In 2021, Internews in Indonesia opened an innovative Small Grants Pool to reach organizations and communities that tend to be systematically under-resourced when attempting to access more traditional grants.

Eight new and emerging organizations based in East Java, Jakarta, Papua, West Papua, and South Sulawesi received funding for research, capacity building, advocacy, and media development to promote the safety and participation of women, youth, and other marginalized groups within their communities. These organizations, mostly led by women or focusing on youth and vulnerable communities, were selected for their distinctive Gender Equality and Social Inclusion (GESI)-sensitive proposals.

In addition to running media activities, funding from Internews enabled grantees to obtain legal status and develop organizational strategies and business models to enable future sustainability. “Few other donors in Indonesia see support for media sustainability as an important program for democracy,” said Project Multatuli, one of the recipients.

The grants pool was an initiative of USAID MEDIA (Media Empowerment for Democratic Integrity and Accountability) which aims to strengthen the capacity of public-interest media and CSOs in Indonesia to pursue accountability. The grantees achieved a great deal with the relatively small pots of funding in just six months.

See highlights of some of our partners’ work below:

Konde.co: Research, knowledge-building, and advocacy on gender-based violence and LGBTQ+ people in the media
Internews partner Konde.co conducted qualitative research on LGBTIQ-related news coverage in 10 mainstream online media. PR2 Media carried out the first-ever nationally representative research on gender-based violence towards women journalists and launched an online awareness-raising campaign on the issues.

TIKI: Capacity building of women’s rights defenders
Internews partner TIKI ran workshops and training in Papua and West Papua using its Anyam Noken (Noken Weaving) trauma-healing method; supporting survivors to share and document their experiences of violence. TIKI also produced a radio talk show engaging local government and religious leaders in Papua to promote the protection of women’s rights.

KPJ: Malino Strengthening media content production by women, youth, and other marginalized groups
KPJ Malino’s YouTube channel aims to share ideas and issues related to the values of integrity. “We increased young people’s capacity in public speaking, content production, and editing. They’re now more confident to appear in front of the camera,” said its leader. Meanwhile, Community Radio Network of East Java (JRKI Jatim) trained local radio stations in creating content that better reflects the perspectives and experiences of women.