiative.2

On November 24 the final live episode was filmed and broadcasted. At 10:30 pm, when the SMS voting stopped, the Tunisian people chose the Sfaxian candidate as the fictional elected President of the Republic of Tunisia.

The presidential debate challenge of the last episode was broadcast live on Carthage+, the Palestinian channel Ma'an Network, and on the social media channels of the program. 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 for last presidential election between the presidential candidates Kais Said and Nabil Karoui.

The final minutes of the public vote via SMS saw an intense contest, with only a 16 SMS difference. A total number of 7,475 SMS were received during the voting process of the final episode. The live show was attended by key figures such as former Minister of Transport Hisham Ben Ahmed, Minister of Environment Mokhtar Hammami, current Member of Parliament Hassouna Nassfi and Fouad Thamer and former Member of Parliament Abdelhamid Jlassi, as well as Palestine's Ambassador to Tunisia Hael Fahoum. Respected guests expressed their fascination with the level of the finalists, their eloquence, and their ability to discuss the subjects. "I came here to watch a TV show called" I Am the President", but I did not expect to see parallel elections!" said a member of the Independent High Electoral Commission.

In the backstage, the project team wwas joined by a legal representative who oversaw the voting procedure, counted votes, and announced the winner. This was to ensure the transparency of the

2 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 was the leading implementer of the official Tunisian presidential and legislative debates.

8 procedure and guarantee equal chances for all candidates. By the end of the final episode, the winner received a prize of US$5,000 to implement a personal social project of his choice.

2.3 Candidates’ Initiatives After visiting communities, municipalities, and ministries and receiving training on project management by the Search project team, five candidates finalized and submitted their proposals for local initiatives.

Here is a brief description of the proposed initiatives:

Initiative 1: This cultural project will take place in , , and Hajeb Laayoune, governorate, in two youth centers. It will target 10 youth from each center who will benefit from different workshops. This initiative will take approximately two weeks for implementation. It aims to develop a new generation of young leaders through building their capacities and encouraging them to build their own projects. The project also aims to create a common ground between youth from different cities who will develop and implement a common strategy for the upcoming years.

Initiative 2: This initiative is about establishing a local youth council and re-equipping the Sports Association for Iron Ball and the Local Center for Disabled People in , . It will establish a partnership between the two associations by including five individuals from the Local Center for Disabled People into the Sports Association for Iron Ball. This initiative aims to develop youth’s entrepreneurial and leadership skills, foster their contribution in shaping local policies and decision-making in local affairs according to the principles of participatory democracy, and empower marginalized communities with the needed tools to ensure their inclusion and active participation in society.

Initiative 3: A digital platform will be developed to serve as an online guide for the medina of the city of Sfax, populated with different features including orientation notes and maps. The map of the medina will include all museums, handicraft stores, restaurants and cafés showcasing the unique historical and cultural heritage. This initiative's ultimate vision is to activate sustainable tourism in the city and ensure easy access to new visitors. It aims to help small shops to promote their handicraft products.

Initiative 4: This initiative will take place at the Hedi Raies Institute of Ophthalmology in Tunis. It will equip the institute with the needed equipment as it lacks crucial equipment for urgent critical operations. It will provide equipment to utilize the new corneal transplant technique called DMEK that allows to focus only on damaged cells without having to replace the entire cornea. This initiative aims to help marginalized communities to benefit from easy access to eye surgeries.

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Initiative 5: This initiative will take place in , governorate over one month. It will create a work cell that brings together the municipality and civil society actors. It aims to engage citizens in the work of the municipality and facilitate the payment of taxes.

