Outcomes of the ECA Survey of African Radio Broadcasters

Background:

ECA is planning to improve buy-in for its development agenda by developing a capacity to produce audio/visual material for broadcast on African radio and television stations. The success of this venture will hinge to a large extent on the partnerships ECA is able to form with African broadcasters and capacity of African journalists and media corporations to produce development related broadcast material. In light of this, the Commission recognised the crucial importance of informing and soliticiting feedback about the ECA Broadcast Project from key stakeholders and potential broadcast partners before forging ahead with its plans in this area. To that end, a survey of 71 radio stations across the continent was conducted during the second quarter of 2002 ECA. The primary purpose of this poll was to establish a first contact with broadcasters, educate them about ECA's Broadcast Project plans and gauge their potential interest in collaborating with ECA.

Description of the survey:

An equal number of questionnaires were sent out to French speaking and English-speaking stations categorised as National, FM and community radios. Three essential introductory questions were asked to broadcasters:

1. Was there a willingness among African broadcasters to air development programmes?
2. How could development information feature more on airwaves in Africa?
3. How could ECA help broadcasters promote development information?

Enthusiastic replies revealed great interest in a project to strengthen broadcasting for development. Most broadcasters felt that the best way to promote development information on African airwaves was to exchange programmes between broadcasters and collaborate more with the national radio stations to air programmes of interest for the community. The importance of training for programme editors and journalists was also stressed.

Knowledge of the UN, ECA and its work programme:

Most radio stations, especially the English speaking ones who largely outnumbered the French speaking stations in terms of replies, had already heard about ECA and its work programme; some were even receiving development programmes from other UN organs.

Areas of interest:

The replies to the survey underlined great interest in issues pertaining to gender, development, information and communication technology, agriculture, regional integration and HIV/AIDS.