ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

The organisers of the workshop would like to thank all those who have given their time, energy and resources in order to contribute to the success of this workshop:

• FAO's representation in Ouagadougou, which gave valuable logistical and administrative support;
• CTA, which sponsored the delegates from four anglophone countries;
• National Organizing Committee, chaired by Mr Francis Kabore, of the Ministry of Communication and Culture;
• CERRO, which mobilised all of its intellectual and logistical capacity to ensure the successful outcome of the workshop;
• chairmen and rapporteurs of plenary sessions and working groups;
• the hard working and competent secretariat team led by Ms Augustine Rouamba with Ms Celine Kando and Ms Evelyne Rouamba;
• translators and interpreters;
• receptionists.

Special thanks go to:

• His Excellency Mr Ablasse Ouedraogo, Minister for Foreign Affairs, for having placed the Ministry conference room et the disposal of the workshop;
• His Excellency Mr Claude Nurikyor Somda, Minister of Communication, for the logistical support given to the workshop,
• His Majesty, the Larlhe Naba Tigre, for the cultural and recreational evening which he held for all workshop participants.

ABBREVIATIONS

1. INTRODUCTION

The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) organized an international workshop in order to exchange views and discuss the development of rural radio in Africa. The workshop was held in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso from 10 to 14 June 1996.

The workshop objectives were:

• to assess the present status of rural radio in Africa,
• to identify major constraints to its development,
• to define a global plan of action for the development of rural radio in Africa;
• to identify financial and other resources required.

The workshop was organised in collaboration with the Government of Burkina Faso and the Union of National Radio and Television of Africa (URTNA).

The workshop brought together 73 participants representing rural radio from 21 African countries as well as major bilateral and multilateral organisations working in this sector.

In advance of the workshop, reports were prepared for each of the 21 countries involved. These assessed the present status of rural radio, institutional and legal constraints, and development objectives. An assessment of FAO's contribution to the development of rural radio in Africa was also drawn up. A summary of these documents and a report on general constraints experienced in the development of ruIa1 radio in Africa were presented, in French or English, to all workshop participants.

These workshop documents are available in French and English, with the exception of the introductory papers and the annexes, which are reproduced only in their language of origin.

List of participating countries:

Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Congo, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea Bissau, Kenya, Malawi, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, South Africa, Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe.

List of participating institutions and organizations:

ACCT, BBC, CECI, CERRO, CIRTEF, CESAO, CNCR, IDRC, CTA, DANICOM, Deutsche Welle, EDC, ENDA, GRET, GTZ, INADES, PANOS, Radio Nederlands, Radio Swiss International, ITU, UNDP, UNESCO, UNFPA, UNICEF, UNIDO, URTNA, WREN, French and Swiss cooperation agencies.

2. SUMMARY OF WORKSHOP ACTIVITIES

The workshop was held from 10 to 14 June 1996 in the conference room of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The programme and list of participants are supplied as an annex.

10 June 1996

This first day was taken up with the official opening ceremony, an introductory discussion session and the presentation of the summary reports of the studies which had been completed in advance of the workshop.

The official opening ceremony was chaired by the Minister of Communication and Culture, Burkina Faso, who made the opening speech after short statements by the Secretary General of URTNA, the Director General of Culture and Multimedia of the International Francophone Cooperation Agency and the FAO Representative in Burkina Faso.

The plenary session was chaired by Ibrahima Sane, Director of Radio, Senegal.

The discussion panel on the development of rural radio in Africa, for which the moderator was Jean Pierre Ilboudo of FAO, was preceded by an introductory paper presented by Jacques Sultan, FAO.

The panel members introduced the following issues for discussion:

• The role of rural radio as a public service (Bernard Feller, Intermedia, Consultant, Swiss Cooperation Agency for Development - DDC, Bern Switzerland);
• What type of radio: public, community, association, private, local, regional and/or national stations? (Samba Ousmane Toure, Director of CERRO, Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso);
• Rural radio, democracy and pluralism (Diana Senghor, The Panos Institute, Paris, France);
• Rural radio within an integrated multimedia approach (Michael Laflin, Educational Development Centre, Washington, USA);
• What farmers' associations say about rural radio (Pierre Claver Tassembedo, Director of Voix du Paysan, Ouahigonya, Burkina Faso);
• Cooperation and coordination: Towards a plan of action for the development of rural radio in Africa (Dominique Hounkonnou, CTA, Wageningen, The Netherlands).

