Elijah Chiwota

It would be hard to match the community radio expertise gathered in Grand Bissam at the end of April. Over 100 community broadcasters from across the continent converged to share, discuss challenges, debate issues and share knowledge at the 4th Pan African Conference of community radio activists and other stakeholders.

The radio fiesta, which takes place every four years, was organised by the Africa chapter of the World Association of Community Radio Broadcasters (AMARC), which has over 4,000 community radio stations, federations and community media stakeholders in more than 115 countries.

The conference theme, "Increasing the effectiveness of community radio in poverty reduction, good governance and climate change adaptation," embraced issues that are considered topical African challenges.

Ghana's Radio Ada describes itself as "the voice of the Dangme people and a living laboratory of people's empowerment and participatory work in progress." It is one of eight stations that the Ghana Community Radio Network has managed to put on air.

The station plays an important role in sharing agricultural information on topics like crop diversification and organic farming, thus contributing to improved food security and poverty reduction. One tangible impact of its broadcasts has been the adoption of onions as a cash crop in the dry season in Ada.

"Radio is the most affordable, convenient medium for people living in the rural areas as it plays a big role in development and improved livelihood for the underprivileged," said Margaret Sentamu Musagazi, director of Mama FM. "[It] is an accessible medium for underprivileged women in rural and semi-urban communities."

Mama FM, which boasts of reaching an audience of over 13 million people, is owned by the Uganda Women's Media Association (UWMA). The association’s vision is of a society able to access and use information for meaningful development. Mama FM contributes to this concretely for women and marginalised communities by promoting their concerns and increasing their participation in national and development programmes.

The station offers training to women broadcasters with the aim of increasing women’s access to the airwaves in a country in which only 15 percent of the voices that are heard on radio are women’s voices. Two-thirds of its staff is women.

Is Africa ever short of excuses to convene conferences? critics may ask. Well, this platform was far from a ritual: it presented an opportunity to reflect carefully on current community radio strategies.

Michael Daka: 'Everybody wanted to see the padded room - that is the name they have given to our studio - and we welcomed them.'

What emerged from lively plenary and group discussions as well as the often intense one-on-one exchanges between participants, was that community radio has earned the mantle of being the voice of the people. There was agreement that the best stations are the ones whose identity and complexion most closely resemble that of the community they broadcast to.

It was within this context that community broadcasters identified their goal as expressing the concerns and aspirations of ordinary citizens and promoting dialogue within communities, and asserted that radio stations should serve as a platform for citizens to interact with their local and central governments.

Fanciful ideals, the sceptics might say. Simple really, is the retort from community broadcasters: locate your station within a local environment close to the people and you'll see that if access is easy, people will visit the station to participate and air their views.

Opening their doors to the public, said Michael Daka of Breeze FM, a commercial station based in Chipata, Zambia, is what made them popular with the local population. "Everybody wanted to see the padded room - that is the name they have given to our studio - and we welcomed them," explained Daka, who's been a broadcaster for more than 30 years.

Community radio broadcasters see themselves as activists in the development of the communities in which they work and live. It is passion that drives the many volunteers that operate in a sector that still battles with severe funding constraints while staving off attempts by politicians who seek to control them through donating money and other clandestine means.

Governments in Africa are generally suspicious of the media and the popularity of community radio stations has made them even more apprehensive. Their fears are unfounded, say the broadcasters, who have expressed a keenness to interface with governments on laws, regulation and policy that would create an enabling environment for community radio to flourish.

This desire to see politicians facilitate - rather than seek to control - the community radio arena was given a timely boost by the conference's host government. In what many described as a rare acknowledgement of the critical role of community radio, Cote d'Ivoire minister of communications, Hibrahim Sy Savane, said in his address that part of community radio's reason for existence is to improve governance by the state.

He said the sector contributed to the democratisation process by allowing citizens to express themselves. Savane explained that his government had thus far licensed over 100 community stations, 60 of which were regularised after operating without licences. The government had a fund dedicated to building community radio, he said, because it played a key role in rural areas as a tool for development and communication.

Broadcasters will be hoping that other governments too will come around to helping the community radio sector grow.

*Elijah Chiwota is Inter Press Service Africa's GTF Project Media Coordinator. He works on the role of the media in strengthening citizen demand for good governance through evidence based approaches in Ethiopia, Ghana, Malawi, Sierra Leone, South Sudan, Uganda and Zambia. He is based in Johannesburg, South Africa.

(END/IPS)