Under the auspices of the USAID CORAGEM project, the 5th Annual Community Radio Leadership Conference organized by h2n took place in Nampula last week. The conference was divided in a two-day technical part and a three-day session focused on leadership and strategy. A main objective of the conference was to present the project’s grants scheme to partner stations. During the five-year project, some $2.3 million will be provided directly to community radios in the four northern provinces, including emergency funding designed to respond quickly to adverse weather events or other unexpected disruptions to radio broadcasts or other radio activities.
“The subgrants provided by the project will help cover station expenses, such as paying for journalists,” said Steven Mapira of Radio Cuamba in Niassa. “The radio stations will have more equipment as a result of the grants, and we will not have to stop due to equipment breakdowns.” The leadership part of the conference focused on the sharing of best practices and developing strategies to maximize synergies and knowledge sharing across radio stations.
The conference participants also worked on the creation of a network of investigative journalists functioning at the community level. “Over five years, the project will facilitate better community and civic engagement, raise people’s voices and promote an open dialogue between leaders and their communities,” said Sergio Chusane, Chief of Party for the project, which seeks to address the quality and quantity of community-level reporting; financial sustainability; and community engagement for 50 community radios in the northern provinces.