Civic Voice: Empowering the Poor Through Community Radio The Context Empowerment of the poor, informed civic engagement and increased social accountability are essential to poverty reduction. These values are building blocks of good governance around the world, and are key areas in World Bank projects and programs. A conducive policy and regulatory environment, access to information, and the means to freely report and comment on issues of local interest are recognized as critical enablers of these values. The World Bank Institute (WBI) is supporting a Bank-wide Grassroots Media Program to strengthen the community radio sector and the climate for public interest media in developing countries. This is a relatively new area of World Bank involvement. It is supported by the Bank’s program to enhance policies, institutions and capacities for Civic Engagement, Empowerment, and Respect for Diversity (CEERD), as an integral part of development assistance. CEERD supports efforts to bring good practices from the field into World Bank practice and to get staff in all the relevant operational units of the Bank collaborating to embed these changes in lending projects. WBI is closely collaborating with regional staff involved in information, education and communication, country and central staff supporting Community Driven Development (CDD), and regional and central staff involved public sector reforms and good governance. At the same time, the World Bank is learning from others’ experience in this field, working with organizations such as the World Association of Community Radio Broadcasters (AMARC), Article 19 (an international human rights organization focusing specifically on freedom of expression), Radio Netherlands, Search for Common Ground, national community radio networks in Asia, Africa, and Latin America, and others. Program Objectives Linked to the Bank’s country assistance, the Voice and Media Technical Assistance Program: (a) assists public interest media —particularly community radio stations— to improve their programming and networking, and (b) identifies policy and regulatory improvements that will facilitate freedom of information and voice, and the development of a healthy public interest broadcasting sector. Why Community Radio?  Public interest and community broadcasting are vital assets for broad-based, participatory development. These media are particularly important for poor, illiterate or semi-literate people, not only in making information available to them but just as importantly, enabling them to articulate their own concerns, give feedback to government, and marshal information and local expertise, in order to tackle problems and grasp opportunities. Broadcasting can be a powerful and effective medium for voice, including of those who have been deprived. The enabling environment for such broadcasting is critically important because without specific attention to the public goods nature of the airwaves, and provisioning space for independent public service and community uses, experience shows that commercial broadcasting crowds them out rapidly. Commercial broadcasting could under some circumstances play these roles, but in practice, profit motives and ownership structure have tended to limit commercial broadcasters’ interest or capacity to provide in-depth reporting and news analysis, and significantly informative programming on a sustained basis. This crowding out is already happening in developing countries that have liberalized the broadcasting sector as a straight privatization exercise, without explicitly enabling pluralistic public interest and community uses.
Community radio is being given special attention because it has proved to be a sustainable and interactive medium for poor and illiterate populations to be heard, be informed, shape knowledgeable opinions, learn the give-and-take of informed dialogue, and become more decisive agents in their own development. Local news and educational programs can greatly enhance transparency, a cornerstone of democracy and way to thwart corruption. The end result can be stronger, more effective and appropriate development activities. By helping poor constituencies to develop their own local news programs and to present discussions on matters affecting their community, community radio broadcasting not only helps poor people to share information in a language they understand, but also fosters debate on issues, facilitates access to government decision meetings and events, and helps community members to organize themselves to identify, and benefit from more opportunities. Community radio magnifies the impacts of localized civic engagement by involving a larger listening audience, enabling poor people to hear their own voices on the airwaves, gain skills and confidence in framing and analyzing issues important to them, engaging in an informed debate, and pressing local officials for actions. At a time when it is becoming crucial to find ways to scale up and embed civic engagement in the life of poor constituencies in developing countries -- and in the expectations of officials -- community radio programming provides poor constituencies with their own potent vehicle for informing themselves, providing feedback to local government, recommending solutions to problems and pressing for actions Tools: Good Practices and Knowledge Sharing The World Bank is both learning from its partners in this sector and providing the infrastructure for local and national networks in various developing countries to exchange their knowledge and experience and learn from each other. Among the tools developed by CEERD's Voice and Media Technical Assistance Program, are:
