From 5 to 9 November, an international Workshop on Rural Radio and Food Security took place at the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) headquarters in Rome, Italy.
The Workshop was organized by the Extension, Education and Communications Service (SDRE) in collaboration with the Information Division (GII) of the FAO. Other collaborators were the World Association of Community Radio Broadcasters (AMARC) and the Developing Countries Farm Radio Network (DCFRN), both of which are Canadian based organizations.
Five rural radio broadcasters drawn from Africa attended the Workshop. A number of delegates attending the 31st. Session of the FAO conference, which was taking place simultaneously, were present during the plenary sessions. These delegates hailed from Senegal, Finland, South Africa, USA, and Cameroon.
Two events prompted the holding of this Workshop. First, it was a follow-up to a previous Workshop on Farm Radio Broadcasting, which was held from 19 to 22 February 2001 at FAO headquarters in Rome. This International Workshop entitled Information and Communication Technologies Servicing Rural Radio: New Contents, New Partnerships. The Workshop brought together 50 participants coming from Africa, Europe, the United States and a number of FAO technical divisions’ staff. Among the recommendations of this Workshop was that FAO make a follow-up in promoting the use of the radio to communicate agricultural issues. This necessitated a follow-up Workshop, which this time was dedicated to rural radio and how it can promote food security.
The second event was the 31st Session of FAO conference, which was to be held within the framework of the World Food Summit: five years later[1]. The SDRE of FAO thought of bringing selected African rural radio broadcasters to Rome, who would receive some input on food security from the technical divisions while at the same time covering the ongoing conference. They would then report it live, in their local languages, to their stations back in Africa. This exercise was facilitated by AMARC and the Information division of FAO. This is the backdrop against which the Workshop was realized.
Radio is still the most popular, the most economic and the most accessible means of communication for rural population. In Africa, the number of radio sets per head is superior by far to the number of TV sets or telephone lines.[2] In places with high rate of illiteracy, as well as where electricity, phone - or worse even access to Internet are lacking - radio plays a key role in daily local life. Rural, local and community radio informs population in local languages on vital subjects such as agriculture and public health. Established by and for the community, radio involves the population in the programmes, so that they may actively participate in development.
For the last thirty years, FAO, through its Sustainable Development Department, has been actively supporting rural, local and community radios, since these are able to relay information on food and agricultural issues in local languages to rural population. FAO carries out a vigorous campaign to promote the use of the radio (of course, always in conjunction with other means of the media) in rural areas in its fight against hunger and underdevelopment. There is a growing realization today, that radio is the most powerful vehicle for reaching rural population of Africa, especially in areas worst affected by chronic food shortages. In brief, radio is a great intermediary.
This FAO media campaign will stretch to cover regions presently not covered, an effort that will always require and involve the cooperation of bodies such as AMARC and DCFRN. They will be useful partners in establishing and fostering new links in these new horizons in Africa. The stage is set for action!
Every rural radio institute, in the exercise of the universal media mission of informing, entertaining and sensitizing (in Developmental Communications, we talk of mobilizing), aims at responding to the most basic needs of the community it reaches. According to latest FAO estimates, 800 million people in the world are still undernourished. Of these, 70 percent live in rural areas. This implies that a large percentage of rural radio audience is an undernourished listener.
In this circumstance, rural radio finds itself under the obligation - in its mission of responding to the community’s most urgent needs - to address the important question of food security. Any communication channel that ignores - albeit unknowingly - the most pressing and basic needs of its audience is an irrelevant channel.
Several rural radio stations in Africa and elsewhere have been actively involved, and have cooperated with NGOs and the governments in fighting hunger. The Communication for Development Group within FAO has fostered this active involvement of rural radio in the fight against hunger. It was on the basis of this, that this Workshop on “Rural Radio and Food Security” was conducted.
The rural population is not just affected by malnutrition. Indeed, malnutrition is often a direct consequence of abject poverty. Lack of material and financial resources often leads to chronic hunger, and consequently, malnutrition. To combat this, in order to promote food security, a practical programme on Sustainable Rural Development becomes an imperative and since there is a close association between poverty and illiteracy, rural radio becomes the most viable channel for such a campaign. Rural radio would be the most powerful medium in the campaign for sustainable rural development in order to achieve food security.
This is the spirit in which the Workshop on Rural Radio and Food Security was conducted.
The Workshop had four main objectives, namely:
To foster meetings, discussions and exchanges between the technical services of FAO and African radio broadcasters, in order for FAO to know the needs of rural radio broadcasters in the South and thus be able to adapt the technical contents on food security accordingly,
To discuss the FAO/AMARC project for the creation of a food security information service,
To launch a process for the development and production of media contents on food security for radio broadcasters in Africa,
To cover the proceedings of the 31st. Session of the FAO conference - alongside the Workshop - and file in their reports in their respective local languages.
The following outcomes were expected from the Workshop:
Needs of rural radio broadcasters and their audiences identified in terms of contents and technical divisions of FAO better informed of the needs of the rural populations,
FAO/AMARC joint project on food security information and early warning presented and made known to the participants,
Various technical services of FAO contributing to the creation of such an information service through their support, advice and the preparation of adapted contents,
Papers and report-presentations from the Conference sent to the respective stations from where the five broadcasters hail, as well as interviews conducted with selected FAO experts,
Radio scripts, audiocassettes and CDs prepared, in view of their eventual production.
The Workshop brought together five broadcasters from the African continent[3], who are involved in rural radio activities, the Executive Director of the Developing Countries Farm Radio Network (DCFRN) based in Toronto, Canada, three representatives of the World Association for Community Radio Broadcasters (AMARC). The latter included the Director of MOEBIUS programme and the Coordinator for Radio Broadcasting Campaigns (Montreal, Canada) as well as the Director for AMARC Africa (Johannesburg, South Africa). In addition, staff from the following FAO technical divisions attended: Food Security, Biodiversity & Genetic Resources, Nutrition, Global Information & Early Warning System, Special Programme for Food Security, Agricultural Marketing, Agrometeorology, Fisheries, Forestry, Post-Harvest Operations, and the World Agricultural Information Centre (WAICENT).
The plenary sessions were attended by delegates participating in the 31st. session of the FAO Conference, hailing from South Africa, Finland, Senegal, USA, and Cameroon.
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[1] This Summit was
re-scheduled to June 2002. These changes were due to security precautions,
following the events of September 11. [2] Based on statistics provided by UNESCO, in 1997, the continent of Africa had 158 million radio receiving sets, with a distribution ratio of 216 sets per 1000 inhabitants. The continent had a total of only 44 million television sets, with a distribution ratio of 60 sets per 1000 inhabitants. [3] The five broadcasters were drawn from Tanzania, South Africa, Mali, and Niger. They belong to AMARC network and were selected because of their knowledge of the local languages, namely: Swahili, Sepedi/Zulu, Bamana/Bambara, Haoussa and Filoussi. |
