MAKE: Media for Advocacy and Empowerment

BBC Media Action is providing journalism training and ongoing mentoring to four radio stations with the goal of building capacity to fulfil their role reporting local events and creating spaces for dialogue between ordinary people and local authorities. Working closely with local civil society actors through ZCSD, community radio stations produce interactive radio shows with phone-in segments that explore local governance issues. Programmes are broadcast both in local languages and Zambia’s official language, English, in an effort to enable the greatest possible reach and participation.

These programmes are intended to be a key platform for individuals to interact with local authority figures such as councillors, local chiefs, and heads of hospitals. According to BBC Media Action, listeners highlight service delivery gaps and prompt officials to respond to their needs. For example, at Oblate Radio Liseli, one listener asked her council why sewage was running through her garden and along the street where her children play. Another listener asked his councillor how he was supposed to explain to his son that he couldn’t go to school this term because he wouldn’t have the money, as he hadn’t been paid on time.

Democracy and Governance