Sustainable Community Media Policy

As one of the countries previously benefiting from UNESCO's "Empowering Local Radio with ICTs" project, the Organization has a proven history in working with community media in Burundi. The past project focused on strengthening the capacities of radio personnel and yielded a number of inspiring success stories, such as the empowerment of women in local communities.

Due to the success of the previous work and the encouragement of key duty-bearers in Burundi, this new program will continue where the last project left off. In this new phase, UNESCO will train community broadcasters to help them improve the reliability and relevance of their content, as well as bring together key media stakeholders in the country to promote sustainable policy and a healthy environment for community media.

In terms of specific policy recommendations, community media would often benefit most from the application of legislation aimed at encouraging the sustainability of these broadcasters. Licensing fees, unclear procedures for creating new community media and strict regulation on their operations are some of the primary issues that UNESCO will try to raise awareness for among duty-bearers, community broadcasters and other media stakeholders.