Removing Barriers, Increasing Effectiveness - amarc

as rural black women, impoverished children and workers in the informaleconomy, contributing to their democratic development and helping them toorganize and struggle for change and for improvements to their socio-economicand political status. “For a Mapuche, written words and numbers carry no realvalue. We have an oral tradition and the measure of the impact of the communityradio is related to reinforcing the cultural Lafquenche way of life and the selfdetermination it reinforces in the communities”. Participant from Southern ChileCommunity radio is effective in poverty reduction. Access to voice, information,and knowledge are vital factors in facilitating the achievement of povertyreduction and sustainable human development, as voicelessness is a keydimension of poverty and exclusion. Radio Ada (Ghana), Radio Oxyjeunes(Senegal) are good examples. The strength of Community Radio is to restore thecapabilities the poor to participate in development. As said by Amartya Sen:“...poverty must be seen as the deprivation of basic capabilities rather thanmerely as lowness of incomes, which is the standard criterion of identification ofpoverty” Participant from India.CR is effective in ensuring good governance and accountability. Community radiocan contribute to rendering governments accountable by enabling ordinarypeople to question their leaders on matters such as the use of public resources.“Community Radio has made possible for ordinary people to have powers tosummon their leaders and make them accountable hoe they are using publicresources. This instills accountability, transparency and good governance andstrengthens societies bringing sustainable development and leaders do whatpeople want and according to their priorities for example they can debatewhether they want a school instead of a clinic or a hammer mill instead of aborehole.” Participant from Zambia;CR is effective in achieving development goals. Community radio is effective infacilitating communication for key development sectors such as health, educationand livelihoods. “Uganda has seen the emergency of community radiosspecializing in various avenues from health, HIV-AIDS, youth matters, educationand gender affairs (women). This has brought a positive economic growth and areduction in the HIV-AIDS rate due to empowering information thanks tocommunity radios. Let as all rise and make this noble cause more effective.”(Participant from Uganda). Provide service to the community, with programmingof a high pedagogical, cultural and informational content. That it offer itsaudience a personal and community-based development alternative. Theyshould be guiding lights to the community they serve (Participant fromVenezuela).Community Radio is effective in Disaster Prevention/Relief. Community Radiohas proven a key actor when it comes to natural disaster prevention and relief inAsia by allowing access to information and voice at the local level contributing tothe protection, security and safety of communities against danger. We need toAMARC Community Radio Social Impact Assessment 2007 Page 41 of 128