World Radio Day 2017: Radio is You

Today, the 13th of February is World Radio Day? What is this day all about? World Radio Day is about celebrating radio, a day to remember the unique power of radio to touch lives and bring together people from all over the world.

This day was proclaimed by the UNESCO’s 36th General Conference in 2011 and has been celebrated in 2012, 2013, 2014 and 2015 by the UN Member States.

World Radio Day: 2017 Celebrations

The theme of World Radio Day 2017 is Radio is You, highlighting the importance of listener dialogue and feedback to good radio.

UNESCO has issued a statement from its Director- General – Ms Irina Bokora to honour this day. In her message she acknowledged the power of the radio and how it reaches distant communities.

Radio gives voices to the voiceless, marginalized, women and man everywhere in most cases in their local languages.She noted that in this way radio will play an important role in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development,

"Advancing fundamental freedoms and promoting public access to information is essential to bolstering good governance and the rule of law, to deepening inclusion and dialogue. In tackling new challenges, in responding to climate change, in countering discrimination, radio can provide an accessible and real-time medium to bridge divides and strengthen dialogue" -

Read the full speech here.

Radio continues to dominate the communication media despite competition from emerging technologies. According to UNESCO, in 2016 more people listened to the radio than watched TV or smart phones.

World Radio Day Celebrations in Agriculture and Rural Development

Radio plays an important role in agriculture and rural development. A number of activities are on-going in the field of community radio for agriculture and rural development

• Around the world - Dialmundialradio | World Association of Community Radio Broadcasters
• Asia - ComDevAsia| 
• Africa - Yenkasa-Africa
• Latin America - ComDev

FAO actively participates in the communication for development within agriculture and rural development and supports and collaborate on a number of radio based projects. The Farm Radio international also works with many partners to deliver programs to serve small-scale farmers through radio. The e-Agriculture community's audiovisual page provides a catalogue of related projects in agriculture.

How will you celebrate?

Join the rest of the world radio community in celebrations. Two special initiatives have been designed to structure the celebration

1. a World Radio Day social media campaign.Write a message explaining why you love radio and post it to Twitter or Facebook. Be sure to include #iloveradio or #weloveradio and #WorldRadioDay. 
2. a global, phone-based poll have been planned. Join the poll here 

Kindly explore the website http://www.diamundialradio.org/ for more information on this day