2.4 Training and Capacity Building for the Candidates

During this quarter, Search conducted tailor-made trainings for the remaining candidates in collaboration with local experts and partners. The candidates needed to gain a better understanding of Tunisian institutional protocol, foreign affairs, diplomacy and to enhance their skills in debating. All the training sessions were filmed to provide background for the produced episodes. Protocol and Diplomacy Before the outreach challenge related to diplomacy, Search organized a training on protocol and diplomacy for the five remaining candidates to provide them with the basic skills and knowledge that a real diplomat should possess. The project team was also able to identify a suitable trainer in diplomacy, protocol and foreign affairs who accepted to be filmed, was available for the training sessions and was able to conduct one-to-one coaching sessions with the finalists: a Tunisian diplomat and university professor with extensive experience working with international organizations and the Tunisian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, including at the permanent mission of Tunisia to the United Nations.

The training aimed to highlight the different types of official visits at the presidential level, to provide also some protocol and political communication tips for the candidates. The training balanced between theory and practice. The candidates took part in two simulations based on role play: (1) a press conference related to the visit of a president to another country; (2) a speech delivered by a president during a high-level meeting of the United Nations Security Council (UNSC). The last simulation was inspired by the start of Tunisia’s two-year mandate in January 2020 as non-permanent member of the UNSC.

75% of responses in the post-training evaluation survey reported that the diplomacy training helped participants better understand the terminology and techniques used in the field of diplomacy. When asked about knowledge acquired during the training, respondents noted that it allowed to learn the different ways of dealing with high level officials, how to represent their country abroad and deal with official guests during state visits.

Presidential Debate As part of the outreach challenges, the final three candidates launched a national presidential campaign across Tunisia, using their personal online communication channels to engage their communities and encourage the Tunisian public to vote for them. The show aimed to inspire to participate in the democratic process through the candidates’ outreach activities and learn from

10 their insights into Tunisian politics. In the final live episode, the finalists presented their promises to constituents and national strategic plans. For this purpose, in partnership with Munathara Initiative, the candidates benefited from the same debating training that was provided to the real presidential and legislative candidates before the Tunisian elections. The training enabled the candidates to enhance their skills and competencies in public speaking, and learn about debating techniques. The training took place at the Munathara office, two days before the final episode. Project Management In the framework of the implementation of the candidate’s social initiatives, and in order to ensure a proper in-field implementation, the project team conducted a training session to build the candidates’ capacity to manage their initiatives. After the training session, the candidates were able to clearly develop their ideas and structuring them into logical frameworks as follows: setting the general objective of the initiative, detailed description of the activities, expected results, target communities, mapping of potential partners, the team’s roles and responsibilities, timeline and budget, evaluation, risks and mitigation plan, impact and sustainability partners.

2.5 Community Dialogues During this quarter, Search launched the community dialogue process which will work on promoting democratic consolidation and youth leadership through organizing discussions across Tunisia in Manouba, Sfax, Gafsa, Gabes, , and . The dialogues will discuss the challenges faced by youth within their respective communities. At the same time, they will identify opportunities that exist within that community that can advance the national democratic process in a positive way. The dialogues will engage community members in regional discussions in the hope of developing ideas and recommendations useful for the development of the region. Thirty dialogues will be organized overall with five dialogues per region, and they will be facilitated by selected and trained participants from “I Am the President” television show.

Community dialogues aims to raise awareness about issues facing youth in various areas of the country. The project includes regions from around the country, which will give the project a holistic purpose. Therefore, the community dialogues will shed light on issues that might not be known or discussed much due to their origins. This will redirect the attention to the problems that need it the most. Add to that, it aims to Implement the culture of peaceful and purposeful dialogue for the participants: dialogue and debate are essential life skills that make the world a better place. One major issue facing Tunisia is the lack of proper communication skills. This can be witnessed on various levels and fixing it will be a crucial element in maintaining the democratic transition.

After launching a call for proposals by the end of October/beginning of November, Search received three eligible proposals. The selection committee decided to work with the Institutional Institute

11 of Debate (IIDebate) in the implementation of the Community Dialogues because it matched all set selection criteria. IIDebate proposed to use their “Café Talk” technique which is a tool that it has used since 2015 in the 24 Tunisian regions, in which they have engaged more than 6,000 people. Today, they count more than 200 ambassadors who will be supportive of any initiative that will help young people discover the community's needs and priorities.

