UNESCO announces Social Media 4 Peace – Bosnia and Herzegovina

Deadline: 15-Jun-21

UNESCO has announced the applications for Social Media 4 Peace to enhance the understanding of the root causes, scale, and impact of potentially harmful content and of the effectiveness of the tools to address it in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

UNESCO and the European Union have launched a new multi-year project entitled ‘Social Media 4 Peace’ to strengthen the resilience of civil society to potentially harmful content spread online, in particular hate speech inciting violence, while enhancing the promotion of peace through digital technologies, notably social media.

Objectives

The overall objective of the Social Media 4 Peace project is to strengthen resilience of fragile societies to potentially harmful content spread online, in particular hate speech inciting violence while enhancing the promotion of peace through digital technologies. In particular, the project aims at achieving:

  • Enhanced understanding of the root causes, scale and impact of potentially harmful content and of the effectiveness of the tools to address it in Bosnia and Herzegovina;
  • Improved curbing of potentially harmful content online in Bosnia and Herzegovina;
  • Enhanced promotion and support of peace building narratives and initiatives through digital technologies and social media in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Outputs

The current Call for Proposal corresponds to the first phase of the Social Media 4 Peace project to deliver the following outputs:

  • The rule of law tools in place to address illegal, harmful content and potentially harmful content in Bosnia and Herzegovina systematically reviewed and mapped;
  • The self-regulatory tools developed by social media to address harmful content in Bosnia and Herzegovina systemically reviewed and mapped;
  • An online monitoring mechanism of the local context and likely scale of potentially harmful content strengthened or established;
  • Consultation with conflict-affected communities organized to bring the understanding of the local context to content moderation and of the impact of harmful content online on conflict dynamics and instability;
  • Roundtable and conferences engaging multi-stakeholders coalition to identify gaps and review the relevance and effectiveness of the measures/tools in place to address potential harmful content organized.

Eligibility Criteria

  • The service provider for conducting the activities should have knowledge, competencies and experience in the following areas:
    • Registered as a legal organization, institution or university in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
    • Proven experience working in the area of countering disinformation, hate speech, prevention of violent extremism online.
    • The service provider should have track records in conducting research projects, both quantitative and qualitative (proven research collaboration with relevant authorities, social media companies, CSOs, traditional media are advantage).
    • Have a strong network with international institutions, government, universities and research centres, experts, researchers and association related to the issues of countering disinformation, hate speech, prevention of violent extremism online in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
    • Strong technical writing in English and BHS.
    • Able to deliver in a professional and timely manner.
  • Minimum Content of the Proposal Interested Contractor shall send the proposal (in English) to UNESCO Antenna in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina, covering at least the following elements:
    • Cover letter with statement of interest and briefly elaborating the capacity of the Contractor;
    • Concise organization’s portfolio of experience in developing similar activities;
    • The work plan to implement the project and its activities and short CVs of main personnel involve in the project;
    • Detailed Budget Proposal for the work as described in the TOR in convertible mark (BAM), while the contract with the selected entity is going to be signed in USD.

For more information, visit https://en.unesco.org/news/call-proposals-social-media-4-peace-bosnia-and-herzegovina-submission-deadline-15-june-2021