ORGANISATIONAL PROFILE:
Bangladesh NGOs Network for Radio and Communication (BNNRC): Vision and Mission Statements
As it was set, the vision of the network is “BNNRC do like to see the rural people has the easy, quick and low cost access to global communication so that they are enrich and updated by knowledge."
Mission of the network “In view of the value “Communication is not a privilege it has become a basic human rights”, the BNNRC trust will organize strategically important activities, studies, advocacy so that the population of the rural areas will have easy, manageable and low cost communication facilities”.
Major Activities;
BNNRC now strive for following core interventions to achieve UN World Summit on the Information Society(UN WSIS) action plan, Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), UNESCO Universal Declaration on Cultural Diversity and Poverty Reduction Strategy (PRS) in Bangladesh;
1. Awareness on correlations of ICT, poverty alleviation and Institutionalization of Democracy and Right to Information (RTI)
2. Establishment of ICT Resource Center and Promotion of Rural Knowledge Volunteers(RKV) as primary ICT catalyst in remote rural areas;
3. Advocacy and Campaign for Bridging the Digital Divide/Information Divide/Knowledge Divide and open up air waves for Community Radio - voices for the voice-less;
4. Piloting ICT4D projects at rural areas to create show case examples for greater multiplication through Rural Knowledge Center (RKC)/ Telecenter.
5. Establishment of Radio Amateur Civil Emergency Services (RACES) for Disaster Preparedness and Risk Reduction through Amateur Radio (HAM Radio) promotion.
6. Establishment of People's Right in Telecommunication/ Global Commons/Country Commons.
7. To Promote the adoption of Free/Open Source Software(FOSS), open standards, and open content for development
8. Building Capacity for ICT Journalist
Origin, Legal Entity and Policy Making:
BNNRC is a national networking body working for building a democratic society based on the principles of free flow of information, equitable and affordable access to Information, Communication Technology (ICT) for remote and marginalized population.
BNNRC is registered with the Ministry of Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs, as a trust and NGO Affairs Bureau, Office of the Prime Minister, Government of Bangladesh according to the foreign donation (Voluntary Activities) regulation ordinance 1978 as an organization on Information, Communication and Technology for Development (ICT4D) established in 2000 as per Article 19 charter of UN bill of rights.
The Board of Trustee (BoT) has been formed with Mr. Rafiqul Alam as Chairperson, Mr. Rezaul Karim Chowdhury as Vice-Chairperson, Mr. Zahurul Haque Bali as Vice-Chairperson, Mr. Md. Arifur Rahman as Treasurer and AHM Bazlur Rahman-S21BR as Secretary/Chief Executive Officer.
Background and Rationale:
Community Radio has a very special place in BNNRC’s interventions. The objective of BNNRC ‘s Community Radio intervention is to address crucial social issues at community level, such as poverty and social exclusion, empower marginalized rural groups and catalyze democratic processes and on going development efforts.
Bangladesh has gone a long way towards creating an enabling environment for launching Community Radio. The Government has opened frequency for FM stations and satellite channels. It has also drafted the Bangladesh Broadcasting Act in 2003 with the aim of addressing social and economic issues.
It is a vital moment when Community Radio is going to make an important place in the communication field in the country. The present non-political Care Taker Government formulated Community Radio Installation, Broadcast and Operation Policy – 2008 on 12 March this year and gave an advertisement on 18 March in the newspaper asking applications from interested initiators to install Community Radio in the country.
In order to facilitate the application and registration process of the organizations for Community Radio, BNNRC immediately opened a help desk in its secretariat in Dhaka. As a result, BNNRC received huge response from the interested development organizations for technical support in this regard. Receiving huge response from the interested development organizations and research institutions the authority extended the deadline up to 30 April. 400 organizations drew application forms from the Ministry of Information and 178 applications have been submitted from different organizations in this regard.
In the whole process the Government ensured the proper participation and representation from civil society organizations through incorporating representatives in Regulatory Committee, Technical Committee and National Monitoring Committee for the successful operation of the Community Radio.
