Sustainability Management Community Radio
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 in her upcoming article on Community Radio Sustainability) and thus repeats some of the earlier points in this section. As, however, a sustainability assessment may stand on its own, it will need to cover the central aspects here.
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.
Analysis and forward-looking recommendations
