After a very successful start of the collaboration between the Hollywood Foreign Press Association (HFPA) and the World Bank this past July, where the panelists included Sharon Stone, Madeline Di Nonno and Christopher Bailey, among others, we are proud to announce that the second part of what will become a series is taking place today, December 8.

The topic of today’s discussion is “Preventing Violence Against Women and Girls Through Edutainment.” The COVID 19-crisis has led to an increase in violence against women, and the statistics are frightening: violence against women and girls (VAWG) is a global epidemic.

Worldwide, one in five girls is married before turning 18, and one in three women has experienced physical or sexual violence in their lives. Grassroots mobilizations to combat the problem are dependent on resources that are often lacking.

The Global Forum held by HFPA and the World Bank DIME Narrating Behavior Change program is tackling the issue by bringing up five randomized control trials in Mexico, Uganda, Nigeria, and India that demonstrate edutainment delivered through TV, movies, radio or social media can be a cost-effective tool to reshape gender norms and prevent VAWG in developing countries.

In addition to the research – which is only the first step that helps raise awareness – edutainment partners who are actively working on changing entertainment and development in the world’s entertainment capitals, will present their innovative public and private initiatives that are helping combat gender stereotypes and prevent VAWG in developing countries.

Participants in today’s forum are World Bank Managing Director of Operations, Mr. Axel van Trotsenburg, Director of Development Impact Evaluation, Ms. Arianna Legovini, Economist Eric Arias and Senior Economist and Edutainment Lead Victor Orozco.

They are joined by the HFPA’s Chief Diversity Officer Neil Phillips, actor and activist Wilmah Munemera, Eliana La Ferrara, professor at Harvard, Punam Muttreja, Executive Director, Population Foundation of India, Salome Aloo, Kenya Country Director, Impact (Ed) International and Anna Wilke, Assistant Professor, Washington University in St. Louis.

At the first forum last July 27, panelists discussed Hollywood’s ability to change and influence social norms, cultural behaviors and norms in order to contribute to the betterment of individual lives and communities. Especially since two new entertainment centers outside the US and Europe keep growing. India’s Bollywood and Nigeria’s Nollywood are becoming the largest production centers, producing 3,000 and 2,500 movies a year, respectively.

As HFPA-President Helen Hoehne put it: “The HFPA hopes to bring Hollywood creatives together with the international development community to create these impactful and important edutainment programs.” She added that the 2022 Golden Globes generated more than 4.4 billion impressions on social media platforms, outperforming all other award shows combined, “which is why we believe leveraging the Globes with the World Bank will help lead greater awareness about the power of edutainment programming.”

Sharon Stone emphasized bridge-building between politics and entertainment: “We have to think about what we do because we are the one thing. Entertainment is a global touch. We go beyond policy. We go beyond every other business in the world.”

Great collaborations lead to great solutions. You can watch today’s forum at 12pm ET

here: Zoom Link to watch