Capacity Building – KCOMNET

Strengthening Community Radio Identity & Content

kcomnet — Tue, 31 Oct 2023 12:28:11 +0000

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Strengthening Community Radio Identity and Content

Telling Data Stories – Revealing Citizens Reality

HIVOS/Kenya Media Programme(KMP) supported Kenya Community Media Network(KCOMNET) for a one year project (November 2013 – October 2014). The aim of the project was to strengthen the generation of community based content and programming in the existing community radio stations in Kenya.

Participating community radios

Expected outcomes

Project Evaluation

Outcomes of the capacity building workshop on strengthening community radio identity

The objective of this workshop was to build the capacity of community radio practitioners in the development of content and programming generated from their communities that is unique to community radio identity. The workshop was held at the location of the newest community radio station in Kenya at the time, Mtaani Radio, based in Kivuli Centre, Riruta Satellite, Nairobi. This Capacity Building Workshop provided a platform to share experiences and identify best practices in programming and how they can be shared and enhanced.

The workshop brought together over 25 participants drawn from the 13 Community Radios in the country including stakeholders and partners from Media council of Kenya, UNESCO regional office for Eastern Africa, Cambridge University, Kenya Correspondents Association, FITI Resources among others.

The workshop was followed up by engagements at the location of the 13 community radio stations to mentor and train them further on the development of content and programming generated from their communities.

Findings and recommendations of the pre-status assessment

Preceding the workshop was the production of a pre-status report on the content and programming carried out by community radio stations and their means of engagement with their target communities.

The pre-status report has analysed the process of content generation and programming of the community radio stations in Kenya and sampled in depth the practice at three community radio stations: Baliti FM, Isiolo County, Koch FM, Nairobi County and Ekialo Kiona Community Radio in Mfangano Island, Homabay County. Findings of the report guided the capacity building interventions in this workshop.

Key findings

Lack of audience surveys hence programmes not produced according to the needs of audience.
Gender mainstreaming was weak, More so, it was understood within the context of numbers rather than the societal roles and hence stereotyping.
Inadequate use of social media engagements and platforms
Limited radio production skills (i.e content sourcing, Interviewing, presenting, scripting, conducting audience surveys, production process, editing, sharing of pilot programmes and community engagement strategies).
Weak sustainability strategies (Institutional, financial and social sustainability).

Recommendations

Strengthening the understanding of the community radio concept, identity and principles.
Strengthening the understanding of community radio as a medium for Communication for Development (C4D)
Training on the generation of community based content, programming and production skills.
Enabling better comprehension of gender mainstreaming amongst the community radio practitioners.
Strengthening the use of social media engagements and platforms
Institutionalise audience surveys and feedback mechanisms
Sustainability strategies, building partnerships and networking.

The discussions arising from the presentation informed the participants further on the uniqueness of community radio content and programming as contrasted with the private/commercial radio stations.

Community radio concept, identity and principles

Kenyan laws and advertising for community radios; opportunities and challenges

Radio programming

The audience, the king

Radio production

Community radio; the big picture

Financial sustainability strategies for community radios

Social media opportunities for community radio & launch of KCOMNET’s website

Research and consultation of African citizens’ views through radio and sms

UNESCO’s commitment to support community radios

The role of Kenya Correspondents Association in uplifting standards of media workers in Kenya

Media Council of Kenya’s (MCK) commitment to building the capacity of community radio journalists in Kenya.

The Radio-for-Peace Program

kcomnet — Tue, 31 Oct 2023 12:25:15 +0000

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The Radio-for-Peace Program

Development objective of the project

Community radio actively engaged in conflict sensitive reporting in the pursuit of sustainable peace and development in Kenya.

Core project activities

KCOMNET in partnership with GIZ Civil Peace Service is developing a countrywide training and learning program for community radio journalists and community stakeholders in non-violent communication, conflict sensitive reporting and alternative dispute resolution.

Field assessment on the nature, strengths and challenges on conflict sensitive reporting
Training to community radio journalists and local stakeholders in all the community radio stations in Kenya on peace building, conflict sensitive reporting and behavior change programming
Production and broadcasting of quality programmes on peace building and conflict resolution by all the community radio stations in Kenya involved in the programme. 2 programmes per station.
Development of a web based database of radio programmes being produced and broadcast at the participating community radio stations and for sharing of the programmes

Empowering community radios with ICT

kcomnet — Tue, 31 Oct 2023 12:22:48 +0000

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Empowering Community Radios with ICT

KCOMNET was engaged by UNESCO to undertake a radio needs assessment and a baseline survey of the actual status of four community radio stations in Kenya: Sauti – Hundhwe FM( 98.1), Mwanedu Radio (96.1), Mangelete Community radio ( 89.1FM) and Mug’ambo Jwetu Radio (102.3 FM).

