Ghana: Creating sustainable networks with "Our Radio!"

I'm on the road in northern Ghana and the thermometer in my car tells me it's 41 degrees Celsius outside. I'm heading to Gurune Style, a community radio station in Bolgantanga, and one of the nine partner stations involved in the new cooperation project, "Our Radio!"

When I get there the news editor, David Nyaaba Abagimbire, is recording an announcement while a fan whirrs in the background: "A black cow with a long, nylon rope around its neck has gone missing. It has a white tail and white patches on its belly." The owner of the cow has come to the station to dictate the announcement personally.
Abagimbire records about ten to twenty announcements like this each week and says their success rate is between 70 and 80 per cent. "I'm proud of our station," he says, "we're like the Lost and Found of Bolgatanga." The announcement will be broadcast twice and costs the farmer the equivalent of four euros. I later sit down with the manager and all five staff members to discuss our mutual goals over the next two years.

"Our Radio!" is a cooperation project involving three organizations. DW Akademie regularly sends media experts to Ghana to train journalists, resolve technical problems and provide consultations for the station managers. I'm a project manager with the GIZ, the German society for international cooperation. It opened its Accra office in 1983 but my desk is located with the Ghana Independent Broadcasters Association. The GIBA is highly familiar with Ghanaian broadcasting, and when the project finishes the GIBA should able to independently train and support media workers.

The "Our Radio!" project has been going strong since it began in mid-April. Five days after it was launched I began a 3,000 kilometer trip to visit the nine participating GIBA radio stations. Within just three months we completed a survey involving 1700 listeners. The survey revealed that the stations reach a primarily male audience. One of our main challenges, then, is to reach more female listeners.

Two 14-day workshops for journalists have since enabled participants to produce reports using clips. For many this was a new experience because local radio programs had been focusing on interviews and discussions. In another workshop we reached an exchange agreement with those responsible for programming. Now, each station will research, produce and share a more complex report once a month; in return it will receive eight other programs from the participating stations. Starting in October the reports will be broadcast in the weekly "Our Radio!" program.

I'll be supporting the journalists in this process - from planning to editing to producing reports. And this is only possible because I'm based in Ghana on an on-going basis. "Our Radio!" is DW Akademie's first African project where the project manager lives on location. Half a dozen additional African projects are currently being planned for next year.