The text of these presentations can be found in chapter 6.

An excellent debate followed which provided an opportunity to identify the principal constraints to the development of rural radio in Africa today.

Following the discussion, summary reports of the studies made prior to the workshop were presented by the three consultants, Jean Baptiste llboudo, Michael Pickstock and John Madjri (1) These reports were made available to participants in either French or English.

The presentations reviewed the status of rural radio in eleven francophone, five anglophone and one lusophone country, and were based on the studies by national consultants in each country, and on the assessment of FAO's contribution to the development of natal radio in nine francophone/lusophone countries in Africa.

The rural radio scene appears to be quite varied. Its popularity with rural people is well known but its function and development are handicapped, if not actually blocked, by many constraints which may be related to the standard of equipment) the legal or institutional framework, insufficient financial resources and lack of training and audience research.

A useful discussion followed these presentations. It confirmed what became the central theme of the workshop, that rural radio in Africa has reached a crossroads and that new solutions must be found to ensure its survival and development:

• From the point of view of recognising the importance of rural radio by governments and its role within national policies for communication for development,
• From the point of view of the identity and legal position of rural radio, which should be disengaged from tight control by the State while nevertheless preserving its public service broadcasting mission. In effect, it is a question of finding the right balance between the social mission of rural radio and the necessity of joining the communication "market" and generating and managing its own revenue;
• From the point of view of the role of rural radio, which should be to bring it closer to its public. This should favour community and association based radio stations which should nevertheless be part of a wider network between all types of stations in order to cover the needs of all rural people. The idea of partnership is considered essential for the development of rural radio;
• From the point of view of equipment, which should be adapted to the needs of rural radio and should be managed, renewed and well maintained by the stations themselves,
• From the point of view of human resources, which means that training should be undertaken and also intensified and diversified;
• From the point of view of audience research programmes, which should be further developed in order to allow rural radio to adapt better to its future role, to better understand its audience, to identify the most appropriate legal and regulatory controls and to put in place programmes and equipment appropriate to its mission.

11 June 1996

The second day was devoted to presentations by bilateral and multilateral organisations and to deciding the constitution of the three working groups.

The plenary session was chaired by Ms Aida Opoku Mensah, PANOS, London.

Organizations working with African rural radio presented outlines of their programmes during the morning session. These were CTA, ACCT, UNICEF, IDRC, Cooperation franchise, GTZ, ITU, Deutsche Welle, PANOS and UNESCO. The texts of these statements are available upon request.

The contribution made by these organisations to rural radio in Africa is diverse and a function of their different programmes of operation. Many are experiencing a decrease in available funds.

The organisations nevertheless indicated their interest in continuing to support rural radio in Africa, while preserving the diversity and plurality of their approaches and yet subscribing to a common framework for the development of rural radio in Africa. Such an approach would allow better complementarily of support and a better use of financial resources. An objective shared by all is the reinforcement of national capacity with a view to leading rural radio to true autonomy.

The salient themes of these interventions were as follows:

• to develop forms of rural radio that are closer to their audiences;
• to allow community organisations to use radio as a tool for local development;
• to use radio as a means of supporting democracy and pluralism;
• to give women greater access to radio, not only as listeners but also as contributors permitted to express their views on air;
• to develop ways of undertaking ruIa1 audience research and measuring the impact of programmes;
• to develop a programme of research that will allow radio to be combined with other means of communication with the rural community;
• to find ways of allowing rural radio to be more independent, administratively, financially and editorially;
• to favour FM frequencies as the preferred option for transmission and to take advantage of the opportunities offered by solar energy and other appropriate technologies;
• to develop national radio equipment manufacturing capability.

In general, the speakers recognised the importance of the initiative of FAO, URTNA and the Government of Burkina Faso in organising this workshop. In addition, Hey indicated both their desire to improve international cooperation and their willingness to integrate their future programmes in support of rural radio into a common framework of action.

The workshop was then divided into working groups in order to consider in greater depth the themes that had emerged during the preceding sessions. Three groups were formed:

Group 1: Infrastructure, technological choices and equipment

Group 2: The mission of rural radio and its legal, institutional and regulatory framework

Group 3: A new agenda for research and training

12 June 1996

This third day was principally devoted to meetings of the three working groups and to the presentation of their results and conclusions.

