An Indian Toolkit to improve community radio programming is going places in Africa. A UNESCO initiative brought together 25 stations from five countries in Africa to derive advantages.

   A three day workshop was conducted by the UNESCO Chair on Community Media at University of Hyderabad (UoH), here. Held in Arusha, Tanzania on strengthening capacities for community radio, the other participating countries were Kenya, Rwanda, Burundi and Uganda.

   The Chair team, consisting of  Vinod Pavarala, Kanchan K. Malik and Vasuki Belavadi, from the University’s Department of Communication worked with the East African Community Media Network from October 5-7, 2015 to validate and adapt the Community Radio Continuous Improvement Toolkit (CR-CIT) developed by the Chair. 

    At the end of October, at least 50 African nations are expected to participate in the India-Africa Summit in New Delhi. The effort is to deepen collaborations with African nations.

   The project is supported by the International Programme on Development Communication (IPDC) of UNESCO and its regional offices in East Africa. The toolkit is already widely used in India and also adapted in Bangladesh.

   Zulmira Rodrigues, the Country Representative of UNESCO in Tanzania and Liberat Mfumukeko, the East African Community (EAC) Deputy Secretary General, who spoke during the inauguration of the workshop, reiterated the significance of community radio and pledged their support to promoting this sector in the EAC region. 

   Vinod Pavarala recalled the words of Julius Nyerere, the founder of independent Tanzania,"While they were trying to reach the moon, we were trying to reach our  villages,”  and reiterated that community radio was a tool for reaching out to the rural, marginalized and indigenous communities and for them to gain access to media spaces.

 

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