Description
On April 1, 2022, the White House announced the list of priority countries and regions under the U.S. Strategy to Prevent Conflict and Promote Stability. Priority countries include Haiti, Libya, Mozambique, Papua New Guinea, and one region Coastal West Africa, including Benin, Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana, Guinea, and Togo. As part of this initiative to prevent conflicts and promote stability in Togo, U.S. Embassy Lomé, of the U.S. Department of State, announces an open competition for organizations to submit applications to carry out a program to provide media literacy awareness for the public as bridges of understanding between individuals of different religious and cultural backgrounds for peacebuilding. Togo, despite its proximity to countries affected by violent extremism, is one West African country that has experienced relative peace and security, until recently. The escalation in violence in Burkina Faso has spread to neighboring countries, with Togo and Benin recording their worst Global Terrorist Index (GTI) scores on record. According to country officials, as of today, violent extremist attacks have led to over 40 military casualties and more than 100 civilians were killed and 2000 Togolese have taken refuge outside the country. As recognized by the United Nations Alliance of Civilizations (UNAOC), media literacy is an educational and cultural area that needed to be addressed, particularly when aiming at building bridges of better understanding between individuals of different religious and cultural backgrounds. Togo’s National Strategy to Prevent and Combat Violent Extremism (SNAPLEV) references the need for media literacy and for additional collaboration with journalists as a key method of preventing violent extremism. The main objective of this NOFO is to leverage and highlight U.S. expertise and the growing U.S.-Togo relationship to use media literacy as an educational and cultural as mechanism to build bridges of better understanding between individuals of different religious and cultural backgrounds, with the end goal of preventing violent extremism.