CR Sustainability by Ideosync Media Combine, Haryana, India

1. CR & Sustainability
Observations from the desk research
Validation workshop / Hotel Lalit Vibe, 16th May 2014
Leonea
Fernandez
Programme Officer
Session II:
The sustainability
& CR initiative

2. +
Focus Areas
• Concept of Sustainability –
Existing definitions
• Good Practice Parameters
and their impact on
sustainability
• Indicators for Sustainability
• Relationships between
adherence to key principles
of CR and sustainability

3. +
Section I
Definitions & Core Concepts

4. +
Definitions - I
“…the ability of an organization to secure and manage
sufficient resources to enable it to fulfill
its mission effectively and consistently over time
without excessive dependence on any single funding
source”
-Lisa Cannon, Life Beyond Aid,
1999
“ …the ability of a radio station to maintain a good
quality developmental broadcasting service over a
period of time…”
- Fairbairn and Siemering, 2007

5. + Definitions - II
“Development that meets the needs of the present without
compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own
needs.” - Bruntland Commission, 1987
“Sustainable development is about improving our lives now, but not
at the price of degrading quality of life in the future.”
- Redclift, M. (1999) in Sustainability and
Sociology
“For community broadcasters the world over ‘sustainability’ – the
ability to keep something going either continuously or for a period
of time” - David Lush and Gabriel Urgoiti , 2012
“Social: Ownership and content generation;
Organizational: Legislation and policy, internal democracy,
capacity, management;
Financial: Budgets, diversity of funding, ability to identify
opportunities and access funds”
- Brigit Jallov (2007)

6. +
Definitions & Understanding
Growth of CR in countries and its relationship to the
policy environment and their genesis
- Community radio – the Growing Pains
Peter D’Costa
Issues around what is a community radio station - and
therefore, what should sustain?
- Frere, 2008

7. +
MANAGE
SUSTAINABILITY
MAINTAIN
MEET
NEEDS
IMPROVE
LIVES
TIME

8. +
Section II
Parameters that impact
sustainability

9. +
Including but not limited to:
• Policy environment
• Institutional architecture
• Geographical location
Parameters - I
Community broadcasting services should have access to a diversity of
funding sources according to local circumstances. There should be no
restrictions on funding sources other than those deemed necessary to
maintain the character of the service and to avoid unfair competition.
- Broadcasting, Voice & Accountability

10. +
Parameters - II
Gumucio Dagron (2001) breaks the concept of sustainability
into 3 components:
- Social
- Institutional
- Financial
Gumucio Dagron believes that social and institutional sustainability are
the foundation on which financial sustainability is built.
“The sustainability of local CR is related to its capacity to have relevant
participatory and creative programming that attracts the audience
and encourages access to the media in their own language and is
alternate and distinct from public and commercial broadcasting (Rights
based!). It is also linked to financial support and technological support
otherwise it distracts community radio practitioners from dedicating
- AMARC 2007

11. +
Parameters - III
UNESCO as part of its Media development project identified
four factors to minimize vulnerability and ensure sustainability
while looking at the local community radio stations already established
in Mozambique:
 Strong community ownership to the extent that they
support content creation, prevent thefts and overcome
financial problems
 Effective Training and Capacitation of the community so that
community members can run the station effectively
 Technical sustainability system
“The concept of community radio has emerged from outside
the community, but the implementation and sustainability is left
up to the community.”

12. +
 Simon Bell and Stephen Morse (1999) draw a distinction between
sustainability of the institution and sustainability of the development project
being implemented by the institution. Institutional sustainability is only
valuable so long as the institution has valued outputs. Put another way, within
the development arena, what does it matter if a radio station that does not
serve its community collapses?
 According to Bell and Morse, a useful way of understanding the sustainability
any development project when it comes to development radio – and this applies to
all kinds of stations that have development missions, whether religious, community,
commercial, NGO or any combination of these – is clearly to sustain good quality
development programming.
 “There are four different aspects of sustainability indicated by various writers:
Social and cultural sustainability; ecological or environmental sustainability;
economic sustainability (the efficiency of economic systems); and political
sustainability, or the provision of a sound overall framework for national and
international governance.”
– Sachs (2003)
Parameters - IV

13. +
Abiding Voices (CEMCA, 2011) draws on and refers
to four categories that go into determining the
survival of CRS in India:
• Programme
• Human and Social
• Financial
• Technical
Parameters - V

14. +
Parameters - V
 According to Fairbairn and Siemering, there are
three levels at which the question of sustainability
operates for community radio stations:
 Firstly, there is the level of the organization or
institution - that is, the radio station, its operations and
practices.
 Secondly, there is the station’s own development project,
as expressed by its vision, mission and goals.
 Thirdly, there is the broader community development process
that the station facilitates.
 The last is obviously not solely dependent on the station,
and involves many other stakeholders and partners.

