Bill Gates’ foundation funds African community radio, connect broadcasters in Ghana and others on one platform
The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation is funding a community radio network in Africa aimed at breaking down linguistic barriers between rural communities while improving their communication with decision makers.
Launched on Friday July 22, 2011, the community radio, a three-year pilot programme, is known as the Pan African Radio Platform and it will be implemented in three African regions – West Africa, Eastern Africa, and Southern Africa.
The Voice of America (VOANews) reports that The Gates Foundation is funding the programme through the PANOS Institute of West Africa connecting “broadcasters in Ghana, Senegal, Uganda, and Zambia to give local communities a stronger voice in national development.”
The Director General of the PANOS Institute, Diana Senghor, told the VOA that “Community radio is the only means for the ordinary people to have their say, especially in the local governments without radio stations.”
Ebrima Sillah, Coordinator of the Pan African Radio Platform, quoted by the publication, said “Important radio programs that are done in Senegal and are translated into French, for example, can be adapted and, accompanied by the scripts, uploaded on the portal for radio stations, say, in East and Southern Africa to also adapt and translate this into their national languages, for example English, so that then we will break the barriers of linguistics that are the main problem in African radio communications.”
In a related story, the Gates Foundation has awarded a grant of $12 million to the African Water Facility (AWF), an initiative of the African Ministers Council on Water (AMCOW) hosted by the African Development Bank (AfDB) to finance projects to advance water and sanitation services across Africa.
The Foundation announced this grant at the AfricaSan 3 conference in Rwanda as part of more than $40 million in new investments launching its Water, Sanitation, & Hygiene strategy.
By Ekow Quandzie