The engagement was against the background of the support to UNESCO by the Swedish International Development Agency (SIDA) in a three-year project known as “Empowering local radios with ICTs” in 4 radio stations in Kenya. The project intends to increase the quality of local radio programming and broadcasting by fully integrating the use of ICTs, strengthening local reporting on development issues and engaging poor people’s participation in debates related to their livelihood and development.

Activities:

Activity I: Identification of radios’ needs (equipment, resources & electricity and Internet connections)
Activity II: Baseline survey on radio programming quality and
Activity III: Feasibility study on the choice of and incentive schemes for correspondents in the area of signal coverage.

Outcomes

Activity I: Identification of radios’ needs assessment

Determined the human resource, technical and financial needs of the radio stations
Identified needs to integrate ICTs at the radio stations
Mapped use, type of mobile phones and applications in use by the radio stations
Analyzed costs of the various ways of communicating through mobile phones
Set the basis and needs for training modalities
Set basis for community practice

Activity II: Baseline survey on radio programming quality

Determined the radio station’s programming quality in terms of

General,
Gender and
Usage of ICTs by local radio stations

Collected and analyzed data
Refined weekly progress monitoring indicators
Identified benchmarks to achieve at the end of the project
Captured data elements into a database programme

Activity III: Feasibility study on the choice of and incentives schemes for correspondents in the area of signal coverage

1. Determined the type and quantity of local correspondents to be recruited by Radio

Maendeleo (Sauti FM 98.1),
Mwanedu Radio (Mwanedu Fm 96.1),
Mangelete Community radio ( 89.1FM) and
Mug’ambo Jwetu Radio (102.3 FM).

2.Identified criteria for the selection of the radio correspondents, including gender balance

3.Assessed the incentives and benefits to be put in place to maintain a network of correspondence

4.Assessed the ICTs skills level of correspondents

Reducing Post-Harvest Loss of Mangoes in Kenya

kcomnet — Tue, 31 Oct 2023 12:14:55 +0000

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Reducing Post-Harvest Loss of Mangoes in Kenya

From 2017 until 2020 Farm Radio International (FRI) has been implementing the Reducing Post-Harvest Loss through Social and Behaviour Change Communication (RePHL) project, funded by the Rockefeller Foundation as part of their wider YieldWise initiative.

The ultimate objective of the RePHL project is to enable small-scale farming families in Kenya, Tanzania and Nigeria to reduce their vulnerability to post-harvest losses, thereby increasing household nutrition and income, by deploying three proven social and behavior change communication methodologies (radio, farmer-led videos and reality tv) that will:

Increase farmers’ awareness and knowledge of methods to reduce post-harvest losses
Increase farmers’ application of proven post-harvest management technologies and solutions.

In Kenya the focus is on reducing post-harvest loss in mangoes, in Nigeria the focus is on reducing post-harvest loss in tomatoes, and in Tanzania the focus is on reducing post-harvest loss in maize.Towards this, Farm Radio International engaged Kenya Community Media Network (KCOMNET) to carry out a RePHL Formative Research through focus group discussions (FGDs) with mango farmers in Kenya. A total of 16 focus group discussions were conducted in Murangá and Machakos covering 4 locations in each county. Each location had two focus groups-one with men and one with women. A total of 57 farmers were engaged, 34 women and 23 men and this included youth under 35 years.

Most farmers felt that when they reduce post-harvest loss they sold more mangoes, but most of their produce still lack market and many mangoes still spoil on the farm. All farmers were aware of post-harvest losses and considered them an issue.

The major cause of post- harvest losses was attributed to oversupply of mangoes in the country with insufficient markets to absorb them:

We are now selling 15-20% of our mangoes. For the past two years, most of us have experienced 75-80% loss of mangoes. Our mangoes were bought at athrow away price this season…..at a big loss to us (FGD participant)

Farmers also attributed losses to low prices, competition from large-scale and corporate producers who had advantages on export markets, cutting fruits too soon from the trees, pests and diseases, exploitation from middle-men and brokers and pesticide use making fruits unsuitable for export markets. One farmer noted that “we no longer export mangoes like we used to “, highlighting that they are unable to participate in export markets and tying to their major concern of insufficient markets to meet supply.

