The I Am the President TV Reality Show Narrative Quarterly Report

The I Am The President TV Reality Show Narrative Quarterly Report

Award number: DSH-4000002118 Reporting Period: January 1 – 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]

Acronyms

Search Search for Common Ground Search-Tunisia Search for Common Ground-Tunisia Ma’an Ma’an Network CSO Civil society organisation NGO Non-governmental organisation INGO International non-governmental organisation 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 SWOT Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats

Contents

1. Executive Summary 3 2. Activities of this Quarter 4 2.1 Community Dialogues 4 2.2 The Candidates After the I Am the President TV Show 5 2.3 Media and Social Media Outreach 6 Social Media 6 Media Coverage 7 2.4 COVID-19 Youth-led Initiatives 8 3. Monitoring and Evaluation 8 Internal Reflection and Evaluation Seminar 9 Initiating the External Final Evaluation Process 11 4. Challenges and Lessons Learnt 11 5. Next Steps 11

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 partners, the Ma’an Network, Baramij production house and Carthage+ TV Channel, has leveraged the role of mass media by producing and broadcasting a reality television programme, 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. Throughout 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 programme 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.

This final quarterly report covers (1) the implementation of the community dialogues by local partner IIDebate, (2) the internal evaluation and reflection seminar with the show’s candidates, and (3) some activities conducted by the participants of the show, including during the COVID- 3

19 crisis. During this quarter, the Search communications team ensured social media coverage of these activities and engagement with the show’s social media audience, including by raising awareness during the total COVID-19 lockdown enacted in Tunisia since 22 March. The Search M&E team conducted an internal evaluation and reflection seminar with the TV show’s candidates and launched the independent final project evaluation process.

2. Activities of this Quarter 2.1 Community Dialogues During this quarter, Search’s implementing partner International Institute of Debate (IIDebate) conducted the community dialogues. These dialogues aimed to promote democratic consolidation and youth leadership at the local level and were held across six regions of Tunisia: Manouba, Sfax, Gafsa, Gabes, Kasserine, and Jendouba. These regions were selected in consultation with our media partners as most of the topics that were discussed during the live show are highly relevant for them, including unemployment, pollution, early drop out from schools, marginalisation, and the condition of rural women.

The dialogues discussed the challenges faced by youth within their respective communities. At the same time, they identified opportunities that exist within each community that can advance the national democratic process in a positive way. The dialogues engaged community members in local discussions aimed at developing concrete ideas and useful recommendations for the development of their region. Thirty sessions were organized in total, with five dialogues per region and were attended by 485 participants in total. The ages of participants ranged from 17 to 60 years old, and 52% of them were women.

Graphic 1: Community dialogue participation by gender

Graphic 2: Community dialogues in numbers

The community dialogues were conducted through the “Café Talk1” format and IIDebate trained The President participants on this tool so they could facilitate the dialogue sessions themselves, supported by IIDebate. The discussed topics varied from one region to another, depending on the priorities and the needs of each region, as selected by The President candidates during the Training of Trainers (ToT) organized by IIDebate. Recommendations also varied based on local issues that needed to be solved.

IIDebate’s final evaluation of the community dialogue process was planned to be conducted with the participants in mid-March. However, due to the country-wide total lockdown enacted in mid- March in relation to the COVID-19 pandemic, implementing partner IIDebate managed to finalise it online.

2.2 The Candidates After the I Am the President TV Show

During this quarter, the Munathara Initiative invited candidates from the I Am The President TV show to participate and collaborate in their TV show entitled “99 Days: The Parliament”. This TV show is part of the implementation of their project “Tunisia Decides.” During the Tunisian presidential and parliamentary debates that took place before the elections in October 2019, the Munathara team asked the official candidates if they would accept to participate in another debate session 99 days after taking office. Seven out of 21 deputies were elected after the parliamentary

1 Cafe talk is a tool designed by IIDebate which provides youth with the opportunity to express their opinions and debate social issues that impact our society. It enables young people to develop initiatives and launch projects after gathering ideas and insights from participants. The project is open to everyone who believes that dialogue is the first step towards change. 5 debate and accepted the invitation to participate in the “99 Days: The Parliament” show. The Munathara team suggested that the candidates from the I Am The President TV show ask questions to the deputies live during the “99 Days” show. These questions would address to what extent the deputies had achieved electoral promises that they had made during the last debate. 30 candidates from I Am The President were involved in this process. The live show hosted parliamentarians from across the political spectrum who were questioned about their achievements to date. The President project candidates, from the same regions as the deputies on the show, asked their questions live and followed up with the deputies if they did not receive satisfactory answers.

