The World Association of Community Radio Broadcasters (AMARC) and the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations (FAO) will conduct a three-day workshop on interactive community radio to enhance food security and family farming in Asia-Pacific. It will take place in Bangkok, Thailand, on September 19-21, 2016.
FAO reported in 2015 that 490 million people are still suffering chronic hunger in Asia and the Pacific region, which is also home to almost 62 percent of the world’s undernourished. “The challenge facing the region is not only to produce more food from the increasingly limited natural resource base but also how to ensure more equitable access to food, while addressing various threats such as climate change.”
It is in this context that community radios have shown their effectiveness in supporting farmers’ organizations and development institutions to promote food security and food sovereignty. The flexibility and ability of community radios to reach the most isolated and poorest farming communities, who are often the most affected by food insecurity issues, make them a suitable tool to share best practices, disseminate scientific and indigenous knowledge, and promote multi-stakeholder dialogue.
Agenda and learning objectives
The workshop is meant to improve the capacity of community radios and farmer organizations at the local level to provide inclusive information and communication services to farming communities and the rural population, with a focus on:
- Communication and community radio as a driver for rural development (Day 1)
- Enhancing information management and knowledge sharing for radio broadcasting on family farming and food security (Day 2)
- Interactive radio programming (Day 2)
- ComDev Asia: partnerships and networking for sustainable development (Day 3)
Participants are expected to:
1) improve their knowledge on specific topics related to food security/food sovereignty, with a focus on climate change, one health concept and family farming;
2) improve their capacity of working with radio as an interactive medium using ICTs in a participatory manner;
3) improve their capacities and reinforce their abilities to produce relevant programmes on food security/food sovereignty, with a focus on climate change, one health concept and family farming;
4) become more aware and sensitized to the gender sensitive dimension;
5) establish linkages and lines of work with FAO projects and programs to build synergies across AMARC and FAO work in the Asia-Pacific region through ComDev Asia.
The workshop will also bridge the gap between radio practitioners and experts on key regional development issues such as climate change, one health initiative, family farming, sustainability of the food system, and gender dimension of food security, among others.
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Photo credit: amarc.org