BBC's 100 Women Challenge will report from four cities with solutions journalism angle

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The BBC's 100 Women project, now in its fifth year, is taking a solutions journalism approach to reporting on women's issues around the world.

The team will be focused on four key challenges, with reporting based in four cities: the glass ceiling, with reporting in San Francisco; tackling female illiteracy in Delhi; safety for women on public transport in Nairobi, and sexism in sport in Rio de Janeiro.

The project, announced today (4 September), will be broadcasting and publishing stories online weekly during the month of October, focusing on each topic for seven days at a time.

Part of BBC World Service, the 100 Women Challenge is designed as a collaborative effort between different teams at the BBC and organisations and women on the ground in each location. It aims to get audiences involved with the programmes, to hear previously untold stories and to recognise work being undertaken to address the issues.

"We've heard from audiences time and time again that they really like reading about women around the world and they really like the stories that we cover but they also want to know what's happening around the world to make a difference," Amelia Butterly, project lead, told Journalism.co.uk.

"So the team came up with the idea of the 100 Women Challenge and it's not just about bringing these stories to the attention of the audience, it's about also highlighting what women and men around the world are doing to tackle some of these key problems."

We're challenging #100Women to tackle the glass ceiling, female illiteracy, street harassment & sexism in sport. And we need your ideas! pic.twitter.com/2O8rmnfL9j

— BBC 100 Women (@BBC100women) September 4, 2017

As part of the project, anyone can get in touch with the team to share their stories and contribute to the project, either via social media or via forms attached to content published on the BBC News website.

Each week of the 100 Women Challenge will also include live elements, such as live call-ins for those who are not able to access the internet or a computer, and live TV segments.

Butterly explained the team has been working in collaboration with organisations in San Francisco, Delhi, Nairobi and Rio to ensure that their network is aware the project is happening and knows how to contribute should they wish to do so.

BBC's 100 Women list will also include an element of crowdsourcing, with plans to publish an initial list of 60 names and then choose the remaining 40 as the project develops.

"Solutions-focused journalism is a bit of a buzzword at the moment, and I think the real key thing here is what can we do practically," explained Butterly.

"It's not about the BBC telling people what the solution should be, we're not campaigning. What we're doing is finding women who are already involved, already active, they've got something to say, and we're just providing the platform.

"It's about reaching female audiences who maybe haven't had a voice at all in the past."

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