Radio for Peacebuilding Africa

Radio for PeaceBuilding Africa (RFPA) is a program founded in 2003 by the international non-profit organization Search for Common Ground. Working on the assumption that radio is the most accessible form of mass communication in Africa, RFPA trains journalists in peacebuilding, conflict resolution, and acting on commonalities.

The countries served by RFPA are Angola, Burundi, Côte d'Ivoire, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Sierra Leone, Guinea, Zimbabwe, Tanzania, Togo, Uganda, Somalia, Rwanda, Nigeria, Niger, Liberia, Kenya, Chad, the Central African Republic, Congo Brazzaville, and Cameroon.

RFPA was created by SFCG and is supported in part by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Finland.[1]

Mission

RFPA believes that radio broadcasters can affect some of the conflict and civil unrest that affects African countries. However, they have found that radio broadcasters report and exaggerate the violence facing African societies on a daily basis instead of working to temper strife.

By promoting a discussion of the "middle ground" in debates, as well as tempering extreme outlying opinions played on their air, RFPA hopes to show that common ground is possible and that conflicts do not have to be solved by violence.

To support its mission, Radio for PeaceBuilding Africa aims to broaden the skills of broadcasters working in Africa. RFPA supports youth radio broadcasters and encourages the diversifying of viewpoints on the air.[2]

RFPA works with politicians to increase the flow of communications between governments and the civil society, as well as encouraging the SFCG mission of acting on the commonalities between different societies and ethnicities.[3] Specifically, RFPA targets broadcasters, governmental officials and members of the civil society in each state.

To address their mission, RFPA developed a multilingual training guide and module for broadcasters and journalists. They also organize fora and regional conferences to discuss challenges and issues facing projects. They organize two competitions to reward the top programs structured around the themes in the training guides.[4]

Peacebuilding Techniques

RFPA believes that news reporting isn't the only way to promote common ground. Forms of communication such as "soap-opera" style programming, music, theater, and talkshows are designed to promote open discussion of issues and foster ties between communities.

As a part of its mission, RFPA worked to develop a series of guidebooks about peace building techniques through radio. These books are the foundation for the RFPA annual awards.[5] These guidebooks can be applied to all forms of communication worldwide, not just for radio in Africa.

These techniques include inviting all sides of an issue into dialogue, identifying and examining assumptions, challenging stereotypes, sharing hopes, dreams and future visions, giving ordinary people a chance to tell their story, using precise words, clarifying opinions and finding and presenting alternative solutions, among other techniques.[6]

The guidebooks are available for download from their website .

Achievements

As of the summer of 2010, RFPA has more than 3,000 members representing 100 countries, across Sub-Saharan Africa and beyond. The organization has produced 7 guidebooks that have been downloaded over 4,800 times. They have carried out over 90 workshops and trained local radio station personnel.[7]

Over the past seven years, RFPA has reached new levels of cooperation between the government, media and civil society, increased the ability of radio stations to identify the underlying causes of war and conflict, increased the public's access to policy information, and used media to foster communication between policy makers and the civil society within that state, among other achievements.

Countries

Of the countries in which RFPA has programs or participating stations, 11 (Burundi, Central African Republic, Kenya, Liberia, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Tanzania, Togo, and Uganda) have "Partially Free" status under Freedom House's 2010 Freedom in the World annual report, published on January 12, 2010. 9 countries (Cameroon, Chad, Congo Brazzaville, DR Congo, Ivory Coast, Rwanda, Somalia, Sudan and Zimbabwe) have "not free" status under the same ranking systems.

This system ranks the degree of democracy and political freedom in each country in the world. Levels of political freedom and civil rights are ranked on a scale of 1 through 7, and each country is assigned a status of "free", "partially free" or "not free".[8]

Participating stations

Africa:

Burundi

Cameroon

Central African Republic

Chad

Congo Brazzaville

Democratic Republic of the Congo

Ivory Coast

Kenya

Liberia

Niger

Nigeria

Rwanda

Sénégal

Sierra Leone

Somalia

Sudan

Tanzania

Togo

Uganda

Zimbabwe

References

  1. ↑ Radio for PeaceBuilding Africa: homepage http://www.radiopeaceafrica.org/index.cfm?lang=en&context_id=12&context=home
  2. ↑ Radio for Peacebuilding Africa "About: the Project" http://www.radiopeaceafrica.org/index.cfm?lang=en&context_id=1&context=about&cont_menu_id=3&page=theproject
  3. ↑ The Peace Media Clearinghouse "Radio for PeaceBuilding Africa" http://peacemedia.usip.org/node/590
  4. ↑ ibid
  5. ↑ The Global Communications Initiative, "Strategic Communication for Peacebuilding" http://www.comminit.com/en/node/314264/38
  6. ↑ Radio for PeaceBuilding Africa "About: Peace Techniques" http://www.radiopeaceafrica.org/index.cfm?lang=en&context_id=1&context=about&cont_menu_id=5&page=peacetech
  7. ↑ Search for Common Ground "Radio for PeaceBuilding Africa: Achievements" http://www.sfcg.org/programmes/cgp/cgp_radiopeace.html
  8. ↑ Freedom House "Freedom in the World 2010" http://freedomhouse.org/template.cfm?page=21&year=2010 January 12, 2010

External links

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