Communications and Advocacy

Communications, awareness-raising, and outreach are an integral part of UN Women Bosnia and Herzegovina work. Communications efforts of UN Women in BiH are aimed at advocating for gender equality, women’s empowerment, and women’s rights in BiH; increasing UN Women’s and its partners’ visibility; and achieving multiplied advocacy efforts and broadened communications opportunities. By capturing key aspects of UN Women portfolios, communication and advocacy includes producing relevant content, enhancing media outreach and collaboration, as well as development of new media and communications partnerships. Apart from two flagship campaigns – International Women’s Day and 16 Days of Activism – various project-related campaigns throughout the years have been focusing on producing high-quality multimedia content and strengthening communication through UN Women BiH social media channels: Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube. Production of various communications materials, including videos, publications, visuals, and stories, maintains the high visibility of UN Women BiH work, and enables significant media presence of UN Women and its donors/partners in the local media space. UN Women continues to promote the integration of gender equality topics within UN communication on country level.

Our Results

• Social media reach amplified to 1.1M reach on Facebook; 586.6K impressions on Twitter and 65.4K reach on Instagram in 2020; and 853.1K reach on Facebook; 633.7K impressions on Twitter; and 86K on Instagram in 2021.
• “Thank you, heroines” campaign (July 2020), raising awareness on women engaged in the response to the COVID-19 crisis, contained stories and videos of 12 heroines from all over BiH. Campaign was supported by 13 media outlets (including a two-week radio campaign), and cooperation was established with 10 influencers.
• 16 Days of Activism campaign in 2020 involved local media outlets from 11 communities from all over BiH. A media pledge on responsible reporting on gender-based violence was signed by 56 media professionals. Hosts of five TV media outlets wore the “Turn off violence” badges while announcing the start of the campaign, and three newspapers branded their covers with the campaign logo. 16 Days of Activism campaign in 2021 focused on sexual violence, mobilizing the support of international community and influences, and was particularly focused on opening a dialogue on this topic with youth.
• Generation Equality local campaign (July 2021 – December 2021) launched two Generation Equality Action Coalitions – on Economic Justice and Gender-Based Violence, gathered more than 90 participants on two hybrid events, and united multiple stakeholders as well as influences in the goal to promote gender equality in BiH.
• A thematic series of publications Focus on Gender provides knowledge on specific gender equality issues as well as recommendations to relevant stakeholders and actors.
• Partnerships established with many media outlets through regular reporting on gender equality and women’s empowerment in the context of UN Women activities, as well as specialized Op-Eds.

Ongoing Campaigns

16 Days of Activism – Turn Off Violence Against Women and Girls

The 16 Days of Activism campaign, localized as “Turn off violence against women and girls”, has been implemented for the past six years, since 2016. During this period, the campaign involved a multitude of stakeholders and partners, with a focus on raising-awareness on ending violence against women and girls from a variety of perspectives, highlighting the importance of prevention and elimination of harmful gender stereotypes.

International Women’s Day

Traditional annual marking of International Women’s Day takes place in cooperation with Agency for Gender Equality of Bosnia and Herzegovina, and it amplifies the conversation on women’s rights and gender equality through collaboration with gender mechanisms, partners, donors, and other stakeholders in a variety of campaigning practices and content creation.

Generation Equality

Through the localized “Generation Equality” campaign, UN Women BiH aims to mobilize cross-generational actions in support to gender equality, while also focusing on localizing Action Coalitions in three areas: bodily autonomy and sexual and reproductive health; ending gender-based violence; and economic empowerment and security.