The Asia Pacific Forum on Women, Law and Development (APWLD) invites women media professionals across Asia and the Pacific region to participate in its 2021 Media Fellowship on Migration and Migrant Women’s Human Rights. This media fellowship programme intends to strengthen feminist analysis on the plight of migrant women in both mainstream and alternative media spaces. Women media professionals who work in Nepal, India, Indonesia, Hong Kong, Philippines, Malaysia, and Kyrgyzstan are most encouraged to apply.

Women media professionals may apply under (a) individual or (b) two-member team categories. Media Fellows under the individual category will receive a stipend of USD 3,000, while teams will receive USD 5,000 to cover expenses for research and travel (conditions permitting) according to workplans co-developed with APWLD.

The fellowship will run from December 2021 to December 2022. Under the Media Fellowship, fellows may produce audio-video content/documentary, news, feature, or digital stories that highlight the linkages between migration and economic and development issues, and its impact on women’s human rights.

Now on its fourth year, APWLD’s Media Fellowship programme was launched to strengthen media advocacy on grassroots women’s issues through a feminist and human rights lens across Asia and the Pacific.

APWLD is a regional feminist, membership-driven network with over 266 members from 30 countries across Asia and the Pacific that is committed to building feminist movements to advance women’s human rights and Development Justice.

Why Migration and Migrant Women’s Human Rights?

In the current global economic and political crisis, migration continues to be a survival strategy for people and poor families from the Global South. Growing numbers of women move within countries and across borders to seek for employment opportunities, or/and escape from violence, discrimination, climate crisis, conflict and poverty.  Increased feminisation of migration has become an overt trend in the globalised world – around half of an estimated 272 million migrants who live and work outside their countries of origin are women, and approximately 66.6 million of them are migrant workers.

Despite the trend of increased migration, migrant women face unprecedented challenges with the deregulation of labour policies and gender-specific restrictions in migration policies. To fully extract profits from migrant women, governments, recruitment agencies and other corporations depend on a flexible, mobile and cheap labour force to meet the labour demands with weak protections and a high level of precarity, while migration policies increasingly pose barriers to mobility that criminalise migrants. With these circumstances, migrant women struggle with multiple and intersecting forms of discrimination and inequalities, restrictions in movement, labour rights violations, sexual and gender-based violence, racism and xenophobia.

In the face of different forms of human rights violations, APWLD and migrant groups in the region are building and strengthening the movement of women migrants who are able to claim their rights to decent work, living wage, freedom of movement and right to organise. To end the marginalisation and exploitation, migrant women and the grassroot communities must be central to efforts, and their stories and lived experiences must be heard and learned. With this media fellowship, we aim to build progressive narrative to challenge the market driven migration model by sharing migrants' realities and their demands to wider communities in order to respond to the current crisis and rebuild a just and rights-based migration agenda.

How the Media Fellowship works?

Accepted Media Fellows will be invited to a four- to six-day online capacity building workshop on migration and migrant women’s human rights in January 2022. The workshop will feature discussions on migration and migrant women’s human rights, impact
of laws and policies of migrant women’s host and destination countries, and Development Justice.

At the workshop, the Media Fellows will have the opportunity to meet APWLD members from the region who are migrant rights defenders, activists, and advocates. Based on discussions and interactions with grassroots activists and experts, the Media Fellows, in consultation with APWLD, will develop a plan on how to produce critical analysis on women migrant workers and their human rights. They may also be given opportunities to attend (virtually or physically) civil society and United Nations (UN) advocacy meetings on migration issues, depending on travel restrictions.

At the end of the fellowship, the Media Fellows will submit a narrative report documenting their experience and attend a two-day online (or in-person, conditions permitting) reflection meeting.

Fellowship Conditions

Reporting and Publishing Criteria

1. Individual fellows may produce either:

  • Three (3) news/feature stories of at least 1,000 words each or a multi-part series of at least 3,600 words with one story in investigative or in-depth reporting form. Out of the three stories, one should focus on APWLD members or partners working on migrant women’s issues within their country/sub-region and another one should focus on migrant women’s issues in the region.
  • Two (2) audio visual outputs or multi-part series of at least five minutes each for video or 20 minutes each for audio with one output in investigative or in-depth reporting form. Out of the two outputs, one should focus on APWLD members or partners
    working on migrant women’s issues within their country/sub-region and another one should focus on migrant women’s issues in the region.