Broadcasting, Voice and Accountability: A Public Interest Approach to Policy, Law and Regulation The World Bank's Guide to Good Practices, entitled Broadcasting, Voice and Accountability: A Public Interest Approach to Policy, Law and Regulation focuses particularly on development of a robust and pluralistic broadcasting sector that serves the public interest of society at large, including the poor. Our focus on broadcasting stems from the fact that this medium has the greatest potential to reach and to involve the direct participation of poor, illiterate populations who make up a large portion of people in developing countries. It is also a medium with the potential for immediate, “real time” interaction between poor constituencies and government officials, in which large numbers of listeners can participate. In countries with strong oral traditions broadcasting is a particularly potent way of involving people, breaking down barriers, and giving people the courage and skills to pursue issues in an informed way and hold government officials to account. This transformative aspect is particularly noteworthy in the context of community radio, making it a potentially extremely important vehicle for grassroots empowerment and development. The Bank’s increasing interest in the role of community broadcasting is in part because this medium facilitates the development of social networks through which poor and excluded constituencies can share information, help each other, build capacities, and develop coalitions to press government for reforms and better public service.
In the past, the World Bank has viewed liberalization of the airwaves as a subject for competition policy and assumed that commercialization would further goals of media independence and diversity of sources of information and perspectives. It is only in the last few years that voices have been raised in the Bank that question these assumptions, pointing out the trends in mature media markets toward consolidation of ownership, cost-cutting and the resultant reduction of sources of information and shallowness of reporting in most commercial broadcasting. The World Bank is increasingly concerned with ensuring that there is good governance in developing countries, and we have increasingly understood that this depends on societies becoming engaged, knowledgeable and active in giving feedback to officials and holding them to account on an ongoing basis (not just at election time). Hence, whether the media, and particularly broadcasting is delivering this public good comes into the spotlight.
The World Development Report of 2000 focused on empowerment of the poor as both a goal of development and a means to reduce poverty. This and the Bank’s books on the Voices of the Poor elevated the issue of enabling poor people to have a voice and to be heard, which now is a cornerstone of the Bank’s development paradigm. But how to do it? The typical event-based approaches to “participation” didn’t improve the underlying systems which would enable transparency and ongoing public influence on government policy and practices.
Since 2000, the Bank has promoted Freedom of Information legislation in numerous countries, while its attention to media policy and broadcasting legislation and regulation is just now starting. CEERD’s support through a Broadcasting Study in Ghana, in October 2005, was the first case, and dialogue on the reforms is now proceeding. It is worth noting that Steve Buckley led the Ghana Broadcasting Study team, in which Lumko Mtinde also participated. In this case, and in stakeholder discussions in Nigeria and elsewhere, requests for a Guide to Good Practice have come from ministers, members of parliament, advocacy committees of non-governmental stakeholders wanting community radio development, World Bank country directors, bilateral donors, and others. It was when Ghana’s Minister of Communications heard about the draft Guide that he asked for a study of Ghana’s broadcasting sector, using the information in the Guide in its analysis. Hence, the study includes an evaluation of current practices in Ghana against elements of good practices drawn from the draft Guide, and notes country examples of those attributes of good practice. The Ministry also asked for the full text of the draft Guide (and cross referencing from the study to pages in the draft Guide) and sent the Guide to all stakeholders who are involved in the reform process. The draft Guide has since been used as a key part of Bank technical assistance activities and analytical activities in several developing countries.
The usefulness of the Guide in stimulating leaders to focus on the issue of broadcasting reforms has made it abundantly clear that we need to get it out to the public as quickly as possible. The Guide has been the focus of two thorough internal World Bank peer review processes involving senior specialists from various Bank divisions, as well as two external peer review processes, one organized by the University of Michigan Press (the draft Guide was thoroughly reviewed by James Deane, Director of the BBC World Service Trust and by Professor Ruth Teer-Tomaselli of the University of KwaZulu-Natal and UNESCO Chair in Communications for Southern Africa) and another as a part of the Media, Voice and Development conference at Cherkley Court, UK (July 12, 2006).
