Description
PROGRAM DESCRIPTION The Public Affairs Section of the U.S. Embassy in the Philippines of the U.S. Department of State announces an open competition for a cooperative agreement to develop and implement a Young Southeast Asian Leaders Initiative (YSEALI) Regional Workshop on Advanced Media Literacy for Digital Creators pending the availability of funding. Please carefully follow all instructions below. This notice is subject to the availability of funding. Priority Region: Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Laos, Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam, and Timor-Leste. Program Objectives: YSEALI (yseali.state.gov) is the U.S. government’s signature initiative to engage emerging leaders in Southeast Asia. The program aims to create a network of young Southeast Asian leaders who work across national borders to solve common problems. Through a variety of programs and engagements, YSEALI seeks to build the leadership capabilities of youth in the region, strengthen ties between the United States and Southeast Asia, and nurture a community of leaders who work across borders to solve shared issues. YSEALI is open to young leaders ages 18-35 who are both citizens and residents of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) member countries (Brunei, Burma, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam) or Timor-Leste. Responding to priorities from youth in the ASEAN region, YSEALI programs focus on four themes (Civic Engagement, Economic Empowerment and Social Entrepreneurship, Education and Environmental Issues). One component of YSEALI is the annual Regional Workshops held across Southeast Asia on strategic topics. This regional workshop on Advanced Media Literacy for Digital Creators will advance the YSEALI theme of Civic Engagement and the U.S. Embassy in the Philippines priority to support emerging leaders as democratic vanguards and promote media literacy. This regional workshop will convene around 100 emerging content creators, journalists, and advocates from ASEAN member nations and Timor-Leste for a five-day workshop in the Philippines. The workshop will advance participants’ knowledge and skills in critical media literacy. The workshop will include sessions on strategic and data-based content ideation, responsible content creation, effective audience engagement, identifying and countering mis/dis-information, and impact of AI on social media. The workshop will also include virtual webinars and exercises on wellness and self-care, combatting copyright or digital theft and tools to promote media literacy to fellow creators. Leveraging the wide knowledge base of Filipino and regional talent, the workshop will feature in-depth discussions and experiential learning sessions led by experts from Southeast Asia and the United States. The workshop will also create and sustain a virtual network of emerging content creators to provide a safe space for exchanges of best practices and solutions to challenges. At the workshop’s finale, participants may compete for small grants to implement projects and/or campaigns to promote media literacy to fellow emerging leaders across the region and celebrate International Youth Day in August 2025. The proposal should include workshop follow-on activities such as virtual collaborative work, projects funded through small seed grants, or ongoing mentorship. A follow-on activity may also be implemented to report on project successes and challenges and produce a toolkit with best practices on cross-border collaboration. The follow-on activity should be included in the monitoring and evaluation plan. The proposal should include a pre and post workshop survey to measure the overall effectiveness of the workshop as well as any changes to the participants’ knowledge of the workshop topic. The concepts of leadership, giving back, and strengthening a Southeast Asian/ASEAN identity based on shared values and shared challenges should be integrated into the program. The grantee is expected to develop syllabus materials and an event program with participant and speaker biographies, as well as design banners, backdrops, and other printed materials. The grantee is expected to design a digital engagement strategy for workshop participants and social media audiences, including live video or live online engagement during the program. No new website specific to the event should be created or launched. Domain, hosting and build costs will not be covered. The workshop will be conducted in English. Participants and Audiences: Participants will be content creators, journalists, and media literacy advocates from ASEAN member nations and Timor-Leste. Participants should demonstrate commitment to develop and sustain their projects. Participants should also be registered YSEALI members (before or during application via http://yseali.state.gov). The grantee will create an online application process and coordinate with the U.S. Embassy in the Philippines and other U.S. Embassies in the region to recruit and select participants from all ASEAN member countries and Timor-Leste. All participants must be proficient in written and spoken English. Participants must be citizens and residents of an ASEAN member country or Timor-Leste. The grantee will be responsible for arranging and using cooperative agreement funds to cover all elements related to participant and staff travel including international and domestic flights, visas, travel to and from airports, visas, accommodations, per diem, meals during the program, and insurance. Additional Information: See Related Documents tab for more details and link to mandatory forms.