Placing African Development at the Heart of Broadcasting

ISSUES NOTE

Broadcasting for Development workshop
7 - 8 April 2002
Addis Ababa

Background: It has long been held that radio is the most effective communication medium for promoting and advancing African development. This is mainly because it is inexpensive, broad in spectrum, accessible and ubiquitous across cultures. Many development actors, such as agricultural extension services of countries in the South working closely with agencies such as FAO, have harnessed rural radio to empower and educate communities. The advent of television and its exponential growth has also opened up new avenues for development communication.

Once the preserve of states, broadcasting is fast being liberalized in African countries, leading to the emergence of a new breed of broadcaster and a new type of audience. The explosion in non-governmental radio, community radio, community video and television and other genres exemplifies this growing diversity. This positive trend notwithstanding, the regulatory preference in some countries is still for a statist model that allows only state broadcasting to thrive. As a rule, both public and non-governmental broadcasters face severe financial constraints in sustaining their operations.

However, as broadband and other technologies become more affordable and as the Internet takes root, the prospect grows for wider coverage, greater inclusion and a new, interactive model of broadcasting predicated on stakeholder participation. All this points to an unparalleled window of opportunity for radio, television and video to empower the voiceless, promote dialogue and serve as a channel for sharing critical information and knowledge, towards positive development outcomes.

Yet this potential is far from being fulfilled for a number of reasons. With some notable exceptions, African broadcasters have not yet succeeded in developing winning formulas for producing compelling development content - though there is no lack of interest in development issues inside and outside the continent. Socio-economic conditions and mismanaged economies are at the heart of many crises on the continent today, and have been for decades, yet there is scant analysis on these issues produced for the African market. What is more, programming produced by development agencies and retailed to national and regional broadcasters has tended to be supply- rather than demand-driven, failing to address the concerns and aspirations of the generality of Africans. All too often, public broadcasters who have the strongest reach do the bidding of their political masters in countries where democracy is paper-thin or non-existent. The lack of capacity to understand, distil and broadcast development issues also looms large. So too does the tendency by media houses, struggling to make ends meet, to discard development issues in the battle to please advertisers and make a profit.

Development practitioners - governments, bilateral and multilateral agencies, NGOs and others - often fail to provide the media adequate, timely access to development information and the latest policy analysis. Sometimes, they shy away from saying what needs to be said, offering guarded, non media-friendly positions that do nothing to clarify controversy. As exemplified by the emerging New Partnership for Africa's development (NEPAD), the development discourse tends to take place behind closed doors or in conferences between men in grey suits, with a near-total lack of understanding of the need to engage with the media. More often than not, this "ivory-towerism" results in jargon-heavy, top-down initiatives that fail to get the buy-in and support of the very people they are intended to empower.

Why this Workshop: There is a clear consensus that broadcasting can play a key role in shaping development outcomes in Africa . There is broad agreement that the sector needs to grow based on local capacity, and to reflect African realities and aspirations. All are in unison that this growth needs to be based on high-quality content that is set within its proper context, that is relevant, and that can benefit from effective distribution channels that target the different groups of consumers. The ball is now squarely in the court of broadcasters in Africa, together with their partners, to place issues of poverty and development at the forefront of the broadcast agenda, to keep these issues in the spotlight and to demonstrate that broadcasting can tangibly influence development.

In seeking to generate policy analysis for its 53 member states and other clients and stakeholder groups, the Economic Commission for Africa (ECA), as the regional arm of the United Nations in Africa, recognizes the pivotal importance of effective communication for development. As such, and since it began its reforms in 1996, considerable resources and energy have been invested in building communication capacity.

ECA believes in interactive communication model as an enabler for development, and emphasizes quality, relevance and timeliness in the production and dissemination of content. ECA's vision for broadcasting for development in Africa is based on the principle of strategic partnership towards shared values and common goals. As part of its strategy, it seeks to develop internal capacity to produce and disseminate development programming for broadcast in Africa. Most importantly, it seeks to empower broadcasters not simply as tellers of the story, but as important activists who can influence development outcomes in favour of Africa's people.

By injecting good development ideas and analysis, brokering partnerships, helping build capacity and ensuring resource availability to address gaps, ECA and other development institutions can play a catalytic and facilitatory role in fulfilling this potential. ECA believes its regional mandate, role as a knowledge-based institution, and ability to convene diverse development stakeholders provides a unique standpoint from which to work with others to facilitate a strengthened development agenda in broadcasting. Many agencies inside and outside the UN system work with broadcasters towards the same goals.

In view of the above, the workshop will seek to share experiences in broadcasting for development, thus providing strategic direction to ECA's broadcast strategy, and serve as a platform for different types of partnerships. Expected outcomes include:

• Enhanced understanding of the emerging broadcasting for development landscape in Africa;

• Clarity on a strategic role for ECA and its partner development institutions in strengthening broadcasting for development in Africa;

• Agreement on partnership initiatives in broadcasting for development for 2003 and beyond;

• Establishment of a follow-up mechanism to strengthen and sustain these partnerships.

Participation: Some 40 participants are being invited from the following categories: National, regional and international broadcasters; funders and action-donors; regional and global development institutions; and development communicators from civil society.

Workshop Strategy: The workshop, to take place over two days, is designed to provide as much space as possible for the sharing of experiences. To ensure interaction, formal presentations will be kept to an absolute minimum. It will consist of four plenary sessions. In the first three, one or two participants will share their specific experience, followed by discussions. The first plenary will focus on the African experience in broadcasting for development. The second plenary will address the role of development institutions and policymakers in enabling broadcasting for development. The third plenary will explore how to promote and strengthen international broadcasting for development partnerships. The workshop will then break into groups to discuss in detail specific problems, suggest solutions, and propose partnerships. The workshop will end with a fourth plenary during which each group will report back, followed by a discussion and agreements on the way forward.

Parallel Activities: A leading African development documentary or film will be screened on the evening before the start of the workshop. Based on demand, a slot will be dedicated for participants to share their productions.

Partnerships: Types of partnership envisaged as key outcomes of the workshop include:

• Content Partnerships: Issues-based partnerships invoked by perceived gaps in broadcasting, and aiming to address key development issues that do not get enough coverage, or are not addressed in sufficient detail. Such partnerships could include, for example, the commissioning of a radio and TV documentary series on Governance in Africa.

• Hub Partnerships: Depending on their on comparative advantage, institutions could partner in developing programming, marketing content, hosting technology such as servers, or retailing training. They would also cover decentralized network arrangements, whereby several institutions in Africa could serve as hubs for content generation, aggregation, and dissemination.

• Funding Partnerships: Organizations with an interest in generating programming on priority issues could engage with potential funders to generate the financial resources required for conceptualization, production, and dissemination of the programming, as well as for engagement of stakeholders. Here, partnerships are envisaged between development institutions, bilateral and multilateral donors, and foundations that support broadcasting for development work. Private sector organizations with corporate responsibility programmes could also be solicited for support on an issues-specific basis.

• Capacity Building Partnerships: Institutions with technology and content as well as explicit capacity building mandates could serve as regional or sub-regional hubs for retailing capacity building in broadcast production, broadcast technologies and development issues. Such capacity building could include internships or fellowships for African broadcasters in development institutions, as well as hands-on field training assignment resulting in productions. In brokering these partnerships, due regard should be given to the multitude of existing training institutions in Africa, with a view to forging closer collaboration and eliminating duplication. Such partnerships should also aim to address capacity building gaps. Again, the private sector could be involved on a strategic basis.