Community Radio and Sustainability: A Participatory Research Initiative

Abstract

Ideosync Media Combine with support from CEMCA and UNESCO undertook a participatory research initiative to explore the parameters that impact the sustainability of Community Radio in the South Asia region. For this purpose, a broad list of 25 CR stations across India, Nepal and Bangladesh was drawn up keeping in mind adequate representation as per the following criteria: // i. Institutional set-up: CR Stations governed and managed by educational institutions, agricultural institutions, large, small and localNGOs, cooperatives etc // ii. Geography: Such that stations selected are representative of all regions // iii. Duration of Broadcast: Such that stations are representative of young and experienced stations // As a first step, a validation workshop was held on 16th June 2014, with partners and experts from Nepal, India and Bangladesh including representation form AMARC, UNESCO and UNESCO chair on Community Radio, BNNRC, CRF (Community Radio Forum) and CRA (Community Radio Association), CEMCA and others. Deliberations on the desk research outcomes and proposed research methodology resulted in positive feedback and insightful recommendations. Based on these inputs a final list of 13 CR Stations was drawn up from the broad preliminary list. The 13 CR stations included 9 CR Stations from India, 2 from Bangladesh and 2 from Nepal. Research methodologies were revised based on inputs received during the validation workshop.