In this reporting phase, IIDebate developed a facilitation guide with a pedagogical approach for the facilitators to rely on. This guide will serve to build the capacity of 18 “I Am the President” candidates on discussion moderation, reporting, community management, in addition to debate techniques and project start-up.

In the scope of the project’s community dialogue phase, a Training of Trainers (ToT) session with 19 participants was conducted by IIDebate in late December: 14 participants were former candidates and the other five were local partner representatives who will assist the implementation of the community dialogues. The ToT session aimed to introduce participants to the concept of community dialogue, types of community dialogues, and equip them with the suitable tools to facilitate community dialogues and meet the expected outcomes. Five community dialogues will be taking place in each of the following six regions: Manouba, Sfax, Gafsa, Gabes, Kasserine, and Jendouba.

In order to evaluate the impact of the ToT session, pre-post evaluation surveys were conducted. At the start of the training, around half of the participants (58.8%) reported that they had heard about the ‘Cafe Talks’ concept. The majority of ‘I Am the President’ participants highlighted that they were familiar with the concept of debate, which was the cornerstone of the Academy and the final activities of the program, but they were not familiar with the concept ‘Cafe Talks’. However, by the end of the training, they stressed that the session helped them also familiarize themselves with a new concept which is ‘Cafe Talks’ and better understand how to differentiate between both concepts. They reported that the main differences of both concepts are timing, parties involved and facilitation methods.

When asked about their expectations from the ToT session, respondents stressed the importance of gaining new skills and knowledge, understanding in-depth the concept of community dialogue, building their capacities in community dialogue facilitation, and discussing in-depth different topics related to their local communities.

In terms of evaluating the gain in knowledge and skills, 78.6% of respondents considered the gained knowledge to be high, while 21.4% of them considered it to be moderate. They identified five levels on which the training impacted positively:

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1. Personal development (20% of responses) 2. Facilitation techniques (25% of responses) 3. Community Management (15% of responses) 4. Social media content creation to promote the community dialogues (15% of responses) 5. Interactions and understanding the ‘Cafe Talk’ concept (25% of responses)

2.6 Media and Social Media Outreach

Social Media Social media outreach has been a strong component in the project’s core strategy. Candidates’ stories and profiles were published on social media platforms. Search also encourages social media followers to watch the released produced episodes by asking questions about some details related to a previous episode before or after its broadcasting as online competitions. During this reporting period, the Facebook page has been very active comparing with the last quarter due to the primes and the big event that the media team promoted heavily, i.e. the final live episode. This reporting period includes mainly the last five primes, the final episode and the week after broadcasting ended. The Search MENA Communications Officer supported the preparation of the last episode through external communication and international media coverage. In agreement with the local media team and with the support of Munathara’s communication team, the project team worked on promoting the final prime and creating more engagement on the Facebook page through the posting of a game, promotional videos, and live interview session with the finalists.

Facebook During this reporting period, 1,125 new people started following the page and the page scoring remained the same 4.6/5. The following graph indicates the percentage of followers of the Facebook page. 33% of the followers are females aged between 18-34 and a similar percentage consists of men of the same age group.

Figure 2: This graph represents followers of the Facebook Page disaggregated by gender

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The data collected from the Facebook page regarding audience classification indicate that the page audience have various backgrounds and is dispersed across the Arab countries and some European countries. Tunisia, Libya and are the top three countries where most of the page audience is located while, at a local level, Tunis, Sfax and Sousse are the top three governorates in terms of audience. In terms of language, the majority of the audience speaks French, Arabic, and English.

Figure 3: Audience classification by country, governorate and language

The social media team posted different graphics linked directly to the content of the broadcasted episodes.

Voting graphics: During the elimination phase, jury members during the episode chose to save a few candidates, but others had to go through SMS voting. In order to communicate about the voting process and engage followers to vote for preferred candidates, the communication team designed and posted graphics about the candidates who needed voting to pass the next episode. Other graphics included the eliminated candidates, wishing them the best of luck and a congratulation graphic for the ones who managed to move to the next episode.