Recognizing that Community Radio is an ideal means of fostering freedom of expression and information, the development of culture, the freedom to form and confront opinions and active participation in local life; noting that different cultures and traditions lead to a diversity of forms of Community Radio; this Charter identifies objectives which community radio station share and should strive to achieve.
Around the world and also south Asia community radio plays a vital role in overcoming political apathy by providing people with access to information about their local and national leaders. Empowered with this information, citizens can start to fight endemic corruption, developing methods to hold government officials accountable for their actions.
In this way, radio not only informs people about government failure, but it also provides the vehicle though which to work for positive political change.Because radio is a personal medium that speaks a local language, it also presents information about health problems and other community issues. For example, radio has proven an effective tool for teaching local populations about HIV/AIDS and combating the powerful social stigmas associated with this disease.
Effective community radio programming helps to stimulate community discussion about attitudes and beliefs, and promotes behavior change.
Under the above-mentioned circumstances, BNNRC feels deep urge to set up a Community Radio Academy in Dhaka. This will help Community Radio stakeholders having on-hand training of technical and management skills, coming to know about the function, management, procedure, problem, prospect and sustainability of the Community Radio as a tool of ICT and having all concerned resources and facilities available for their progress and success.
So that NGOs/CBOs and communities can prepare themselves for the ensuing challenges in operating Community Radio effectively by accommodating the use of limited resources to reach mass people including rural and disadvantage people. Moreover this academy will help academia, researchers, government officials, media activists, community leaders and policy makers to understand and work closely for the promotion and positive role of community radio for the advancement of Bangladesh in various development sectors.
Role of Community Radio at community level
-Give voice to the people who normally have no access to the mass media nor opportunity to express their views on community development
-Speeds up the process of informing the community and therefore acts as a catalyst of change
-Promote the right to communicate, assist the free flow of information and opinions, encourage creative expression and contribute to the democratic process and a pluralist society;
-Provide access to training, production and distribution facilities; encourage local creative talent and foster local traditions; and provide program for the benefit, entertainment, education and development of their listeners.
-Seek to have their ownership representative of local geographically recognizable communities or of communities of common interest.
-Provide a right of access to minority and marginalized groups and promote and protect cultural and linguistic diversity.
-Seek to honestly inform their listeners on the basis of information drawn from a diversity of sources and provide a right of reply to any person or organization subject to serious misrepresentation.
-Community Radio helps to put the community members in charge of their own affairs
Purpose of Community Radio Academy:
BNNRC has already set up Community Radio Academy as one of its social enterprise to promote Community Radio installation, broadcasting and operation around the country:
-To Promote the Effective use of Community Radio for Development;
-Take all measures for essential improvement of community radio broadcasting; Foster exchange between community radio broadcasters using communications to develop greater understanding in support of peace, tolerance, democracy and development.
-To organize seminars, workshops and other motivational program associated with community broadcasting; establish contact with other similar national and international organizations for promoting mutual benefit and understanding;
-To advocate for the higher-level, strategic policy linkages between community media support and existing human and economic development instruments and frameworks (eg, Poverty Reduction Strategy (PRS); Millennium Development Goals(MDG) ), UNESCO Universal Declaration on Cultural Diversity, Convention on the Rights of the Child(CRC) and World Summit on the Information Society Action plan(WSIS).
-To offer an extensive web-based platform of resources/ contents for community broadcasting professionals, Advise the Government and Policy makers on any matter relating to community radio and development; assist in the setting up of community radio with technical and professional expertise and as well as in securing funds;
-To strengthen networking among community radio stations, community radio promoters and independent community radio producers, and to facilitate exchange of radio programmes among them; assist communities in establishing community radio in different geographical areas keeping in mind the linguistic, cultural, ethnic and social diversity;
-To strengthen capabilities of established community radio stations with professional and technical assistance; organise periodic trainings for community radio producers and technicians; identify appropriate places, from technical and resources points of view, for encouraging establishment of radio stations;
-To disseminate research on the role of the community media in economic growth democratization and institutional reform process
To produce manuals and reference materials in community radio, undertake community radio audience research/studies; active in lobbying and advocacy in order to mould public opinion in favor of making Community Radio Trust Fund that are conducive to the growth and expansion of community radio;
-To establish and promote contacts with like-minded international organizations for world solidarity in favor of promotion of community radio broadcasting.