Farmers felt that there needed to be a combination of solutions to reduce PHL and some have adopted use of fruit fly traps, crates and tarps for harvesting, but they feel that having markets for their product was imperative.

All farmers expressed a keen interest in participating in community/group showings of programs if they were made available.

Farmers also voiced interest in programs that feature local farmers and that dig deep on the local issues engaging farmers experiences, discussing local challenges and acknowledging local values.

In-House Training and Mentoring

kcomnet — Tue, 31 Oct 2023 12:12:36 +0000

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In-House Training and Mentorship Session

An in-house training with the whole staff in Amani FM in Garsen was conducted on 12th March -16th March 2018.

The training focused on conflict sensitive reporting and different technics to deal with conflicts. Amani FM is the newest radio in our network of community radios, hence, the necessity of the training. The area where the radio is situated – Tana River – is mainly struggling with inter- ethnic conflicts between the Pokomo farmers and the Orma Pastoralists. Amani FM was established through collaboration with The Sentinel Project for Genocide Prevention Canada that runs Una Hakika initiative (an SMS based misinformation management platform), Health Communication Resources, a UK-based organization, and Amani Centre, the local CBO.

Micheal, the Civil Peace Service Advisor facilitating the training in Garsen with Amani FM staff

The aim of this training was to help the radio staff of Amani FM to actively engage in peace building through conflict sensitive reporting and content production. In addition, the training was important for an assessment of the station and its staff to identify their needs for further training. The training workshop had 5 modules:Understanding and analysing conflicts, non-violent-communication, journalistic basics and conflict sensitive reporting, how to tell a story – content production and how to check facts.This was to enable community radio journalists in Amani FM to start producing advanced radio formats like features, investigations and radio drama on conflict related issues in their communities.

The training had 17 participants. A mixture of short presentations was applied(mostly with drawings on the flipcharts), exercises of the participants and discussions. Due to the difficult human rights situation in Tana River, the Human Rights Based (HRB)-approach was also explained and highlighted.

Training of Trainers (TOT)

kcomnet — Tue, 31 Oct 2023 12:09:48 +0000

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Training of Trainers (TOT)

This was a three day worKshop conducted by KCOMNET under the UMOJA Radio for Peace project to have a Training of Trainers with our network of community radios. The training was intended to mentor and use our radio journalists to pass knowledge and skills to their colleagues on different relevant topics in radio journalism, content production and conflict sensitive reporting.

The three days meeting basically addressed methodology and didactics of adult trainings and gave the participants an opportunity to make presentations.The training was conducted in 8 modules.

The main objective for the training was to vet potential trainers amongst community radio journalists and mentor them and consequntly, have suitable trainers for some of our 2018 training activities and to build up a pool of trainers which we can used for our capacity building program now and in the future.

Improving the financial sustainability of community radio in Kenya

kcomnet — Tue, 31 Oct 2023 11:45:38 +0000

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Improving The Financial Sustainability of Community Radio in Kenya

Enhancing community participation and collective marketing

Stem van Afrika through Catholic Media Council (CAMECO) supported Kenya Community Media Network (KCOMNET) for a 24 months project (January 2017 – December 2018) whose overall objective was to improve the financial sustainability of community radio stations in Kenya by enhancing community participation and collective marketing. The project was undertaken through two strategic engagements: (i) Facilitating the development and implementation on various key areas on community participation that enhance the financial sustainability of community radio starting with four community radio stations, and; (ii) Engaging Kenya Community Media Network (KCOMNET) in the collective marketing of community radio to improve the financial sustainability of the community radio in Kenya and of the network.

Rationale

Community radios in Kenya, as elsewhere in Africa, are largely dependent on donors outside their communities for their survival. The overall objective of this project was to facilitate community radio in Kenya to focus on the communities they serve as the first sources of their incomes. Gaining the trust and confidence of the communities they serve by ensuring active community participation, especially in their governance, programming and financial transparency and accountability, are widely considered as key parameters in the efforts of ensuring the social, institutional and financial sustainability of community radio stations.

This project pursued the need for community radio stations to generate alternative income streams for their financial health away from over-reliance on funding from donors. Improved financial health of the participating community radio stations continue to enable the participating community radios to offer vital communication services that they provide to grassroots communities.