2.3 Media and Social Media Outreach

Social Media During this reporting period, which represented the last quarter of the project, the communication team focused mainly on Facebook as the main social media platform, as this has proven the most engaging platform for our audience (compared to Twitter and Instagram). They posted photos and videos of recent activities that the candidates organised or participated in, including the episode of “99 Days: The Parliament,” the internal reflection and evaluation seminar (see section 3 of this report), and some of the community dialogues that took place in the regions. Additionally, the team managed to film and edit success stories of candidates and to post them on social media to share inspirational messages with the followers. Additionally, when the COVID-19 health crisis began in mid-March, the team posted the volunteer initiatives launched by the candidates in their communities. In order to stand against the COVID-19 pandemic, the team posted a graphic to raise the awareness of our social media followers about staying home and responsibly following all instructions announced by the Tunisian government to get through this crisis. The media team also posted a graphic with some of the health instructions shared by health authorities, including hand- washing tips, social distancing, and staying home.

By widely disseminating the graphic on Facebook, which is the most commonly used social media platform in Tunisia, the media team was able to target and reach followers between the ages of 25 and 34, of whom 47% were women.

Graphic 3: Gender and age of the Facebook page followers.

By 31 March, the media team managed to have around 50,000 active followers in the different project’s media platforms.

Graphic 4: Social media in numbers

Media Coverage During this quarter, media coverage of activities led by the young participants of the TV show increased. During the implementation of the community dialogues, some of The President project participants were interviewed by local media outlets to share about their journey, their new role in their communities, and the impact of the discussions on the people who took part in the community dialogues. Regional radio stations like Radio El Kef and Radio Gafsa covered the community dialogues that took place in their region. Moreover, the different regional teams engaged community radios and web radios to talk more about the active role of youth through the implementation of the Cafe Talk format and how it engages the community to discuss topics and find solutions based on inclusive discussions. Radios that covered the community dialogues were Radio Sbeitla FM, Cilluim FM, Elyssa FM and Radio Palma. Web magazines also wrote some articles about the important role of Tunisian youth in finding local solutions, including Gafsa News, Shams Chamel and Zaama Info. A representative from IIDebate was invited by Watania TV to a TV show that highlights the youth-led activities and community dialogues as an example of how to engage youth in the region. Finally, the initiatives that were implemented by I Am The President TV show candidates in their communities as a response to the COVID-19 outbreak were covered by international media organisations such as Radio IFM and Aljazeera.

2.4 COVID-19 Youth-led Initiatives On 22 March, the Tunisian government declared a total lockdown and curfew due to the global COVID-19 pandemic. This radical change in context had a serious impact on the implementation of remaining project activities from one side, but on the other hand it allowed to highlight the great efforts that many of I Am The President show candidates are doing to raise awareness of COVID- 19 in their communities through local youth-led initiatives to help their communities and spread positive vibes.

Some of the volunteer initiatives being implemented by the show’s candidates include: Initiative 1: A candidate from El Mornaguia region in the Manouba governorate started to volunteer with his friends and some members of his community to design and diffuse an awareness raising campaign. He also makes sure to broadcast live videos on Facebook with the latest updates of the COVID-19 cases in his area and sharing official health instructions to raise awareness and encourage his audience to stay home.

Initiative 2: Another candidate, who is the head of the National Office of the Changemakers Organisation, decided to lead an initiative with his association members to sterilise some public facilities. This is part of the organisation's national campaign to stand against the COVID epidemic under the name of “Changemakers”. The candidate kept posting live videos and stories of their activities through Facebook to engage and reach out to a maximum number of young people.

Initiative 3: One of the TV show candidates, who was eliminated halfway through the prime episodes, started sewing protection masks at home to be later distributed in her community. She posted on social media about how to make the masks, encouraging people to follow her example.

Initiative 4: Another TV show candidate, a medical student, decided to volunteer during this crisis in a call centre to answer all citizens' questions about COVID-19.

Initiative 5: One of the participants in the I Am The President Academy aimed to raise awareness by posting funny videos about the pandemic to disseminate good messages about staying home and beating the crisis and spread positivity and good vibes.

3. Monitoring and Evaluation To ensure that the programme was implemented in accordance with the programme’s objectives, the Search Design, Monitoring and Evaluation (DM&E) team conducted the following activities in this past quarter:

Internal Reflection and Evaluation Seminar In order to gather feedback about the participants’ experiences throughout the different phases of The President programme and to evaluate its impact on them, the DM&E team conducted an three- day internal reflection and evaluation seminar on 19-21 February 2020. 22 project participants (11 female and 11 male) were able to attend the seminar and actively contribute to sessions that were designed to help them reflect on their experiences in the programme.

Evaluation Objectives

The evaluation aimed to help Search-Tunisia shed light on the areas of success and failure in the programme. It aimed to assess the level of achievement and determine the impact of the programme on participants and their communities. The evaluation also aimed to help the project team reflect on different components of the programme and highlight key lessons learnt.

