ECOWAS Radio Liberia

Radio currently serves as the most reliable means of accessing information in Liberia, especially outside the capital Monrovia. However, access to balanced and impartial reporting remains a concern. ECOWAS Radio, with its wide coverage rate reaching most counties in Liberia, is therefore securing non-partisan and neutral access to information as a tool for consolidating peace in Liberia and securing the populations access to credible information. Key results from 2021 and 2022 include: Broadcasting balanced and impartial radio nationwide The Radio continued to broadcast programming on peace, sustainable development and credible and non-partisan news, while also maintaining the ECOWAS Radio Internet platform and airing pre-recorded programs and jingles on 30 Community Radio Stations. When planning the exit strategy, it became clear that one of the main beneficiaries of the ECOWAS radio contribution, are the Community Radio Stations and their listeners. These stations have especially benefitted from a small annual financial support from ECOWAS, assisting them in maintaining their energy costs. ECOWAS is therefore now, with support of the Embassy, looking into solarising these stations, and thereby raising their ability to maintain energy costs beyond ECOWAS engagement. ECOWAS do continuous checks with their community radio partners, to get confirmation that the ECOWAS coverage reaches all counties. The Embassy takes part of this through the Whatsapp chat set up for ECOWAS and CRS communications, where 1 county noted uneven coverage (Maryland) and 2 counties noted no coverage (Lofa for a few months, Grand Gedeh since 2018) in September. When asked about the status of the seven transmitters located across the country to enable national broadcasting, ECOWAS shared a list of operational status which show that two of the transmitters are not operational (Grand Gedeh and Bong), two are only antenna systems (Grand Bassa and Sinoe), and the remaining three are operational transmitters (Montserrado, Nimba and Lofa). Conducting of listening circles ECOWAS Radio continued their work with 102 peace-focused listening circles in particular conflict "hot-spots" in all 15 Counties during 2021. These listening circles were designed to be a local platform for community dwellers to sit together, listen to radio content produced and use the information to promote community peace and development. The partners engaged in the listening circles activity have also conducted theatre/street performances on COVID-19, 2020 Elections and Referendum as well as community Radio Dialogue on conflicts issues. As described in the previous Conclusion of Performance (UM2018/29190/MONR-72) the Embassy assessed that ECOWAS have not managed to capture any impact or results achieved from the Listening Circles, and therefore advised ECOWAS to exclude this component going forward. ECOWAS have chosen to have some smaller community engagement focused on preventing election violence. Creating and adopting an exit plan ahead of ECOWAS regional transition Following the lessons learned workshop held in January 2022, ECOWAS and the Embassy expanded the dialogue to include Association of Liberia's Community Radios (ALICOR) and Internews, to investigate possibilities for ECOWAS to transfer their knowledge, expertise, and resources. It was agreed between all parts that Internews and ALICOR would focus on building ALICOR's capacity to take over the role as national broadcaster within the coming years. The two-year cost extension will in addition to transferring capacity to ALICOR, include a suitable exit strategy for ECOWAS' direct to support to Community Radio Stations - ie. finding sustainable solutions for their energy consumption (as mentioned above) and continue broadcasting unbiased news reporting throughout the election in 2023. ECOWAS presented a two-year action plan and budget for the extension in May 2022 and received their first disbursement for this the following month. Implementation of the two-year activity plan has commenced, with regular broadcasting continuing, and specific dialogue with community radio stations has begun how to broadcast during, and report on the elections. Examples of results 2022-2023 Key results from 2022-2023 include the continued broadcasting of nation-wide, reliable, non-partisan news reporting and programming shared via ECOWAS Radio and their partner Community Radio Stations. This has been especially important during the 2023 Elections period, when ECOWAS has provided neutral and fair reporting to citizens across the country. The wide broadcasting was partly made possible through intensified support to around 20 Community Radio Stations across the country, namely capacity building, financial support and installing solar systems for five Community Radio Stations. The solar systems have been especially important to the Community Radios located outside the reach of the national electricity grid.

The main objective of the intervention is to provide transitional support to ECOWAS Radio. By providing an independant radio station with national coverage, ECOWAS contributes to the promotion of local peacebuilding initiatives in Liberia, while building the capacity of the Radio to guarantee a smooth expansion to cover the 15 countries in the West African sub-region. Two main outcomes are expected to be achieved by this intervention: ECOWAS solidifies its operational capability to maintain broadcast of its Radio station while developing its capacity to expand its radio facilities to all 15 countries in West Africa; ECOWAS utilizes Radio programming to establish strategic partnerships with civil society organizations, other media/communication institutions, and the public so as to create a reliable platform for the promotion of peace and development in Liberia ECOWAS have decided on a final exit strategy for 2022-2024 during which they plan to transfer their skills and knowledge to the Association of Liberian Community Radio Stations (ALICOR), while ensuring that unbiased radio broadcasting is available nation-wide during elections.