Setting-up a News Agency on Development Issues in Africa
Partly thanks to a partnership with the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the World Association of Community Radio Broadcasters (AMARC) has set-up a news agency on development issues, including food security. Called the Simbani News Agency, it will reach all of Africa and will make use of FAO's technical information on food security, editing it into radio format, thus making it accessible to a wide audience, including to people in the most remote rural areas. Information dissemination will rely on the adaptation to rural 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.
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. Thus, the Simbani News Agency will contribute to inform, educate and sensitize urban and rural populations on food security issues, via its radio network.
Train-the-Trainer
The FAO-AMARC partnership has begun with a "train-the-trainer" session: Christopher Kgadima, Journalist, and Gilles Eric Foadey, Editor-in-Chief of the news agency, followed an intensive training on food security and warning systems, from 27 January to 8 March 2003 at FAO's headquarters in Rome, Italy. This training will allow them to manage, process, produce and dispatch the information to their 54 correspondents in Africa. Moreover, two regional training workshops will be organized in Africa for the news agency's correspondents: The two journalists trained in Rome together with an FAO officer will facilitate the training sessions.
Simbani Africa: A New Way and a New Voice for Community Radio
The agency's mandate is to gather the information coming 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.
More than ever, communication remains a challenge in a world that is exposed to globalisation. Although we are 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, Africa may still have some hope. Until recently, the African population - largely illiterate - was frequently denied the right to express itself. But, for more than a decade now, local community radio has become a great tool - wisely established, used and managed by the communities themselves who take ownership on it - contributing to change in attitudes and thus to sustainable development. Nowadays, 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. The news agency 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 - which is still trying to find its bearings - they represent an essential step, as the agency's contents will be produced for and by Africans. The Simbani News Agency's approach is truly innovative: A free civil society information source, able to build bridges between various African communities both in rural and urban areas. Its information produced in English and French will be adapted in various African languages to be broadcasted locally. The agency's correspondents will access the information by e-mail, Internet, fax or by traditional mail. The radios stations will exchange their programmes. This will enable Africans to put in 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. For the moment and leading up to the launch of its daily service with its 54 correspondents, Simbani News Agency will carry out radio campaigns from its editorial offices in South Africa, for various international days, including International Women's Day (8 March), the International Day Against Racism (21 March), World Press Freedom Day (3 May), World AIDS Day (1st December) and, of course, World Food Day (16 October).
Gilles Eric Foadey, Journalist www.africa.amarc.org/
