Lana Photo Stream

1.       Background   At Oxfam, we are working to achieve our vision of a just world without poverty and we thrive to be a powerful partner in global and local communities of people connected for change. Putting women at the heart of everything we do, we believe that gender justice is a basic right, and achieving it is key in addressing poverty.  Oxfam has been working in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region for over five decades. Over the past four decades it has been promoting gender equality and supporting women’s right to participating and representation in all spheres as well as their right to access services and justice. The regional Lana project is one of the pillars of Oxfam's regional gender justice program in the region addressing gender roles and women's political participation in Jordan, Lebanon and North Iraq. Lana: Transformative Political Identities for Gender Equality in Jordan, Iraq and Lebanon is a five-year project that aims to contribute to a more equal, violence-free and democratic society in the MENA where women and men reject all forms of discrimination that allow for gender inequality to thrive. Along with its partners Abaad & CFUWI in Lebanon, ARDD - Legal Aid in Jordan, and Women's Empowerment Organization (WEO) in North Iraq, Oxfam is implementing Lana in two phases. It is currently in the second year of its first two-year phase. This phase focuses on building a base of men and women change makers, from diverse backgrounds, working in their communities to raise awareness on gender roles and women’s political participation; and to bring men and women together and empower them to advocate for increased women’s political participation. The current phase of Lana is the base for the development of the second phase, which will be primarily focused on consolidating the work at the national and sub-regional level, as well as building a strong network of allies (non-governmental organizations, government entities and private sectors) which will lead the agenda on women’s political empowerment.   2.       Purpose   The project adopts the change maker methodology used in Oxfam’s global We Can Campaign to end violence against women. The concept of change makers is centred on recruiting women and men who believe in gender equality and equal power relations. They are provided with educational materials and simple messages and in turn they start to change others and recruit more change makers who would carry on the same mission, multiplying the impact of the project. Lana uses a model of change that is centred on the process of attitude-belief-practice change among individuals, as the basis for its work. It will contribute to changes in the hearts and minds of women and men change makers and hence in their practices for justice and gender equality. It is a transformative process that shifts power from men, so both men and women enjoy equality. From the original 5 countries in South Asia in 2004, the ‘We Can’ campaign approach has now been adopted in 14 countries across the globe. Lana is the first project in the MENA region employing this approach and model of change Patriarchy, conservative religious interpretations and cultural stereotyping remain major forces hindering the advancement of women and the shift in perceptions of gender and gender roles in this region. Social norms and attitudes create barriers to women’s participation in the public sphere – it is assumed the most important role women can fulfil is as home-makers and mothers. Strong adherence to traditional gender roles means that women shoulder the burden of most of the household and childcare responsibilities, further reducing their chances of participating in the labour market and in civil and political life.  Lana’s model of change and values of transformative leadership for gender justice hold groundbreaking potential when it comes to challenging deeply held patriarchal perceptions of gender norms and women’s role in politics and society and changing them. Being the first initiative to employ this model of change targeting the hearts and minds of women and men in the region, its process, challenges, successes and achievements need to be documented for it can serve as an example for other similar initiatives in the region with the same values and model of change to model around. Within the process documentation framework, a Lana regional blog featuring stories from change makers and project staff across countries, will be set up to serve as a platform for change makers and Lana teams across the three countries to share their stories, successes, challenges and opinions; and to act as a tool to attract and maintain local and international media attention to the Lana programme and achievements. Embedded in this blog, will be a photo stream to provide visual documentation of the Lana activities, matching the stories. The specific objectives of this blog and photo stream: -          Document the process of the change and how change happens in the context of Lana, the challenges faced , the success stories and the major learning points of those working on the project in the 3 countries. -          Highlight the stories of new role models of men and women challenging patriarchy and gender inequality and modeling transformative leadership -          Raise awareness on the project values and inspire the public to take part of it -          Attract local and regional media attention to the Lana programme, its activities and achievements and spur their interest in covering these activities and hence increase Lana’s visibility. -          Serve as a platform for Lana change makers and Lana staff across the three countries to share stories, successes, and challenges      3.       Tasks   Under the supervision of the Lana Communication officer and in coordination with the Oxfam and partners’ Lana teams, the consultant photographer will be required to provide content and photos for the photo stream:   -          Take portrait photos of change makers, Oxfam & partners’ staff,  alliance membersand community members with their consent.   -          Attend activities in each country and take photos documenting the events, in coordination with and consent of partners and all parties involved. Oxfam will support on this.   -          The consultant might be required to make a second round of visits to the three countries to produce another batch of photos of events.    4.       Deliverables   -          Portrait photos of 20 to 30 men and women (change makers, staff, community members, alliance members and apex for a members) per country.   -          50 to 100 pictures of the Lana activities and meetings per country per visit.    5.       Timeline   The timing of the visits to the countries shall be discussed with the partners and decided according to their availability and convenience.