[WSIS CS-Plenary] CS intervention-community media fund

[Steve Buckley]

Below is the statement presented today by Lettie Longwe on behalf of the 
Community Media Working Group for the first civil society slot in the 
intergovernmental sub-committee to discuss the Political Chapeau and 
Implementation Plan. The session theme was Financing (Chapter 2).  There 
were two other interventions from civil society - from the gender caucus 
and from the CRIS campaign.

Steve


Civil Society Intervention on Financing  Community Radio Fund for Africa 
(18/2/05)

Madam Chairperson. My name is Lettie Longwe and I speak on behalf of the 
Community Media Working Group. I thank you for the opportunity to address 
the question of financing mechanisms for ICT for development. And let me 
say, first, that it would be better if we were to speak about Communication 
for Development. For the question is not just one of technologies but also, 
and more importantly, of people. It is not only a question of access, 
infrastructure and connectivity, but also one of language, literacy, 
education and human capacity.

  When we speak about Communication for Development in the least developed 
countries, Madam Chairperson, we are not only, or even primarily, speaking 
about access to the Internet, but also about radio and telephony  oral 
media, that are more accessible, more widespread and less expensive.

One of the findings which should have been given much higher profile in the 
report of the Task Force on Funding Mechanisms, is the specific and crucial 
role of community media in reaching out to the poorest and most 
marginalized communities. This is a finding which was endorsed last year at 
the United Nations Round Table on Communications for Development held in 
Rome, in September, and reinforced at the WSIS thematic conference on Media 
in Africa and the Arab World, held in Marrakech, in November 2005.

Investment in community media has grown significantly in recent years. We 
welcome, for example, the commitments made to community media by the Swiss 
government at the Geneva Summit, in partnership with UNESCO and the 
governments of Mozambique, Mali and Senegal. We welcome the continuing 
support for community media that other donor governments have made, such as 
Sweden, France and the United Kingdom, and by other multilateral 
development agencies including the UNDP and the World Bank.

However, Madam Chairperson, we also believe that there is not only room for 
improvement in existing funding mechanisms but that a new international 
fund for Community Media would have immediate and strategic impact in the 
contribution of communications to the achievement of the Millennium 
Development goals. In our experience, approaches to investment in community 
media are not always flexible to respond to need and to demand when it is 
expressed. There has been success in small project-based investment but new 
approaches are needed to address the challenge of scaling-up. We see a 
degree of competition among donors which is not always helpful. Better 
coordination is needed. We see a lack of experience among some donors and 
some international NGOs in supporting capacity building at the local level. 
More needs to be done to consult with and involve civil society and 
community-based organisations in planning and implementation.

Lastly, but not least, Madam Chairperson, we specifically propose, as a 
first step, the establishment of a Community Radio Fund for Africa. This 
would be to complement the Digital Solidarity Fund. What we are proposing 
is a donor-civil society partnership in which funding commitments are 
matched with technical expertise and know-how. We are proposing a fund 
which can act quickly and flexibly with the minimum of bureaucracy. We are 
proposing a fund that would give priority to the needs expressed by local 
community organisations and would support community-led initiatives. Such a 
fund would require investment at a modest level over a period of ten years 
from 2005 to 2015. We believe the results would have a measurable and 
positive impact on the Millennium Development Goals. We call upon 
governments and other stakeholders to work with us to establish such an 
initiative and to do so within the framework of the World Summit on the 
Information Society.

I thank you.

Further information during WSIS Prepcom 2
Contact Lettie Longwe, AMARC-Africa   Tel: 0787033736 (Geneva)

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        Please note my new contact details:
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                          Steve Buckley
  15 Paternoster Row, Sheffield S1 2BX - U.K.
              Email: sbuckley at gn.apc.org
                    Tel: +44 114 220 1426
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      www.communitymediasolutions.co.uk
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