Evaluation Methodology

Throughout the seminar, participants were asked to provide constructive feedback and recommendations on how to improve the project. The aim was to involve project beneficiaries in a participatory evaluation approach, and to support them as they provided input. All activities were therefore focused on providing a safe space for participants to discuss and creating an environment in which they could provide constructive criticism.

The first part of the seminar included activities facilitated by the DM&E team that were designed to encourage reflection and open conversation between project participants and the project team. These activities resulted in extensive qualitative data which were captured in the form of flipcharts with written recommendations, detailed SWOT2 analysis of different project components, dramatic skits and short videos, as well as conversations and debates between participants.

The specific reflective activities used were the following:

1. Throwback session: In groups, participants were invited to reflect on their favourite moment of the project and to creatively present it to other participants. The four groups created short films and dramatic skits to represent their experiences, and others were invited to comment on the creative performances. 2. Baseline presentation: The DM&E team presented key findings from the external baseline evaluation of The President to seminar participants concerning perceptions and attitudes towards youth’s political participation. They then facilitated a discussion where

2 SWOT stands for Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats. SWOT analysis is a technique for assessing these four aspects of a project or business. 9

participants commented on similarities and differences between their personal experiences and the results of the baseline. 3. Sticky-notes feedback: Participants were asked to provide individual feedback on positive and negative aspects of each of the four major components of the project (Casting, Academy, Primes, and Community Dialogues) using sticky notes and flipcharts. The group then listened to the individual feedback on each component, and engaged in group discussion about the major themes. 4. Evaluating Outreach Challenges: In groups, participants were asked to conduct a SWOT analysis of the major Outreach Challenges in which they or others had participated. This activity was supplemented by drawing Stakeholder and Results cards from Search’s Enduring Change Toolkit3 to stimulate thinking and foster conversation. Each group then presented their findings to other participants. 5. Participant recommendations: In two groups, participants were asked to reflect on the major themes uncovered over the course of the evaluation and learning seminar, and to present specific, actionable recommendations to other participants and the Search-Tunisia team. These recommendations will be taken into consideration and implemented where appropriate in the project’s second phase.

The second part of the seminar focused on participants’ perceptions of the project’s impact, and the effect that the project had on them personally. The main activity that was designed to capture the level of change is as follows:

Level of Change: In four groups, participants were asked to creatively illustrate a picture or create a presentation that showed how they have changed and have been impacted through their participation in the project. This activity attempted to answer three questions: a. How would you describe/depict yourselves before taking part in The President project? b. How would you describe/depict yourselves while working with other candidates in the project? and c. How would you describe/depict yourselves three years after your participation in the project? Giving participants the safe space to creatively describe the process which they engaged in over the course of the project also allowed them to express their growth on a personal, professional, as well as a community interaction level.

3 The Enduring Change Toolkit is a collection of tools and exercises designed by Search for Common Ground to encourage reflection and conversation about conflict resolution and creative problem solving. 10

Initiating the External Final Evaluation Process The Search team launched a call for applications to select an external consultant to conduct the final evaluation of The President project in December. Following a competitive process, Search decided to work again with Voluntas Advisory (Voluntas) consultancy firm, which was also responsible for conducting the baseline study of the project. In this reporting period, the Search DM&E team held several online meetings with the independent evaluation experts from Voluntas. The DM&E team provided feedback on the design of the final evaluation methodology and reviewed the inception report and the questionnaires that will be used during the data collection phase. The DM&E team coordinated closely with Voluntas to design adequate data collection instruments in order to meet the final evaluation’s objectives and respond to the lines of inquiry that were highlighted in the Terms of Reference. Additionally, the DM&E team worked closely with Voluntas to overcome challenges related to conducting field data collection during the COVID-19 crisis. To mitigate these, the data collection methodology was modified to include online activities instead of field activities.

4. Challenges and Lessons Learnt In the framework of the finalization of the activities related to this quarter, the team encountered two main challenges.

1. The preparation and planning phases for the implementation of the finalists’ local initiatives and study visit to the Netherlands took longer than anticipated and led to these activities not being conducted anymore. 2. The second challenge of this quarter was the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic in Tunisia. The Tunisian government announced a total lockdown and curfew starting from 22 March, which compelled the Search team to finalise some of the remaining activities online using different digital platforms or to cancel others. This affected also the external final project evaluation by the contracted final evaluator Voluntas, as it led to the data collection methodology and tools having to be revised to account for the changing context and psychological state of people as well as online, rather than field, data collection activities.

5. Next Steps This quarter presented the final period of implementation of this project, which closed on 31 March 2020. As per the approval of the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the only remaining activities in the next quarter will be the finalisation of the external final project evaluation and the production of the final project reports, which are both due on 31 May 2020.