Empowering Radio - Good practices in Development and Operation of Community Radio: Issues Important to its Effectiveness Community radio (CR) stations are owned and operated by the communities they serve. They are non-profit, non-partisan, and usually non-sectarian, and operate in a participatory way, relying on volunteers for reporters, producers and newscasters. Through community radio, poor constituencies can develop their own news programs and present discussions on matters affecting their community. They share information in a language they understand. They can debate issues, produce weekly programs, and develop talkback radio programs by mobile phone or mail drop. In the process, poor constituencies who were isolated and marginalized are becoming energized, developing informed opinions, and becoming more adept at using information to protect themselves, to make informed decisions and to get results.
In most of the countries in which the World Bank Institute’s Civic Engagement, Empowerment and Respect for Diversity (CEERD) program has a presence, an important focus is to support interested communities to establish community radio stations and to develop their capacities in programming, credible local reporting, station management and resource mobilization. The World Bank Institute's Five-Country Community Broadcasting Study provides good practices in the operation and effectiveness of community radio, to be used in developing technical support programs for the community radio sector in these or other countries. In particular, this preliminary phase clarifies how to support the participatory planning and establishment of community radio, how to enhance their capacities, their outreach to communities and the likelihood of their sustainability. It also provides insights into the risks involved and how to mitigate them. The findings can help us better plan for larger, more comprehensive support programs for the community radio (CR)sector.
This Study synthesized five separate country studies -- Colombia, Peru, South Africa, Mali, and Nepal -- which were conducted by local consultants. The local consultants extracted information from existing sources, and filled in gaps using interviews and group meetings to provide more reliable nation-wide information and new analysis on good practices in the community radio sector. This information addressed the following topics: Participatory Processes and Volunteerism; Relationship with the Community; Exertion of Rights through Commmunity Radio; Accountability and Good Governance; Role of CR Networks; Sustainable Financing; and the Role of CRs in Conflict and Post-Conflict Situations. The final study is a distillation of the five individual reports, with integrated findings, and an analysis of the conclusions of each.
The Study itself is comprised of four sections. The first section begins by introducing the concept of community radio and discussing some of its key defining characteristics, including community-based, independent, not-for-profit, pro-community development and participatory. The community radio stations of all five countries included in the study share these characteristics, although the emphasis on any given one varies depending on local factors. The second section provides selected data about each of the five countries studied, in the form of a brief summary of socio-economic indicators, with selected information about each country’s history, geography, culture and media environment. The information in this section is not intended to facilitate a comparison between countries, but to highlight specific characteristics that have influenced the particular challenges faced by the sector and the models that have emerged. The third section is the body of the report, with chapters describing and analyzing good practices from the five countries. These chapters address the core topics of the report: participatory processes and volunteerism; relationship with the community; exertion of rights; accountability and good governance; community radio networks; financing and financial sustainability; and whether and how community broadcasting operates in certain conflict and post-conflict situations. Using data and examples from the local consultants’ country reports, the report identifies country-level good practices that have worked (as well as some that did not work). The purpose is not to prescribe solutions but to describe models from which other community broadcasters can choose and adapt to their own local context.
Ghana Broadcasting Study: A Report for the Government of Ghana and the World Bank In 2005, WBI responded to a need identified by communities of practice in Ghana's community broadcasting sector, as well as by international public interest broadcasting experts, to examine the legal and regulatory environment for broadcasting in Ghana. There was considerable demand from both grassrotts practitioners and government authorities in Ghana to further develop the legal and regulatory framework for broadcasting. The purpose of this Study was to provide a framework to support in-country government authorities in the drafting of new broadcasting legislation, to be informed by local-level stakeholders, together with associated regulations and institutional arrangements for oversight of the broadcasting sector. The Study builds on and integrates an ongoing consultative process facilitated by the Ghana Advocacy Steering Committee for a National Broadcasting Law, and draws on international experience and standards.
