National Community Radio Forum (NCRF)

The National Community Radio Forum (NCRF) works to support the NCRF members' stations and associate members (training/programming providers) by setting up partnerships and projects. NCRF facilitates and coordinates, rather than implements programmes, based on six strategic programme areas. The Programmes are in line with the NCRF’s Vision 2005 strategic plan, which seeks to "put community radio at the centre of development communications in the changing South Africa." According to the NCRF, this is being done through the following strategic activities:

• Quality Programming: Facilitation of programming networks to encourage stations to produce and share quality programmes with each other. Partnerships are developed with community organisations, government departments, and private sector stakeholders to encourage participatory programme-making that should result in relevant programmes that serve the needs of the community. It is through this programme that community radio is positioning itself as a tool for development.
• Sustainability and Income Generation: Mechanisms for income generation are developed so that community radio is sustainable financially. The NCRF has set up an investment company that looks after all business interests, and creates income for the programmes of the community radio sector.
• Communications: The NCRF believes that at all stages the members should be informed of what is happening. Equally important is the ability to communicate work to all stakeholders who have an interest in the community radio sector. A website and a monthly newsletter form part of the communications tools used by the NCRF.
• Capacity-Building/Training: According to the organisation, community radio is crucial in the skills development of the country. The organisation has partnerships with several training service providers who organise and run short courses to capacitate the community radio sector personnel.
• Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Development: The challenge for the community radio sector is that of understanding and better utilising new technologies to meet its objectives. Digital audio recording and editing enhance sound quality, administration software improve management, web sites build profile, and satellite and internet technologies make it easier to communicate between different stations and communities. The satellite audio-sharing project, called SACRIN (South African Community Radio Information Network) has connected South African stations with stations around the world. The new community information centres, such as government Multi-Purpose Community Centres (MPCCs), telecentres, and digital villages are seeking partnerships with community radio stations to bring information to the doorsteps of all South Africans. The NCRF sees these community ICT projects, and community electronic multimedia projects that combine audio, text, photographs, video, and internet as the way forward for a sustainable sector.
• Advocacy and Lobbying: The challenges and opportunities posed by the rapid evolution of the broadcasting and telecommunications sector require that the community radio sector do research. However, research alone does not challenge unpopular policy decisions, so a strong strategy to lobby and advocate for an enabling environment for the community radio sector is important.

A Women's Network was launched in November 2000 in order to foster gender-specific training for both men and women, provide leadership skills training, train women (technical, managerial, and journalism skills), develop policies on gender issues, work toward transparency inside and outside the sector on how gender policies are implemented, connect women to share experiences and support each other, and build networks with other organisations.

The South African community radio movement is based on the belief that radio, an affordable, egalitarian, and accessible communication technology, should be harnessed at the community level to advance reconstruction and development. The South African community radio movement supports the definition of community broadcasting in the Windhoek Charter on Broadcasting in Africa (2001): "Community broadcasting is broadcasting which is for, by and about the community, and whose ownership and management is representative of the community, which pursues a social development agenda, and which is non-profit."