15. +
Section III
Relationship between adherence to
key principles of CR and
sustainability

16. +
Key principles - I
 A study of the Namibian community broadcasting
sector in order to explore in-depth the complexity
of community broadcasting sustainability
 The study sought to assess broadcasters’ performance
based on five key principles of community broadcasting:
 community ownership and control,
 community participation,
 community service,
 independence,
 not-for-profit business model

17. +
Key principles – II
(Namibian study: Analysis)
 “Secondary stakeholders” (regulator, partner NGOs, donors, training
institutions and other service providers) agreed that external
agencies that worked with CR Stations and the operating organization
have an influence on the sustainability of CR
 Community Radio Stations competing to act and sound like commercial radio
stations may have resulted in loss of faith by station’s community members
and secondary stakeholders. Where community broadcasters are accountable
and financially transparent to those they serve, community members are
willing to substantially contribute to the financial sustainability of their
stations. Cutting back on local programming to save money on the part of the
broadcasters poses the risk of alienating the community members.
 Community broadcasters could become more self-sustainable by developing
their in-house capacity particularly those of older members of the community
who are less likely to leave once they are trained,
 The overall finding of this study, which is that social and institutional
sustainability bring about financial sustainability. It is not the other way round.

18. +
Key principles – III
 The CR PAS evaluation framework developed in Nepal
suggests that a strong relation exists between program and networking
 An analysis of the performance scores shows that there is some
relationship and/or influence of type of promoter organization
and/on the performance of the radio.
 However CAMECO’s research showed no such correlation: The type
of station owner does not influence the strengths and levels of
community participation, with one exception: Stations affiliated to a
religious or church institution have lower participatory ownership
structures
 The research shows where the community had the power to take
decisions in the planning and implementation phase, participation in
programming and management is kept at a much higher level in the
duration of the stations

19. +
Section IV
Indicators of Sustainability

20. +
Indicators of Sustainability - I
 An important measure of financial sustainability for a
community broadcaster is the ability to secure contributions
from its own community by, for example, generating fees from
announcements by local organizations and businesses etc.
 Early involvement of the communities (in the planning and
implementation phase) and their organization in listeners' clubs are two
factors that lead to stronger participation
 Lack of funds is referred to as the main challenge regarding community
participation. 77% of the stations complain about insufficient revenues,
which caused the failure of participation strategies
 Creative and cost effective ways of making local content more
appealing and relevant by CR Broadcasters and their service to
community members and other stakeholders more professional and
reliable serves as a means to enhance financial sustainability.

21. +
Indicators of Sustainability - II
 Fairbairn and Siemering undertook a study of six local independent radio
stations from Mozambique, Tanzania, Zambia and Sierra Leone, South Africa
that explored some of the conditions and practices that might help stations realize
their potential for sustainability. The studies highlighted different factors,
including context, leadership, management, partnerships, programming,
human and technical capacity, will, community support, audience research
and many others, and showed how they work together to contribute to the overall
sustainability of stations.
 The study revealed that all stations recognized the importance of the social, institutional
and financial aspects of sustainability to their ability to maintain high quality development
programming. The importance of context to sustainability cannot be underestimated,
and it is obvious that community radio stations in South Africa, where there is a democratic
and enabling regulatory environment and a strong economic base.
 The studies clarified that it is not the money that holds the stations together but the will to
serve communities and community support. Nonetheless, income is of fundamental
importance. It is needed to pay for premises, equipment, staff and the cost of programming.
While it is obviously not the sole basis for sustainability, failure to achieve financial
sustainability will undoubtedly bring about the collapse of many worthy initiatives.