This project was also intended to enable Kenya Community Media Network (KCOMNET) to market community radio stations in Kenya as a collective package beyond the reach of particular community radio. The idea of collective marketing for community radios is based on the experiences that almost all community radio stations in Kenya are grappling with the issue of raising funds for their survival, notably because of the regulations that prevent them from commercial advertising. This, together with the smaller geographical coverage, has contributed towards their unpopularity among those who constantly engage in the business of advertising and sponsorship of programmes. It is also clear that few people/institutions really understand community radio stations and their roles and connections with the communities they represent.

Achievements

Collective marketing of community as one package was one of the most promising engagement undertaken so far by KCOMNET. By end of the project reporting period, collective marketing engagements had managed to channel to community radios in Kenya by the end of August 2018 a total of Kenya Shillings 9,978,400(About 86,020 Euros). This is addition to strengthening the networking among community radios in Kenya as a movement for community media.

The 3 participating community radios, Koch FM in Nairobi, Serian FM in Samburu and Sawang’a FM in Laikipia that KCOMNET actively journeyed with to enhance their efforts on community participation and diversification of their marketing strategies also attained the expected results and are on the path towards attaining their financial sustainability. As reflected in the results framework of the partner community radios, this project enabled these radios to achieve key result areas, some of the being the following:

Initiated weekly meetings of the editorial team and of the management committee
Established a data base for listeners and sponsors
Increased their incomes
Localised their programs to address issues of local concern as a way of attracting more listeners and sponsors
Strengthened the management boards of their stations
Attracted new clients
Developed and/or completed Strategic and Business Plans

In particular, the strategic plan for Serian FM enabled the station to develop its first strategic plan since the inception of the radio station, ten years ago. Serian FM plans to officially launch this strategic plan in a public ceremony towards the end of 2019 to celebrate the 10th anniversary since the inception of the radio.

Next Steps

KCOMNET intends to enhance engagements in two crucial areas: Collective marketing of CRs and focus on audience research engagements. Follow – up engagements in collective marketing has in sight the establishment of Kenya Community Media Marketing Agency. This will be a commercial agency that will combine collective marketing CRs and an audience research desk at KCOMNET. Audience research will be enhanced through Training of Trainers(ToTs) for community radios and other community media outlets.

KCOMNET also plans to hold a three (3) days national conference on audience research. This conference will be the first for community media in Kenya. It will bring together representatives from community radios and stakeholders to share and discuss on the lessons and impact of audience research. This will help in the scaling up of this project.

Pamoja Dhidi Ya Korona

kcomnet — Tue, 31 Oct 2023 11:37:45 +0000

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Pamoja Dhidi Ya Korona

Telling Data Stories – Revealing Citizens Reality

The Kenya Community Media Network (KCOMNET) with the support of the Civil Peace Service of GIZ has set up a fact checking and awareness raising desk during this time of COVID-19 pandemic with the sole purpose of combating incidences of misinformation and fake news circulating on social media, verifying and relaying factual truthful information to over 10 million people through 23 community radio stations who are members of our network. In addition to fact checking and awareness raising, we intend to produce child friendly content which will inform and educate children and teenagers during this uncertain period of the pandemic.

The novel coronavirus (COVID‐19) was first identified in December 2019 in Wuhan City, China and coronavirus disease declared a pandemic by WHO on 11 March 2020. Kenya reported her first positive case on 12th March 20201. Since confirmation of the first case in China, cases of COVID‐19 have risen exponentially throughout the world2. This situation got the world unprepared and it has brought us to an indefinite period of disruption ofactivities in all the sectors.

The global increase in the number of confirmed cases and reported deaths from COVID‐19 has necessitated many countries to take stern measures to curb further spread of the disease. In addition to WHO’s guidance for containment – to test suspected cases, isolate those who test positive, physical and social distancing, regular hand washing with soap and running water, contact tracing and treatment of severe cases requiring hospitalization – countries have taken additional measures, including strict movement restrictions among other containment efforts.

Some of these measures have brought about new socio-economic realities that have not only disrupted individuals’ economic situation and status but also social norms which have contributed to increased stress levels and cases of gender-based violence (GBV), and other social ills related to stress 3 . The situation can be worsened by misinformation and or distortion of information which if not controlled can lead to trauma and “fear-pandemic”. This can also lead to disobedience of the restrictions which may contribute to an upsurge incontraction of the coronavirus.

Kenya Community Media Network (KCOMNET) is partnering with all community radio station decided to create an awareness project to the society and grass-root communities to reduce the spread of coronavirus and minimizing trauma related to the epidemic through awareness on radio and online platforms.