Outreach challenges and visits graphics: Every week, the media team posted pictures of the outreach challenges, field visits and training sessions that they went through. These graphics aimed to keep followers updated and engaged to follow closely what the candidates are doing during the week.

Promotional videos: As usual, before every episode, a teaser video is posted on social media. By the time of the last prime, the teaser video changed its format to summarize all important events

14 that happened during previous primes. It was posted on social media platforms and shared on Munathara’s Facebook page and Carthage+’s Facebook page.

Figure 4: This graphic represents the number of people reached (94,569) and number of interactions (1,348).

The game: The media team posted a game during this period to increase engagement with the audience: In the game, the followers were supposed to answer the question “If you were the president, what is the first decision that you would take?” and also follow all social media platforms. The most liked comments would be invited to the last episode.

Figure 5: This shows the number of people reached (8,854), and number of reactions, likes, shares, and comments (279).

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Above is the posted graphic of the game, which includes the rules of the game and the question. Here some numbers achieved through this game: number of reached people (8854); number of reactions, likes, shares, and comments (279); duration of game: 48 hours; number of likes: 196 likes; number of comments: 72; shares: 11; winners: 10 announced but only 2 attended the final episode.

Live videos and follow-up videos: The media team planned live video sessions on Facebook in which candidates could interact directly with the followers who kept asking questions about their experience during the show. Some of the followers asked questions about the engagement of the candidates after the show in terms of putting their promises into reality. The video has 6,100 views.

The team also broadcast the live prime on the Facebook page of “I Am The President” simultaneously with the Carthage+ Facebook page (which has more than 900,000 followers), the Facebook page of Ma’an Network (which has more than 460,000 followers) and the Facebook page of Munathara (which has more than 615,000 followers). The live streaming of the final episode was broadcast on I Am The President’s social media platforms in three languages. On YouTube the episode was broadcast in English (Link), on Twitter the episode was broadcast in French (Link) and finally on Facebook it was broadcast in Arabic (Link).

Instagram At this phase, the communication team gave priority to Instagram stories and live videos. Stories are highlighted for the new audience to catch up with the progress of the show. Stories covering the outreach challenges and offering behind-the-scenes snapshots were given priority. Instagram was also used to promote upcoming results and remind followers to stay tuned for televised episodes. The number of our Instagram followers is still low compared to Facebook, as we currently only have 1,680 followers. The team managed to boost the account in order to get more visibility on the platform. Meanwhile the graphics shared on Facebook are also shared on Instagram to make the page active for engagements and to make sure that the followers are still following the candidates even after the show ended on TV.

Twitter During this quarter, Twitter continued to be a main point of contact mostly for journalists. The Twitter account was used as the main platform to announce dates of episodes, and to inform about the final prime. Even the posts that were shared aimed to attract the attention of the media outlets and journalists.

YouTube YouTube was utilized as a platform to upload produced content of the show. Subscribers to this channel can find all the episodes, behind-the-scenes content, announcements of the results, primes

16 and the short videos produced during the outreach challenges. The channel now has 600 subscribers, but the number is projected to increase with boosting.

Media Coverage The Search communications team, with the support of Munathara’s communication team, prepared an online media library similar to the one used during the real presidential elections which contains pictures of the candidates and press releases in different languages. The media library was a useful tool for journalists during the real presidential elections to get needed details for media coverage, hence why the team got inspired from it and prepared one designed specifically for the TV show: https://iamthepresident.tn/. A press kit was prepared and sent to international media. Many national and international media published articles about the candidates, their experiences, and the show either before or after the final prime.

Figure 6: Media library

After the final prime and after the announcement of the winner, “Tunivisions Magazine” invited the winner of the TV show for an interview in which he talked about his experience in the project and the added value that he gained. He also called on youth to actively participate in the democratic process (link to the interview). Other articles were published by Kapitalis.com (link to the article in French), Arabesque (link to the article), and Tunisia Press (link to the article) about the final prime and how the “I Am The President” TV show aims to empower Tunisia youth to be democratic political leaders.