22. +
Indicators of Sustainability - III
 According to Fairbairn and Siemering within the
development sector, sustainability is often used
narrowly to refer to financial sustainability, which is
seen as fundamental to the survival of stations as
institutions. There is an obvious logic to this: the
sustainability of any intervention is partly determined
by the sustainability of the institution that implements
it.

23. +
Indicators of Sustainability - IV
 “Developing and sustaining partnerships is one of Breeze’s main
strengths. Reliance on NGO sponsorship makes Breeze FM and
its listeners vulnerable to the funding climate as NGOs
themselves are dependent on partnerships. The reliance on
NGO sponsorship to some extent threatens the sustainability of
Breeze’s contribution to the broader development project,
because programming on a particular issue stops when the NGO
cannot afford the airtime.”
 ORS’s contribution to volunteers’ health bills, over and above the
stipends paid, is an expression of value for volunteers’ time &
energy.
 Across all the stations, sale of airtime (a commercial idea) is seen as
the most sustainable way of generating income.
 All the stations visited acknowledged that donor support was not
sustainable. Donor agencies have a reputation for picking up and
dropping issues, not always in consultation with their clients.
 Strong regional partnerships is seen as an important factor

24. +
The Discourse & The Dangers
 “In the US, by 2000, roughly 60 stations (1/8 of those
receiving CSG grants) must increase their measured
listenership or their local fund-raising base, to continue to
receive CPB grants (Schatz 1996, C8).
 “To avoid this fate, many stations are changing their
discourse, speaking of markets rather than audiences, and
consumers rather than listeners.
(David Dunaway, CR at the beginning of 21st
Century)

25. +
The Discourse & The Dangers - IIs
“Today community radio is caught between
two perspectives: open access, which fulfils
the original aesthetic and moral imperative
of community radios’ founding generation;
and audience-building, referring to both size,
character, and financial resources. These two
factors appear to work in opposition.”
- David Dunaway
CR at the beginning of the 21st
Century

26. +
The Discourse & The Dangers - II
“A strategic plan is key to any community
radio station. It’s a new direction, a new way which
provides a variety of alternatives.
This new way is bound to rough up in a bad
way some people who wants the status quo to
remain or do not want the new way for their own
reasons. It all depends on appropriate and
competent LEADERSHIP at the board and
management levels.”
From Summary of Day 7 of
International Sustainability debate
organized by CAMECO (Apr 2014)

27. +
The Discourse & The Dangers - III
Achille, college teacher in Niger proposes that there are three main aspects
needed to make a community radio sustainable. He believes it is possible if:
(i) The radio responds to a real need of the people. In many cases stations are
started by some people who like the idea, and think that all that is needed
is some outreach. He sees communities that are pushed into this direction
without any understanding of what will then be required from them to keep
it going.
(ii) The radio is on a human scale. Today, with the evolution of technology, we still need
community radio on a human scale, with material that fits well into the context and
which can be taken over by the community. It is necessary that the community
members master the entire chain.
(iii) When the community can see that the radio is not an external ‘thing’, but of use in
their lives, they can maybe not support with money, but in kind, through sharing of
grain, cattle and poultry: the radio can see how much of that is needed for running
costs for one year?
In conclusion Achille stresses that many stations today live with ‘the return of the
boomerang’ of those who have started a radio in a non-participatory way. If the
community cannot support a radio: do not offer it - even if we from the outside are
convinced that it will bring a lot to the community.

28. +
The Discourse & The Dangers - III
The importance of participatory budgeting for community radios is highlighted
by Asunta Montoya from Signis Latin America:
“Many local governments in countries like Argentina, Chile, Ecuador and Peru
use participatory budget mechanisms to define and manage their investments
in local development. However, few community radios have actively
participated in participatory budgeting. Radios should actively participate in
these debates to help local governments to develop and establish public communication
policies and funds; a certain part of public budgets could be dedicated to
communications. And active participation in participatory budgeting mechanisms is also a
chance for community radios to become directly involved into the needs and interests of
the community.”
Pedro Sánchez, executive secretary of the Latin American Radio Education
Association ALER, stresses the need to lobby for the democratization of
communication. He adds that the collaboration between local governments and radios
could go beyond the support of educational or health campaigns and result in common
activities which guarantee the economic and material support (or even support in staff)
by the governments
From Cameco international debate on sustainability Day 7 summary