Written by Francesco Diasio, AMARC and Mario Acunzo, FAO

From August 10^th to 14^th 2015, the 11th World Conference of AMARC will take place in Accra. Hosted by the Ghana Community Radio Network (GCRN), the conference will address the theme “Community Radio: reframing and reconciling a world of dualities” and will be an opportunity to celebrate community radio, while strengthening its capacity to thrive in Africa.

The Forum on Communication and Community Media for Sustainable Rural Development will be one of the official events on August 13, 2015. 

The event is co-organized by AMARC and FAO as a follow-up to the international Forum on Communication for Development & Community Media for Family Farming (FCCM) held in Rome last October 2014, which showcased the role of communication as a driver for change and family farmers’ participation in rural development. 

This Forum will provide the opportunity to foster dialogue between farmers’ organizations, development programmes and community media on the role and impact of ComDev methods and tools for resilient livelihoods and inclusive rural development, with a special focus on Africa.

Objectives

1. Showcase the contribution of Communication for development (ComDev), in particular community media and ICTs, to food security, family farming and resilient rural livelihoods
2. Identify suitable strategies and initiatives to promote communication policies and services in support of family farming and rural development
3. Establish alliances between development initiatives, farmers organizations, community media, and radio broadcasters
4. Agree upon regional agendas and action plans to engage community media in advancing sustainable rural development

Methodology and participants 

The Forum will be an interactive event, with participants representing community media and communication networks, farmer organizations, rural institutions, development agencies, private sector, civil society, indigenous peoples, and academia. 

During the morning and afternoon sessions, participants will share ideas, approaches, case studies and contribute to discussions towards the definition of regional agendas for rural communication and community media. 

A side event will be dedicated to the multi-stakeholder regional platforms launched by AMARC with the support of FAO: Yenkasa in Africa, Onda Rural in Latin America and ComDevAsia. 

Survey on community media and rural development

In connection to the upcoming event, we are going to conduct an online survey to map relevant actors and areas of expertise and gain a better understanding of how community media are being used to advance rural development. All AMARC’s affiliates, community media networks and communication practitioners engaged in communication for rural development are warmly invited to participate.

The survey is available in English, French and Spanish. 

 

For more information or specific requests about the Forum you can contact Simone Sala at simone.sala@fao.org  

 

Photo credit: FAO/A. Proto