Her Farm Radio: Building Knowledge and Developing the Capacity of Malawi’s Female Farmers on Forest Landscape Restoration

"As farmers, foresters and providers, women have a unique understanding of the ecosystems they live alongside. A pioneering radio programme in Malawi is tapping into this immense body of knowledge by creating a platform for women to engage in landscape restoration."

From an International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Forest Brief, this document discusses work done by Farm Radio Trust (FRT) on gender-sensitive radio programming on forest landscape restoration in Malawi to support the Bonn Challenge and African Forest Landscape Restoration Initiative of restoring land to agriculture as part of Malawi’s Vision 2020, a national long-term development strategy. A National Forest Landscape Restoration (FLR) Strategy was developed that included embedding women "firmly in the decision-making and implementation process." 

With impetus from FRT, a local Malawian NGO created the model Her Farm Radio (HFR) that "tapped into the power of radio, mobile technologies and other information communication technologies (ICTs) to raise awareness, promote informed decision-making and give a voice to smallholder farmers, specifically women, on FLR." Launched in 2013, HFR has reached two million women in Tanzania, Uganda, Ghana, Burkina Faso, Mali, Ethiopia, and Malawi using the "Her Voice on Air" approach to engage women in discussions both on-air and off air using "information on landscape restoration interventions that offered multiple benefits, including improving and stabilising local livelihoods."

Aware that women "comprise 70% of Malawi’s smallholder farmers, do 70% of the work in the sector, and produce 80% of food, but receive less than 15% of agricultural extension services..., FRT worked with farmers and local stakeholders to introduce a 15 minute segment on FLR on two radio stations, namely Dzimwe Community Radio and Zodiak Broadcasting Station, which were listened to by community members in Machinga and Mangochi districts in radio listening groups known as Community ICT Hubs."

Project activities included:

• A national stakeholders consultative meeting was held in 2016;
• Audience formative research (with about 2/3 of the total response being from women) resulted in the selection of two radio stations, and a message design workshop on FLR issues was conducted in both districts;
• 40 radio listening groups were formed through an existing network of agricultural clubs and given recording MP3 radios and mobile phones to record and submit women farmers' FLR stories - establishing listening groups created radio access for women, and the mixed gender groups opened a forum for gender discussions;
• A suite of low cost ICT applications was used, such as "Beep 2 vote" system (a free "call and hang up" system), and "WhatsApp" groups were established to gather the views of females and males on a variety of questions related to gender and FLR - as a known mobile application, "whatsApp" allowed for creation of virtual learning communities; and
• 2 radio stations were engaged to produce and air at least 80 weekly episodes/slots of radio programmes that specifically included perspectives of both women and men and sometimes addressed gender dynamics implicitly, for example, how Village Saving Loans (VSLs) help women, as well as the relationship between VSLs and FLR. 

At the end of each episode, a question or topic was sent to the 600 hub members to discuss on the WhatsApp group, gathering information for the next radio programme to be aired, using either voice recording or typed messages, depending on the literacy levels of the groups. Broadcasters and FRT staff moderated and transcribed discussions. "The recordings and transcriptions were later read out on air and an expert was invited to comment on the perspectives of the community members." 

Lessons include:

• Creation of women groups made for comfort in discussing socio-economic and environmental challenges. For FLR, there is a need for open discussion of women's issues among different stakeholders, including men, traditional leaders, church elders, civil society, and  policy makers.
• Capacity development, rooted in project design and linked to outcomes, can change women's ability to use ICTs through practical and participatory training in skills.

Lessons for the Restoration Opportunities Assessment Methodology (ROAM) in Malawi included such things as: more women-friendly extension advice on  climate smart agricultural techniques such as irrigation farming and conservation agriculture;  need to scale-up forest protection through new income generation possibilities; and women's  need for freedom to access family planning services, reducing family size and, thus, forest/natural resource pressure. An outcome evaluation showed: recall of listening to and discussing men and women working together, including in family and agricultural activities; improved knowledge on gender issues in forest protection; and increased understanding by men of use of chitetezo mbaula (energy saving stove). "Out of the 200 respondents, an average of 64% indicated that they have planted trees, whilst 63% and 42% indicated that they have started to use energy saving technologies as a result of the radio programmes."