Input:
BNNRC will establish Community Radio Academy (CRA) in its national secretariat in Dhaka. All the activities will be implemented under three unites namely Research and Development, Capacity Building and Technical Cooperation of the academy. The academy will take necessary steps for arranging the following training courses, workshops and research works effectively
Activities included:
a)Research and Development:
Research and development activities on challenges and prospects of Community Radio operation in Bangladesh including baseline survey, policy advocacy, evaluation and monitoring, feedback, listeners’ survey, publishing newsletter, publishing Community Radio handbook, library and archive, Community Radio based web portal and case studies on success and failure of Community Radio will be accomplished.
b)Capacity Building:
8 basic and 8 advanced training courses will be arranged for about 240 Community Radio staff working across the country. 12 advocacy workshops, each in every month, will be arranged in center point in regional level with policy makers and stakeholders. An annual Community Radio conference of the stakeholders of all community radio stations located at different regions in Bangladesh will be arranged in Dhaka. Moreover, experience sharing, exposure trip, radio producing contents of program, news and talk show, capacity building training on program production, editing and presentation, support to budgeting and planning, broadcast management and schedule scripting will be arranged.
c)Technical Cooperation:
Technical support for studio set up, maintenance and broadcasting, schedule exchange, exchange visit, help desk, trouble-shooting, national and international communication. Publishing four Reports
Output/Outcome:
From this Community Radio Academy, Community Radio stakeholders will have on-hand training of technical and management skills, come to know about the function, management, procedure, problem, prospect and sustainability of the Community Radio as a tool of ICT and have all concerned resources and facilities available for their progress and success. Thus NGOs/CBOs and communities can prepare themselves for the ensuing challenges in operating Community Radio effectively by accommodating the use of limited resources to reach mass people including rural and disadvantage people.
Moreover, from this academy academia, researchers, government officials, media activists, community leaders and policy makers will understand and be encouraged to work closely for the promotion and positive role of community radio for the advancement of Bangladesh in various development sectors. Thus from the beginning of the Community Radio set-up in Bangladesh, the key stakeholders will gain full preparation of potential challenges and difficulties to be faced in operating radio station and broadcasting radio program.
Through exchange visits, representatives of certain areas and communities will have practical experience of working environment, interest issues, culture, socio-economic status, challenges and difficulties of other communities in respect to running Community Radio.
Moreover, the printed reports and newsletters of the project activities, the papers presented in the workshops, opinion of resource persons and participants and articles on exchange visit experience will be very helpful for sustainable and effective guiding force of the Community Radio stations. These publications will be helpful for long-term preservation and sharing with more policy makers and people working in this field for the greater positive impact.
Through the Community Radio web portal, each CR station will have easy access and facility of uploading their productions and downloading the productions of other stations for sharing and exchanging contents, materials, music, schedule and planning reciprocal and integrated cooperation and development.
Responsibility and Accountability
BNNRC will take the responsibility of setting up the academy. The Chief Executive Officer of BNNRC is the focal person for all kinds of correspondence.
The activities of this academy will be duly monitored and documented in the project completion report (PCR), which will be submitted to the donor within one month of project completion. The financial reporting will also be accomplished quite soon after the implementation of the project.
Contact:
AHM Bazlur Rahman- S21BR,
Chief Executive Officer,
Bangladesh NGOs Network for Radio and Communication (BNNRC)
and Member- Strategy Council
United Nations- Global Alliance for ICT and Development (UN GAID)
House: 13/1 Road: 2
Shamoli, Dhaka 1207
Phone: 9130750, 9138501 Fax: 9138501-105,
E-Mail:
ceo@bnnrc.net
www.bnnrc.net
