Media for Sustainable Development Content Survey

This 117-page report examines the strategy of using participatory community radio as a tool for fostering sustainable development. The research reported here is motivated by the observation that "many individuals and communities around the world are not aware of the real meaning of the concept, how to participate, how to act at a local level, and how to demand policies and programs that benefit them and their families....Community radio is based on the principle of development and community participation and yet no comprehensive study exists either in Africa or in Central America to assess the level at which community radio has succeeded in reaching its communities through the production of programs related to sustainable development."

To address this void, researchers from AMARC (the World Association of Community Radio Broadcasters) Africa, Panos Southern Africa and Pronatura, Mexico conducted a study of 13 community radio stations in Africa (Mali, Senegal, South Africa, and Zambia) and Central America (Guatemala, Southern Mexico, and Panama). The study involved: 1) research via the internet and third source directories of all existing community radio broadcasters in identified regions. 2) a content survey conducted via email with follow-up contact via telephone. 3) focus groups discussions (FGDs) with local stakeholders, station personnel and local audiences to identify perceptions of the role of radio in community development and to measure the quality of programming processes.

In short, the report finds that "Community radio stations are not doing enough to ensure that local communities participate in the selection and production of programmes regarding sustainable development issues, especially in deciding what themes or topics to cover...." For instance, environmental themes received an average of less than 2 hours of programming per month in some African stations, while none of the Central American stations had specific programmes on food security. Furthermore, none of the stations had ever carried out a comprehensive needs assessment, and the use of development experts was uneven. That said, the FGDs highlighted the potentially significant role that community media can play in facilitating community and national ownership of development agendas, particularly when programming is conducted in local languages.

Executive Summary

Community radio is based on the principles of community development and community participation. It therefore goes without saying that the main commitment and mandate for community radio is to produce programming on themes that will contribute to the development of the communities that they serve. Community participation means that, the community should play an active role in their process of development and ensure that their local community radio stations serves specific needs of their community.

The Johannesburg Conference on Sustainable Development held in 2002, gave an opportunity for community radio stations in South Africa and other African Countries to actively participate in the development and broadcasting of programming of the conference events. Some of the Community Radio stations that participated included stations from Angola, the Gambia, Mozambique, Mali, Togo, Democratic Republic of the Congo and others. This Conference brought together people from different corners of the world and disciplines, professionals, activists and many more. It was an opportunity for all these sectors to participate but also assess their own involvement with sustainable development issues.

One of the outcomes of the conference was the resolve to form the Media for Sustainable Development Committee (M4SD), a consortium of different organizations working in the media, especially community media. The aim of the committee would be to look at and assess the extent to which community radio has been involved in sustainable programming at station level. A study to evaluate the extent to which community radio develops and produces content on Sustainable Development topics was undertaken by AMARC AFRICA, PANOS Southern Africa and PRONATURA, Mexico. Participating Countries include South Africa, Zambia, Mali, Senegal and Zambia.

This report is an account of data/information collected from participating community radio stations and their experiences with sustainable development topics. It should be noted that for the purpose of the study sustainable development topics are mainly HIV/AIDS, Gender, Environment, Human Rights and Electoral Systems and Democracy. The summary of findings for this study is drawn from extensive research conducted in the form of questionnaires and focus groups.

The aim of the study was to assess the level at which community radio stations in Africa are involved in programming of content on sustainable development themes/ topics. Investigations conducted through the study indicate that in general, community radio stations are still struggling with producing content on sustainable development. One of the reasons is the lack of understanding and distinction of what sustainable content is especially in the specific context of the different communities. Findings however also indicate that despite challenges faced by the sector, community radio stations are making some efforts to produce programmes on sustainable content although they are also faced with challenges on identifying and working with relevant stakeholders for content development.

This report makes specific recommendation on how community radio station can improve on sustainable programming.

General Conclusions

...In a strictly statistical reading of the current situation, both regions (Central America and Africa) scores low in giving meaningful airtime to the sustainable development agenda.....[T]hese studied results beg the question whether community radio is an efficient method to promote sustainable development values within this population sector...

It is certainly clear that without community radio one could not conceivably position the sustainable development agenda in rural and ethnic communities - it is a matter of investment in training and infrastructure. The question is, without community radio, would there exist a register of local-culture and an ethnic perspective in the sustainable development debate, which is after all, is requisite for realization of sustainable development on a larger scale. And could these powerful collective models of participation and development otherwise be shared with other sectors of the society in a less lively, less locally lived format? To date, and not taking into account the participative political forms themselves, community radio is the only media form which allows for this ownership of message and this two-way communication, to hear and to speak.

...[I]t is clear that community radio staff, with the best of interests, is complicating their labors by compartmentalizing sustainable development into its component themes, and not exploiting the local collective model for its ability to do multi-thematic positioning simultaneously and holistically. In the same vein, actions designed to strengthen community radio’s ability to help with this initiative would meet with more success in proposing the sustainable development list of themes as criteria for the evaluation of integrity and participation in radio structures and processes, rather than as an agenda to be implemented, and turn the focus to reinforce the innovation of new local-cultural program expressions.