The plenary session for the presentation of working groups' results and conclusions was chaired by Mr Abdoulaye Sidibe, Director General of Radio and Television, Mali.

From Group 1 it became apparent that strong political commitment was considered to be a necessary precondition to the development of radio for the benefit of rural communities, and that access to radio as a public information service should be recognised as a right.

A firm commitment to rural radio should be defined within national communication policies for development, recognising the stimulus that rural radio plays in the processes of development.

At the level of technological options, the working group indicated that digital and satellite technologies were beyond the reach of African rural radio stations, considering the financial investment that they imply. It was, however, recommended that options favouring the use of FM and solar energy should be systematically explored as well as the possibility of setting up a system of central purchasing in order to reduce costs of imports. Local industries for the production and assembly of radio equipment should be encouraged.

It was also recommended that the development of infrastructure and technical equipment should be pursued in close collaboration with the telecommunications system in each country. There was also a need for particular attention to be paid to protecting technical equipment from the devastating effect of lightning.

From Group 2 it emerged that the principal missions of rural radio concern the rapid diffusion of information to the rural community in general, raising awareness, stimulating action and presenting an opportunity for social dialogue. These missions should be within the general framework of public service.

The legal statutes of rural radio should be adapted to these missions and support their realisation. These statutes are of very different types and their adoption implies a prior analysis of the role of rural radio and the constraints which are encountered.

The principal constraints identified by Group 2 are:

• low political priority to develop communications in the rural sector and the absence of policies or national strategies of communication for development;
• the absence of legal, administrative and financial autonomy for rural radio and the problems that rural radio organisations experience in generating and managing their own resources in an independent manner;
• excessive centralisation of rural radio organisations at national level, and the lack of independence for regional and local broadcasting stations;
• the ambiguous nature of the status of personnel and the consequent lack of motivation; poor technical equipment and insufficient financial resources allocated to public rural radio stations;
• the lack of autonomy for rural radio in terms of access to transmission and the low priority given to rural programmes in broadcast schedules.

The group therefore recommended that each country should undertake a study to establish a legal framework for rural radio, bearing in mind the need to:

• inscribe the mission of rural radio within a general policy on communication for development,
• seek legal and institutional procedures which will confer upon rural radio a greater administrative and financial autonomy;
• develop an entrepreneurial spirit, seek profitability and apply marketing methods;
• indicate in all development programmes and projects a communication component, and ensure within this the establishment of sufficient resources for rural radio;
• involve partners and listeners in the direction and content of radio output.

Group 3 confirmed the strategic importance of training and research for the development of rural radio in Africa. It emphasised the key role played by CERRO in this respect, as well as the need to create a similar institution for anglophone Africa. In situ professional training should be the priority but training courses in other countries should also be given consideration. Training of technicians, engineers and marketing specialists should also be strengthened. Training of producers should be based on a methodology which is appropriate to the local social environment. In this respect participatory rapid rural appraisal should be one of the many tools at the disposal of rural radio producers and programme makers. Teaching levels should be adapted to the different types of radio station which currently exist. They should correspond to the needs identified by radio stations, which should also formulate their own training programmes. A particular effort should be made to train women for a variety of jobs within the rural radio sector.

Choices, as they relate to training, should be made which favour existing training institutions and structures. Coordination between different training centres should be promoted through anetwork to be administered by CIERRO for the exchange of documents, programmes and training materials, and field study visits. It was also judged essential that CIERRO should commence training courses at tertiary level. Training of trainers should be strengthened through existing initiatives, notably the rural radio training kit produced by FAO, UNICEF and CIERRO. A network of trainers in rural radio should be developed on this basis.

A major programme of research should be undertaken in order to better understand the nature and vocation of ruIa1 radio as it exists at present. It is also important to understand the audience and the impact of programmes upon listeners in order to develop programmes that are more interactive and participatory, particularly involving women.

Research should also be undertaken in order to better identify the criteria for making rural radio stations profitable, their position within the rural communication market and the economic conditions for their sustainability. One aspect of research should be concerned with technology, taking into account the new communication tools available, and studying how equipment and infrastructure can be better adapted to the needs of ruIa1 radio.

13 June 1996

On this fourth day, the conclusions and recommendations of the working groups were formulated and a plan of action for the development of rural radio in Africa was presented.

The plenary session was chaired by Mr Tunji Arokoyo of Nigeria.

