The national action plans for advocacy around the GMBS list a number of activities participants developed in the follow-up workshops to meet many of the challenges posed by the GMBS findings and the Editors response. The activities identified are under five key areas: 3.2.1 Awareness Raising The objectives for the activities identified in the area include raising public awareness on the GMBS findings and engaging in specific campaigns around the issues (e.g. Sixteen Days of Activism) The majority of the countries in their action plans intend to launch a series of workshops nationwide to present the findings of the GMBS. The national reports were launched in each country on May 3, 2003 World Press Freedom Day, mainly in the capitals and the planned workshops are intended to provide an opportunity for the findings of the GMBS to be made known to a wide cross-section of audiences. Some of the countries hoped to translate the summary findings of the GMBS into local languages for wider dissemination and discussion. Other countries plan to have the GMBS activities coincide with the Sixteen Days of Activism against Gender-Based Violence (November 25-December 10) focusing on the media’s coverage of gender-based violence. The idea of building a campaign on the GMBS is a planned activity in several countries. A network of partners working on gender and on media issues will coordinate the development of these campaigns, which are aimed at building gender literacy, and the linkage between the two, among policymakers and the public. 3.2.2 Research and Monitoring The objectives of this are to raise alerts as appropriate, research on specific areas, to regularly monitor the progress or lack of progress in media coverage and to update the GMBS. In nearly all the countries, the GMBS was the first ever comprehensive look at gender in the media undertaken. The findings of the study opened up wider possibilities for research to arm the media, media and gender activists and NGOs with information that will help them to strategically engage with the media. 3.2.3 Capacity-Building and Training The area of training was identified in all countries as one of the key strategies for implementing change in the media. It was noted that the quality of journalistic training in most countries had declined due to the lack of human, financial and other resources, and journalism training on the whole did not mainstream gender. 3.2.4 Policy Level Interventions In all the country discussions , it was noted that the absence of written editorial policies in the media houses contributed greatly to many of the GMBS findings. The objectives of this area include engaging policy makers on gender and media issues and working with media houses on implementing transformative policies. 3.2.5 Institutional Structures MISA Annual Report (April 2003 – March 2004) 15