University of Guelph

Since 2005 an inventory of rural radio in sub-Saharan Africa has been developed as part of the LARRRA (Linking Agricultural Research and Rural Radio) Project, based initially at the International Service for National Agricultural Research, in The Hague and since 2003, at the University of Guelph in Canada. The objectives of the LARRRA project are to strengthen partnerships, both among and between agriculturalists (farmers, researchers, government, and non-governmental extension workers) and rural radio broadcasters, in order to address information gaps on food and agricultural sciences using radio stations (government, community, or privately owned) that serve resource-poor farmers. This paper presents the Geographic Information Systems (GIS) maps for the location and range of 52 radio stations transmitting within rural Ghana as of July 2005. According to the paper, Ghanaian radio can be classified into three main sub-sectors – community, commercial, and Ghanaian Broadcasting Corporation (GBC), the state-owned stations. There is an additional, though small, fourth sub-sector comprised of campus and non-governmental organisation-operated radio. The paper proposes that community radio stations offer the highest proportion of rural development programming followed by decentralised, government broadcasting. All radio stations generally cover similar programming topics, but without the same degree of popular participation and audience follow-up. While decentralisation has increased, the community focus of rural radio programming and the effects of media liberalisation in Ghana have not helped public broadcasting to strengthen audience participation.

According to this report, staff at all Ghanaian rural radio stations feel that listener participation is an extremely important element of the medium, however there is no common definition of the term among rural radio stations. While the community stations generally equate the term with community members being actively involved in the daily functions of the station, GBC and commercial stations are more likely to simply link participation with conventional forms of audience involvement, such as contests and phone-in programmes. One challenge to considering participation as audience response through phone-in input is that telephone access is not universal in Ghana. There are other forms of listener feedback other than phoning in, writing letters, or coming to the station to provide opinions on the programming. With few exceptions, all of the stations reported to have some form of Listener Clubs or Fan Clubs. It is said that "radio is Africa’s internet" and this is certainly true for Ghana where radio plays a key role in connecting rural audiences as a community and with the outside world in Accra and beyond.

The findings of this study inform 4 key recommendations for future policymaking, research, and programming in rural radio in Ghana:

• First of all, rural radio is intended to be a participatory medium by, for and about local populations. Programming needs to be relevant to the local, rural area and feedback mechanisms need to be in place. Levels of participation, however, are largely dependent on the station's own definition of the term "participation" as well as the mechanisms used to promote listener feedback and involvement in programming. It is recommended that GBC deploy some of its not insignificant staff resources into activities that will build their staff capacity to systematically reach the more remote rural areas of its transmitting range.
• Second, in the case of Ghana, it is found that listener preferences, local and regional issues, advertisers’ needs, financial resources, and human resources influence the programming schedule. Each station takes these aspects into consideration to develop a programme schedule that they are able to maintain. Paid programming and emerging news events tend to drive special topic reporting. However, special topics cannot replace regular, relevant programming on key development issues. This is especially the case if rural radio is to provide more voice to the voiceless, as this study has found with respect to women’s programming. Marginalised social groups such as youth and women can be enabled by managing their own programme and adopting a format that is relevant to their needs. Further study and programming efforts are recommended in order to build on the few successes in this type of programming.
• A third recommendation is that rural radio programming should strengthen rural development programming. Given the significance of agriculture and fishing to Ghana’s economy, these specific areas need attention. Initiatives such as the LARRRA project have involved advocacy and training for linking scientists, extension workers, and radio broadcasters in order to facilitate knowledge exchange with resource-poor farmers and their organisations. However, the LARRRA project has only been able to collaborate directly on capacity building with 3 of the 52 rural radio stations identified in Ghana. More emphasis on environmental and economic programming in rural radio is needed. Ghanaian and international organisations involved in fisheries and agricultural research and development are encouraged to initiate a country-wide initiative to strengthen knowledge exchange with local communities for improved rural radio programming.
• Finally, much remains to be learnt and done in order to network different types of rural radio stations so that information and funding resources are used more effectively to assist resource-poor communities. Through such networking the impact of media liberalisation in rural Ghana can be strengthened. Community radio stations have developed a network that helps to build capacity within individual stations and among their collective entity. Without stations such as Radio Afram Plains and Radio FREED entire communities would be without radio, an important institution for locally-focused, rural development. Furthermore, there is not a significant amount known about campus radio in Ghana and for that matter, campus radio across sub-Saharan Africa. The potential of these radio stations lies not in covering an under-serviced area of the country, but in serving and educating a specific audience, youth. Both further study and networking of rural radio stations could help to mobilise knowledge resources for strengthening rural development programming in Ghana.

To access the full document, please contact Helen Hambly Odame at the contacts below.