Best Practices of Community Radio and Sustainable Development Goals: A Handbook

"...community radios can be an integral part of the task force of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) - a blueprint for achieving a better and more sustainable future for all socially, economically, and environmentally."

This handbook offers a compilation of best practices of community radio stations (CRS) and how they are integrating themes of the 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda into their everyday programming. Covering CRS in Bangladesh, India, and Nepal, the handbook seeks to share best practice and lessons learned in order to inspire excellence for open and inclusive radio broadcasting across the region and beyond.

As explained in the introduction to the handbook, "Achieving the SDGs continues to remain a big challenge in many countries like Bangladesh, India and Nepal, partly due to the lack of effective communication with the marginalized populations. When we speak of reaching the last mile, the role of CRS - the third pillar of the broadcast media - cannot be overlooked. Its unique media characteristics can propel the accessibility of sustainability communication by challenging attitudes, and social norms." In addition, "the hyper-local and participatory nature of content creation in community radio has great potential to reduce the gap between the content creators and listeners making communities - especially the marginalized and vulnerable - active partners in the development process. Thus, community radios are well suited for providing new and unexplored opportunities for more inclusive sustainable development." Their value has, in particular, been shown in the time of the on-going COVID-19 pandemic with their ability to provide timely and dependable information and guidance.

The handbook contains 96 stories from all three countries, which are categorised according to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) that the CRS is addressing in a particular programme. The majority of the case studies fall within SDG 3 (Good health and well-being), SDG 4 (Education) and SDG 5 (Gender equality). The stories capture the various ways in which the sector is identifying, prioritising, and addressing concerns in the community vis-a-vis the SDGs. They describe the different and creative ways in which content has been developed by using, for example, the folk format, including engaging the community through discussions, games, cultural events, and outreach activities. The case studies also highlight collaborations with local institutions and civic administrations and the way in which CRS' core strengths like youth power, especially in educational institutions, are harnessed to provide inclusive community programming that truly provides a voice to the voiceless. Finally, the stories also highlight how social media and the internet have been co-opted for wider and on-demand access.

The handbook defines best practices as "exemplary, healthy practices that have achieved results." The Commonwealth Educational Media Centre for Asia (CEMCA), which conducted the research, identified a set of five criteria that informed their choice of case studies to be included in this handbook: adaptability, relevance, sustainability, uniqueness or innovative nature, and evidential base or credibility of the source material. For this reason, where possible, the stories highlighted in the handbook include the following information:

• How a CRS identified a particular SDG to be an important intervention area, giving it priority over others - for instance, SDG 6 (Clean water and sanitation) over SDG 13 (Climate action) and how the issue's salience was arrived at (relevance).
• How a CRS narrowed down a thrust area within a broader thematic area like addressing an SDG's targets as being of interest and value to the community - for instance, reducing injury and death by road accidents in SDG 3 (Health) (adaptability).
• How a CRS built its capacities and resources for addressing an issue in the mid-to long term by tapping and optimising available resources (sustainability). Often in the case of funded and sponsored interventions, CRS drop the theme after the project is completed, even if it is of interest and relevance to the community because financial and content resources are no longer available to them.
• The Aha factor! The manner in which a CRS is able to employ creatively or repurpose a resource to make the programme interesting, effective, and popular in the community - be it through a format, a way of community engagement, or an outreach activity, or a combination of such factors (uniqueness or innovation).
• Support information like anecdotal descriptions of the impact, quotes, and experiences of the beneficiaries, feedback received by the station, and pictures (evidence).