Decentralized local governance in Malawi has not succeeded in enhancing transparency and accountability. This is, in part, due to passiveness of community. This project aims to use Community Radio as a platform to excite the local people into action. To support the issue-based radio programming will be Citizen Journalists who will make follow-ups on development projects and report on the same through the Community Radio regularly.
Topical focus:
Country:
What locality or neighborhood will your project focus on?
Nkhotakota
Describe the specific community with whom you will be working.
We will work rural based volunteers who are cut off from online activities due to geographical locations and high cost of accessing ICT tools. As a policy most of our activities area targeted at rural and under-served communities so that they are able to make their voices heard. We do believe that bu deliberately giving the marginalized groups a chance to speak they may play a huge role in determining their livelihood and well-being- and destiny
What kinds of news, stories and other content will be created?
Apart from featuring the stories on the Community Radio's website, the citizen journalists will be able to report live courtesy of the Freedom Fone platform. The live reports shall also be available as podcasts on the website so that other people can access them later.
All issues requiring feedback from duty bearers shall also be responded to via a dedicated program on the Community Radio and podcasts of the same posted on the website.
What technologies and digital tools do you plan to use in the trainings?
Describe the connections that you or your organization have already established that will contribute to the success of the project.
In Nkhotakota district we are working with a total of 15 Civil Society Organizations and our major partner is the National Initiative for Civic Education (NICE). NICE has volunteers known as Para Civic Educators (PCEs) whom we use to conduct community mobilization activities. Through the proposed project some PCEs will be engaged as Ciitizen Journalists.
How many participants do you think will be involved in your project?
We aim to train a total of 20 volunteers who will work as Citizen Journalists. The 20 volunteers shall be drawn from across the district to cater for every part of the district.
Besides the microgrant funding, what other resources and support are you seeking for your project to ensure its success?
The project would involve a lot of recordings and it may not be possible for most people to catch every news and we would therefore welcome support in terms recorder for Citizen Journalists and talking gadgets/books like that of Literacy Bridge to be distributed among listener clubs.
Contact name
Kenneth Harry Msiska
Organization
The Young Advocates for the Advancement of ICT-related Development (Y.A.A.ICT-D)