Community Radio: Sustainability Management
From mediaME
Contents |
Description/Definition
One of the crucial and challenging aspects around getting a community radio to work - and as such of central importance with planning how to monitor and evaluate the progress of community radio, is the sustainability. A sustainability assessment will as such be an important, integral part of any evaluative exercise or assessment.
The below analysis is organised around 'the sustainability triangle' [link: 'Sustainability of CMCs' by Alonso Gumucio-Dagron and Hezekiel Dlamini, in: CMC Manual, UNESCO. The operationalization of this organisation has been elaborated by Birgitte Jallov. The central aspects are:
Identify and map aspects of (i) Social, (ii) Institutional and (iii) Financial sustainability.
Social sustainability:
- Assess community ownership;
- Quality of programmes - development of local content;
- Use of local language and local cultural traditions in programming.
Institutional sustainability:
- Organisation, structure and regulations;
- Internal regulation;
- Strategic planning;
- Management and Leadership;
- Work atmosphere (conducive to community involvement?);
- Training and training materials;
- Participation;
- Installation and technologies;
- Belonging to relevant networks.
Financial sustainability:
- Partnership strategy available;
- Capacity to implement strategy;
- Building up realistic budgets;
- Effective financial management structures;
- Financial situation at time of evaluation/sustainability assessment.