In order to facilitate and harmonize the work of the groups, FAO had presented a methodological framework and a draft plan of action. The framework provided a means of presenting the conclusions of the groups in concrete terms: a description of the context and basis for action, proposals, objectives and activities. A draft of a declaration, defining the framework and principal axes of the plan of action, was also proposed.

On the basis of these proposals, and after a general debate in plenary session, the workshop again divided into working groups. To the three groups already fanned, a fourth group was added which consisted of representatives of international cooperating partners and the representative from URTNA. This group discussed mechanisms for international cooperation for undertaking the plan of action.

14 June 1996

The fifth and final day was devoted to the presentation of the work of the groups, to a debate in plenary session, to the adoption of the declaration and plan of action for the development of rural radio in Africa and to the official closing ceremony.

The plenary session was chaired by Mr Dominique Hounkonnou of the Technical Centre for Agricultural and Rural Cooperation (CTA).

The groups proposed a number of amendments to the draft declaration and plan of action presented by FAO. The text of the declaration and plan of action can be found in chapter 3.

The official closing ceremony of the workshop took place during the afternoon of 14 June under the chairmanship of the Minister of Public Affairs and Administration, deputizing for the Minister of Communication and Culture, and in the presence of the Minister for Foreign Affairs.

The speeches made by the Minister of Public Affairs and Administration and the FAO Representative were preceded by the presentation of the final report of the workshop by Mr Jean Baptiste Ilboudo of CERRO and its adoption.

The closing ceremony was followed by a reception hosted by the Minister of Communications and Culture.

Conclusions

This workshop was an excellent opportunity for all those concerned with the development of rural radio in Africa to meet.

The participation of 21 francophone, anglophone and lusophone African countries, at a senior level within national radio networks or rural radio, is evidence of the interest of those countries in the strengthening of this particularly important sector for rural development.

The presence of the principal UN organisations, representatives of bilateral and multilateral cooperation agencies, organisations that act as partners in African rural radio such as ACCT,

CIRTEF, CTA, IDRC, GTZ, Deutsche Welle, DANICOM, the French and Swiss Cooperation Agencies, PANOS, GRET, CECI and INADES, as well as representatives of a number of other public and private organisations and associations, brought a breadth of experience to the discussions and stimulated a lively debate with pertinent contributions both during plenary sessions and in the working groups.

The contribution of the government of Burkina Faso, from the welcome given to all the participants to the working conditions which made possible the smooth running of the workshop, was a determining factor in the success of this meeting. URTNA and CIERRO made a valuable contribution to the organisation, management and running of the workshop.

The workshop highlighted the need of African rural communities for dynamic, lively, democratic and interactive radio. The diversity of initiatives undertaken in this sector and the interest shown in this form of communication show that rural radio is alive and in a phase of expansion, even if development efforts and resources are somewhat scattered.

It is essential for governments and their partners to commit themselves to the development of sustainable rural radio. This means taking innovative decisions and defining new policies, whether in terms of the legal and institutional framework or in terms of infrastructure, equipment, training and research.

The Ouagadougou workshop was intended to be an important stage in this process because it provided the opportunity to define a common plan of action based on a detailed analysis of the situation of ruIa1 radio in Africa and a dialogue between those most closely involved in this sector.

Finally, a declaration and plan of action for the development of rural radio in Africa was adopted by the workshop.

FAO, URTNA and the Government of Burkina Faso were asked to accept responsibility for follow-up to the workshop, and to seek means of financing and establishing the activities defined by the plan of action. The following tasks would be undertaken:

• to publish documents relating to the Ouagadougou workshop;
• to present the plan of action to the United Nations System-wide Special Initiative on Africa,
• to establish a mechanism of cooperation appropriate to the different partners concerned;
• to develop proposals for projects requiring finance in collaboration with the countries and institutions concerned,
• to organize a meeting of donors to examine specific proposals.

(1) Rural radio in Africa - Summary of national studies: Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Congo, Guinea, Guinea Bissau, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Senegal (Jean Baptiste Ilboudo, CIERRO)

Rural radio in Africa - summary of national studies: Gambia, Ghana, Tanzania, Zambia, Zimbabwe (Michael Pickstock, WREN)

FAO's contribution to the development of rural radio in Africa - synthesis of the evaluation mission: Burkina Faso, Central African Republic, Chad, Congo, Guinea Guinea Bissau, Mali, Mauritania, Niger