The Study itself consists of four sections. The first provides an introduction, overview and analysis of the historical and present context of broadcasting in Ghana. The second provides an assessment of the two regulatory bodies with responsibilities for broadcasting, the National Media Commission (NMC) and National Communications Authority (NCA). The third sets out conclusions and recommendations for the future regulation of broadcasting in Ghana. The fourth proposes a plan for implementation. As a supplemental Annex, the Study provides comparative analysis of four African countries, three from West Africa - Benin, Burkina Faso and Mali - plus South Africa. The analysis of the enabling environment for broadcasting in Ghana demonstrates that the country has the fundamentals in place. It has Constitutional guarantees of freedom of expression and pluralism in the media since 1995, including a public broadcaster, commercial radio and television and the beginnings of community radio. However, the regulatory framework for broadcasting is only partially in place and responsibilities are divided across two regulatory bodies. The relationship between Constitutional provisions and guarantees and actual regulatory practice is not obvious. Experts on the ground recognize that there is a need to rationalize present arrangements and to introduce new regulatory functions not currently provided for or not adequately provided. There is no doubt that Ghana has made considerable progress in enabling development of broadcasting. The Study provides a detailed analysis of the present system, including the capacities and functioning of the two regulatory bodies, and finds that an updated regulatory framework would better serve the public interest. The main conclusion of the analysis and of the institutional assessment is that primary responsibility for broadcasting regulation should be vested in the NMC, the regulatory body with a Constitutional mandate to guarantee the freedom and independence of the media and to assure high quality media content. The respective future roles of NMC and the NCA would need to be clearly articulated; and in its recommendations, the Study strives to do so, and provides a guide to changes that would improve the enabling environment for broadcasting in Ghana. In the final section of the Study a plan for implementation is provided. It stresses the importance of engagement of all stakeholders and assumes that further detailed consultation will be required in the process of preparing draft legislation. It sets out a timetable for implementation based on bringing new broadcasting legislation into Ghana’s broader e-legislation strategy and it provides outline financial costs and an assessment of the capacity building and other measures that will be required. The study concludes that, with the commitment of all stakeholders and with clear political and institutional leadership, legislative change and institutional reform can contribute to supporting the growth of a diverse broadcasting landscape that will sustain Ghana’s cultural heritage and contribute to its future development priorities.
Voice and Media Technical Assistance Program: Progress on the Ground In 2003, the World Bank sponsored a workshop of community broadcasting experts and practitioners which informed the design of additional pilot countries to extend community radio sector support linked to Bank lending, and the design of a thematic website. For example, training for community radio reporters and round tables to enhance networking among stations for community engagement in public issues were supported in Malawi and Benin. Program development for community radios on local public spending and social auditing took place in Perú, carrying out activities with indigenous peoples radios with the assistance of Perú’s National Radio Coordinator. During ensuing years, and under the leadership of the World Bank Institute’s CEERD program, further pilots were implemented within either CDD projects or policy-based operations in Timor-Leste (expanding on CEP support), Sri Lanka, Nigeria, Indonesia, Kenya, and Morocco. Community Radio in CDD Projects: Kenya, Ghana and Sri Lanka Kenya.
In 2005, the World Bank initiated participatory development and establishment of community radio station in the Wajir District of Kenya under the Arid Lands Resource Management Project (ALRMP). After planning sessions in 2006, the stakeholders obtained a license from the government to establish the station, obtained use of land and a structure and the specifications of equipment needed, mapped out the priorities for the initial content of their broadcasting, and planned the type of staffing and volunteers needed. The ALRMP project agreed to finance the costs of equipment and materials and civil works on a cost-sharing basis, and finance the ongoing capacity development and initial operating costs of the station. The project's reasons to support community radio development are that the critical bottlenecks to effective natural resource management in Kenya’s arid and semi-arid lands are social and administrative, rather than the absence of particular technologies in forestry or range management. Establishing community radio is expected to play a key role in addressing these challenges and promoting the empowerment of communities to achieve sustainable improvements in their standard of living. Ghana.
