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AMARC launches radio news agency for Africas rural areas
16 October 2003
The World Association of Community Radio Broadcasters (AMARC) has set up a news agency on development issues. Simbani [1] Africa News Agency will make use of technical information from various organizations, editing it into radio format, thus making it accessible to a wide audience, including to people in the most remote rural areas.
The main focus areas are food security, the environment, gender, democracy and governance and HIV/Aids.
Information dissemination will be adapted to the rural and community populations' needs, on the use of local languages and on the vast community radio network, radio still being the most popular communication medium in Africa.
Simbani Africa
A New Voice for Community Radio
The agency's mandate is to gather information from various African communities in order to broadcast the many voices of Africa. With its editorial staff at AMARC headquarters in Johannesburg, South Africa, and its 54 correspondents covering Africa, Simbani News will develop a multi-thematic approach on: Human rights and democracy, gender and development, environment, HIV/AIDS and food security.
Fifteen correspondents have been identified among AMARC Africas member community radio stations. In six months a second phase will identify and train and further 15 correspondents and so on.
More than ever, communication remains a challenge in a world that is exposed to globalisation. Although Africa is still far from overcoming poverty, hunger or malnutrition, far from eradicating bad governance, and even further from achieving reasonable thresholds of the right to food, the right to health and the right to education, there still hope.
Until recently, the African population - was frequently denied the right to express itself. But, now, local community radio which is established, used and managed and owned by the communities is a great tool to change attitudes and thus to sustainable development. Rural and community radio is a participatory medium that gives a voice to the people themselves, allowing them to pro-actively take part in decision-making, and thus in determining their own futures.
Simbani Africa is taking advantage of new information and communication technologies. While in many cases only a limited number of people will benefit from these technologies, for Africa - they represent an essential step, as the agency's content will be produced for and by Africans.
The agency's correspondents will access the information by e-mail, Internet, fax or by traditional mail. The radio stations will be able to exchange their programmes. This will enable Africans to put into perspective topics that are perceived in a different manner from one point of the continent to another. The news agency will also play the role of an information source, serving institutions, NGOs, civil society and the non-specialized media that too often report only on urban information.
The launch of the news agency coincides with a World Food Day Broadcast. The Broadcast is being held in conjunction with the FAO with the theme International Alliance Against Hunger. The broadcasts are part of AMARC Africas radio campaigns/broadcasts to build awareness in communities on issues such as Human Rights, Gender, Freedom of Expression and HIV/AIDS.
On 11 December 2002, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the World Association of Community Radio Broadcasters (AMARC) signed a letter of agreement, to promote consultation, sharing of information and coordination of their activities on communication for development, and particularly on rural, local and community radio broadcasting. Thanks to this agreement, AMARC will access specialized content including information and warning service on food security, via a dedicated web portal within FAO's Word Agricultural Information Centre (WAICENT). The FAO-AMARC partnership will also lead to the implementation of an English-speaking training centre for rural radio and to the promotion by AMARC of the World Food Day (16 October) and TeleFood events organized by FAO. The collaboration will cover Africa, before being extended to other continents. Similar partnerships with other organizations are being pursued.
[1] Simbani is taken from ChiChewa, a language spoken in Malawi, Zambia and Mozambique. It means Talk.
Courtesy: Open Knowledge Workspace, where it was posted.
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Networked Intelligence for Development is a Toronto based network of independent consultants and trainers specializing in new media, information and communication technologies (ICTs), the creative industries and international development. Our consultants have held senior positions in multilateral organizations, governmental and intergovernmental organizations, broadcasting and media institutions, research institutes and non-governmental organizations.
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