Keys To Sustainability: The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) Perspective

Excerpts from a presentation delivered by the director of Radio Maendeleo, Kizito Mushizi at the Third AMARC/AFRICA Pan African Conference in Nairobi, Kenya.

"The challenges facing community radio or community media are long term and are problems which are not about to disappear. Therefore, they require sustainability in terms of our action and our communication tools called upon to provide a solution.

According to me and my humble twelve years experience in this world of community radio, these signs can be further divided into three categories and the theme of our conference already foreshadows it very well: Content, Legislation and Resources.

1. Content: ... The more the message adheres to the vital and real interests of the community, the more it increases in legitimacy and gains credibility and thereby also assures moral sustainability.

It has to be inclined to the target of our message, which then appropriates and owns it. This means participating together with the community making the radio and not merely doing it on their behalf. We are not dogmatic and moralist radios in terms of a message with a singular meaning, rather we are tribunes, for useful social debate where the target, namely the audience contributes to developing the message they will hear. Let us stop being community radios by name only who in reality are searching for their target, rather, let us become credible platforms of community discussion

Legislation: The democratisation of waves by the community radio signifies pluralism in all its forms, tolerance and other related democratic values. If the legal and judicial frameworks in our respective countries do not recognize the specific role and the “relevance” of the third estate, in terms of the public and business, we must agitate. Lobby groups and advocacy campaigns in most of our countries are in order here.

This therefore implies that we ourselves need to have an internal legislation within our organs, which is as flexible, transparent and democratic as possible...

Resource mobilisation: This comprises human, material and financial resources. The challenges are major both on the part of our salaried staff and on the part of the volunteers who participate in the production, in terms of capacity to always respond to the multiple expectations and whims of the audience. These same challenges are also evident often with the members of our leadership organs or again the supreme organs of the radio. The management of long-term resources will always remain a sizeable challenge...

As far as we are concerned, the material challenges are strongly linked to technical and technological issues. With the current electronic break-through and the breathtaking development of information and communication technology, we must realize that out of nearly 700 community radios supposedly in existence in Africa, more than half perhaps use a small scale emitter if they are lucky and which has a ridiculous projection and a mediocre sound quality.

The financial challenge, which is at the heart of the battle, is casing a general uncertainty....Finances are indispensable for the sustainability of our action. It is not an issue of a lot of money or of little money, but simply funding which allows us to adequately perform the duties expected of us. Mechanisms for the internal and external mobilisation of funds for our radios are necessary..."