The Bank continued to address broadcasting policy and community radio development by helping develop the reform agenda for the broadcasting sector. The Bank supported the development of a ground-breaking study of Ghana’s broadcasting sector, with policy, legal, regulatory and institutional recommendations to guide the reform process, and guided foundational steps toward drafting important national broadcasting legislation. Further, the Bank supported technical collaboration with the Ghana Community Radio Network (GCRN) to stimulate the development of the community radio sector. Ghana has a well conceived approach to community radio, reflecting global good practices in participatory planning and programming. However, the sector remains small due to ambiguities in the enabling environment, principally the absence of an effective broadcasting law, fragmentation in the regulatory framework, and unclear licensing procedures. The TA started in 2004 and continues to-date focusing on showcasing the role of community radio within the Community-Based Rural Development Project to strengthen community empowerment and voice through community radio programming; developing a program to be embedded in the CDD project to engage communities in priority issues and generate opinion on improvements needed in local governance and public service delivery; and improving the enabling environment, particularly the regulatory framework for broadcasting and media development. Sri Lanka.
Work in Sri Lanka consisted in assessing the community radio sector and distortions in the enabling environment facing community radio. The activities have been conducted in the context of the Community Development and Livelihood Improvement “Gemi Diriya” Project and consisted of collaboration with local experts on community radio planning and piloting to showcase its potential as an important tool for poverty reduction, as well as to clarify regulatory impediments and negotiate changes. Participatory research and awareness building was completed in the communities of Uva and Southern provinces and the resultant report, containing findings and recommendations, is under peer review. Community Radio and Women Participation: Timor-Leste.
In 2006, the World Bank, through the CEERD Program and the East Asia and Pacific Region, developed a capacity building activity in Timor-Leste to support community radio as a vehicle for social expression, a return to normalcy, and to empower women in the country. Partnering with an external media training organization along with its local counterpart, the activity sought to train young women become more active in community radio as reporters, producers, and station managers. Four workshops covering topics such as the role of women in politics, domestic violence, and governance and the petroleum sector were part of the 12-week training session. These workshops also focused on sustainability of community radio stations, fundraising, marketing, operations, management, and more. Ten women journalists from across all community radio stations worked to produce a six-part radio program series and a three-part drama series on the aforementioned themes. They also documented outcomes of the Second National East Timorese Women’s Congress and its significance to women in media and communication.