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The winner was also invited by Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung3 in their Café Politique project to talk about his experience, his future plans about his initiative, and how he evaluates the actual president (link to the Web-show).

3. Monitoring and Evaluation To ensure that the program is implemented in accordance with the program’s objectives, the M&E department conducted the following activities:

1) Formulating the Terms of Reference for the Final Evaluation

During this quarter, the M&E team prepared the Terms of Reference for the final evaluation of the project and launched the call for application through Search’s website and Search Facebook page.

The main objectives of the final evaluation are as follows:

1. How the project was implemented, to what extent were the identified needs of targeted groups met, to what extent were the project objectives met during the period of implementation. 2. Whether those needs have been entirely met or still remain relevant; and how can we best learn from these experiences for the design of a phase 2 of this project. 3. What impact has this project had on participants and local communities.

The evaluation will be based on the OECD-DAC Evaluation Criteria (relevance, effectiveness, efficiency, impact and sustainability), investigating specific lines of inquiry, and utilizing and/or addressing the performance indicators described in the project document.

2) Developing tools to observe and monitor the I Am the President Community Dialogue: Training of Trainers session

In order to ensure a smooth implementation of the program’s activities and meet the expected outcomes, the M&E team developed specific tools to oversee the ToT session in order to understand how the team could assist the facilitators in the implementation of the community dialogue in the targeted regions.

3 The Friedrich Ebert Foundation is a German political foundation associated with the Social Democratic Party of Germany, yet independent of it.

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4. Challenges and Lessons Learned The team encountered a number of challenges during this reporting period, which led to related lessons learned. Also, Search’s very close technical cooperation with our partner Ma’an allowed the project team to adjust and refine relevant policies and strategies. In addition, meetings with the project’s key partners contributed to the project’s success because of the feedback and advice that they offered when the team faced challenges.

• The biggest challenge during the past period was successfully handling the logistics of outreach challenges, primes, and the final live episode. The team did not have enough time for the preparation of the outreach challenges (generally around 2-3 days only) because it always had to wait for the results episode to clarify which candidates would be taking part in them and organize their logistics (some of them living far from the locations where the challenges took place). • Another main challenge faced during this quarter was the availability of jury members. One of them was not able to join, so the chief editor managed to coordinate with the jury of auditions to participate. • Another challenge encountered related to the desire to maintain gender balance among candidates until the last prime. This proved complicated as the number of candidates decreased every week and the weight of SMS voting increased, not allowing to be more intentional about this. This often relied on the jury, who however struggled to ensure this balance while trying to retain also the best candidates in the show by judging the capacities they demonstrated during the challenges. On some occasions, these were not necessarily women.

While this quarter was certainly challenging for the Search team as well as the production and broadcasting partners given the high intensity and pace of the production phase, the team was able to maintain close cohesion between its members to ensure the effective implementation of the project. This led to Search’s team and its partners successfully managing this peak in activities during this quarter.

5. Next Steps During the upcoming quarter, Search aims to implement the following activities:

• Study visit to the Netherlands: Search is liaising with the Dutch Embassy in Tunis and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in The Hague to organize a study visit to the Netherlands for the final candidates of the show. This visit will serve to further build the young candidates’ capacity in terms of diplomacy as well as to be exposed to the work of foreign institutions.

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• Implementation of the community dialogues: The community dialogue process will be launched in the next quarter and 30 dialogue sessions across six communities will be facilitated by former TV show candidates with the support of partner CSO IIDebate. • Implementation of the candidates’ social initiatives: The candidates’ local initiatives will be implemented in the target communities over a period of between two weeks and one month. • Reflection and evaluation workshop: A large workshop will be held in the next quarter gathering the 24 candidates and all implementation partners to reflect on the impact of the project, not only on the candidates but on Tunisian youth in general and the Tunisian public at large. This workshop will serve to inform the final evaluation process. • Final Evaluation: The final evaluation will be conducted by an external consultant, providing key findings on project impact and recommendations for a potential second phase.

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