Learning never stops

Background

Public health outbreaks often have gendered impacts, hitting women and girls the hardest. When governments around the world were forced to close schools in order to contain the spread of COVID-19, over 11 million girls faced the risk of not returning to school. The devastating economic impacts of COVID-19 have put many families under pressure, causing them to reconsider if they could afford to send their daughters back to school. When they are not at school, girls in poorer settings are often called on to take on more domestic tasks, and are more likely to be married at a young age or become pregnant when they are still children themselves.

Challenge

Rooftop and UNESCO worked together to launch an ambitious campaign to Keep Girls in the Picture, promoting girls’ continued learning during school closures and their return to the classroom when schools reopen. This multifaceted campaign was linked to UNESCO’s Global Education Coalition, and made use of a wide range of media and a highly targeted marketing approach to reach key online and offline audiences.

The theme explored the contrast between what might happen girls, their families and their communities if girls do not return to school, and what might happen if they do. If girls do not return to school, they lose important opportunities to build the knowledge, skills, and social assets to be strong, vibrant members of their societies. If they do return, girls are empowered and so is the entire community. The resulting message is clear: keep girls in the picture so they can reach their full potential and contribute more to our collective future.

Solution

In order to garner support from members of poor and rural communities that may lack internet access, we made use of a variety of non-digital media such as radio, flyers, posters and newspaper adverts. We created a toolkit to support community radio programmes to create exciting and memorable content that could inform and impact key audiences on this vital issue. We worked with youth-led organizations to develop a toolkit for youth advocacy, drawing on the power of youth voices and networks.

The Result

The digital side of the campaign was translated into more than 8 languages and had a potential reach of over 360 million people. The campaign video received over 5.4M views on UNESCO’s Facebook and Instagram channels in English, Spanish and French.

Ultimately, this campaign exemplified what can be achieved when content, marketing and influence are applied strategically in a digital initiative.