2. Team Fellows may produce either:

  • Three (3) news/feature stories of at least 1,500 words each or a multi-part series of at least 5,000 words with one story in investigative or in-depth reporting form. Out of the three stories, one should focus on APWLD members or partners working on migrant women’s issues within their country/sub-region and another one should focus on migrant women’s issues in the region.
  • Three (3) audio visual outputs or multi-part series of at least five minutes each for video or 30 minutes each for audio with one output in investigative or in-depth reporting form. Out of the three outputs, one should focus on APWLD members or partners working on migrant women’s issues within their country/sub-region and another one should focus on migrant women’s issues in the region.

3. Media fellows may also choose to work across audio-visual media and text media. They will produce two outputs, with at least one that focuses specifically on APWLD members or partners working on migrant women’s issues within their countries.

4. There will be some flexibility in length of written text and audio-visuals on a case-by-case basis. The pieces can be long feature, advocacy-focused, data driven or documentary style.

Other Criteria

  • The Media fellows are expected to submit all their published stories/media pieces to APWLD and provide translation in English, if published in another language.
  • They commit to attend all training sessions, workshops and advocacy spaces as guided by APWLD.
  • They also commit to be in close, regular communications with APWLD Secretariat throughout the fellowship period.
  • They are expected to actively engage with APWLD social media channels throughout the fellowship period to share updates about their stories.
  • Ideally, the media fellows should submit letters from editors assuring their work will be published. If possible, publishing outlets should indicate the published stories are a part of APWLD’s 2021 Media Fellowship on Migration and Migrant Women’s Human Rights.

APWLD Roles and Responsibilities

  • APWLD will provide a stipend of USD 3,000/journalist and USD 5,000/team to cover expenses for research and travel (conditions permitting) according to workplans co-developed with APWLD.
  • APWLD Secretariat will also provide continuous support in shaping articles and analysis, including feedback on all stories before publishing.
  • APWLD will feature the Media Fellows’ stories on all its digital assets: website, social media, and other APWLD publications where we see fit. Likewise, APWLD has the right to feature the published news stories on our website, social media and other publications, either as an excerpt or in complete form.

Selection Criteria

The fellowship is open to all practicing women media professionals from Asia and the Pacific. Only seven (7) individual and team applicants will be accepted to the fellowship program. Applicants must have the following minimum qualifications:

  • At least four years of media work experience
  • Proficient in English and a language from the Asia or the Pacific region
  • Able to travel overseas as required (conditions permitting)
  • Commitment to feminist movement building
  • Experience in covering women’s human rights, grassroots movements, and development issues particularly in the context of migration is an advantage.
  • If applying under the team category, application should be made in the name of both co-applicants.
  • Applicants whose work covers Nepal, India, Indonesia, Hong Kong, Philippines, Malaysia, and Kyrgyzstan will be prioritised.

Timeline 

Application date: October 2021

Shortlisting: November 2021

Start of fellowship: December 2021

Submission of work plan: December 2021

Training and finalisation of work plan: January 2022

Submission of first story: April to May 2022

Submission of second story: July 2022

Submission of final story: October 2022

Submission of narrative report: November 2022

Evaluation and reflection/End of fellowship: December 2022

Application

The applicant should submit an expression of interest with the following documents:

  1. A completed application form (including copy of valid travel document)
  2. Curriculum Vitae
  3. Copies of or links to two work samples of any medium in English or with English translations
  4. Budget Plan
  5. Proposed Workplan
  6. A letter of endorsement from media organisation if full time employee, or a letter of endorsement from an editor if a freelance journalist
  7. Letter from editor assuring news stories will be published; optional for freelance journalists

You can download the concept note here.

Please send completed forms and other required documents via email with the subject line “Application for Media Fellowship 2021” to Edz dela Cruz at edz@apwld.org and cc Rachitaa Gupta at rachitaa@apwld.org, by no later than 14 November 2021, midnight Bangkok time.

Please note that incomplete applications will not be entertained. Only short-listed candidates will be contacted.