WHO
Members include the Media Institute of Southern Africa and its country chapters; Gender Links and affiliated gender and media networks in eight countries; the Federation of African Media Women and country affiliates; editors forums; media training institutions; media NGOs including the media monitoring projects in the region; NGOs that promote gender justice and media practitioners. The network is overseen by a committee that consists of country representatives; representatives of the different interest groups and an executive committee with a Chair, Deputy Chair, Treasurer and Secretary. Members will meet every two years. The Secretariat of GEMSA is currently hosted by Gender Links and MISA.

HOW
GEMSA has a Programme of Action that includes:

• Research and monitoring: GEMSA conducts relevant research that builds on and takes forward the GMBS. For example, a number of member countries are engaged in research on how women and men respond to news content. GEMSA will be actively involved in the Gloabal Media Monitoring Project coinciding with Beijing Plus Ten in 2005. Many networks within GEMSA conduct ongoing monitoring of the news from a gender perspective, for example on election coverage. In the future, monitoring will be extended to cover new areas such as advertising and entertainment. GEMSA will provide a forum for sharing research findings and methodology as well as raising alerts where appropriate.
• Policy: GEMSA plans to conduct an audit on how gender is integrated into policies and laws that govern the media in the region as well as engage with media regulatory authorities. Pilot projects to develop and implement media policies at institutional level will be used to develop handbooks and checklists that support the replication of such initiatives.
• Training and capacity building: Building on the work and research that has been done in the region to integrate gender into media education, GEMSA promotes the development of tools and replication of pilot projects, as well as networking between media trainers. GEMSA also facilitates the development and sharing of gender and media training resources, including through the innovative Virtual Resource Centre (VRC) that contains case material from the GMBS and resources that have been developed since then. Regular training of trainer workshops will help to increase the cadre of gender aware trainers. GEMSA will use research and monitoring findings to engage directly with media houses, and conduct newsroom training on the way in which gender features in every day coverage of politics, economics, sports, HIV/AIDS and other topical issues. Emphasis will also be placed on building relationships between the media and gender activists; as well as empowering gender activists to be more strategic in their approaches to the media.
• Advocacy: GEMSA supports and engages in numerous advocacy campaigns that promote the equal rights and voice for citizens in society. Examples include the Fifty Fifty campaign for women’s equal representation in decision-making; the campaign against the NGO Bill in Zimbabwe; the drive to get African governments to ratify the Protocol on rights for African women and the Sixteen Days of Activism on Violence Against Women.

Click on the attachment below to read more on the GEMSA POA.

WHERE

To join, contact your country representative.

Individual membership costs $5 or R30; institutional membership costs $50 or R300 per year.

MORE INFORMATION

Go to: www.genderlinks.org.za or www.misa.org Or E Mail: info@genderlinks.org.za