The Enabling Environment for Voice and Media. In an enabling environment that provides for independent media, free of government control, it is, in the first instance, the responsibility of broadcasters themselves to decide, on a day-to-day basis, what content they should or should not carry. There should be no prior censorship. Are there circumstances that justify measures to directly influence content? More specifically, can the state regulate to promote in broadcasting those characteristics that can enhance governance and participation, for instance by increasing the likelihood of a wide diversity of content across broadcasting? Is regulation of commercial broadcasting a feasible way of augmenting public participation? There are clear dangers in the over-regulation of content. Apart from the obvious risk of state censorship by another name, content rules should not be so onerous as to restrict creativity or impose excessive costs on a broadcaster. Nor should they be more stringent than those applying to other media, though they can take account of and be adapted to the particular nature of broadcasting. Many countries have developed systems to directly and indirectly influence broadcast content, with the goal of enhancing the quality and diversity of content, while fully respecting freedom of expression. The Guide examines provides several case studies to demonstrate good practices in several countries. Definition and Characteristics of Community Broadcasting. Community broadcasting can be defined as independent broadcasting that is provided by and for the members of a community in a particular geographical location or belonging to a particular community of interest. Its primary purpose is to deliver social benefit and not to operate for private commercial profit. It should be owned by and accountable to the community that it seeks to serve and it should provide for participation by the community in the making of programs and in management. There should be no a priori or unreasonable limitations on the extent of coverage, transmission power or the nature of the community to be served. Transparency and Consultation by the Authority. Transparency can be achieved through various means, including: publishing details of the interests and affiliations of members of the regulatory body; publishing proceedings of meetings, open licensing processes (including licensing decisions and reasons for those decisions); engaging in public consultation on the annual plan and priorities of the regulatory body; and conducting public consultation on licensing and regulatory policies, codes and procedures. Decision making on all major policy matters should include, as a minimum, a three stage public consultation process that includes the following:
- notice of a new decision that is to be made
- collection of public input on the possible decision
- final decision issued publicly
Recognition and Differentiation of Community Broadcasting. Community broadcasting should be recognized in law as a distinct type of broadcasting to be supported and encouraged through specific and explicit licensing arrangements that guarantee fair and equitable access to radio spectrum and to economic resources. Frequency Allocation. Radio spectrum is a scarce resource. To that extent it comprises part of the technical enabling environment. But at a non-technical level, rules regarding the allocation of spectrum to particular types of broadcasters can be motivated by a desire to enhance the diversity of content, and especially to improve the balance of different forms of ownership and participation. A similar case can be made for certain measures that regulate the cable broadcast system. Spectrum planning for broadcast services should ensure a fair and equitable distribution between public service, commercial and community broadcasters. In practice this means ensuring that sufficient spectrum is available free or at affordable cost for public service and community broadcasting. There should be open public consultation on the use of frequencies and their allocation between different uses, including public service, commercial and community broadcasters. Sufficient spectrum is usually available free or at affordable cost for public service and community broadcasting. There should be open public consultation on the use of frequencies and their allocation between different uses, including public service, commercial and community broadcasters. Efficient use of the spectrum requires a comprehensive national plan for national and regional services whereas local services may be accommodated more flexibly according to demand, population distribution and spectrum availability. International practice shows that the allocation of a minimum of 10-15 per cent of the FM band to community broadcasting (2-3 MHz out of the 20 MHz contained in the FM band that runs from 88 to 108 MHz) should be adequate, while 20 per cent is optimal. Countries as diverse as Thailand, France and the US allocate around 20 per cent of the FM band to non-profit local and community broadcasting. Licensing. The licensing processes for community broadcasting should be fair, open, transparent and set out in law, and should be the responsibility of an independent licensing body. Non-profits shall not be asked to compete with for-profit applicants for licenses and frequency assignment. License terms and conditions for community broadcasting should be consistent with the objectives of broadcast regulation and be designed to ensure that the community broadcasting service characteristics are maintained for the duration of the license period. Community non-profits should pay no or very low licensing fees. This is a way to encourage poor communities to be establish broadcasters, which is important for pluralism and diversity in the voices heard in the broadcasting sector. Funding Arrangements. Community broadcasting services may draw on a diversity of funding sources according to local circumstances. There should be no restrictions on funding sources other than what is necessary to maintain the character of the service and to avoid unfair competition. Community broadcasting may be supported by public funding, including direct public subsidies. Where there is a regular and guaranteed system of public funding this should be administered through an independent public body established for this purpose.
For more information please contact: Kreszentia Duer
Program Manager, CEERD
World Bank Institute Global Programs (WBIGP)
kduer@worldbank.org Craig Hammer
Program Coordinator, CEERD
World Bank Institute Global Programs (WBIGP)
chammer@worldbank.org Thomas Jeffrey Ramin
Senior Social Development Specialist
Community Driven Development
Social Development Department
tramin@worldbank.org Sandra Nonyelum Ohadike
Program Assistant
World Bank Institute Global Programs (WBIGP)
sohadike@worldbank.org
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