Internews: Strengthening Rural Radio for impartial information in DRC

The project implementation has highlighted the possibilities of change even in the face of challenges to promote a more open and vibrant media sector that contributes to more responsive and transparent institutions, by enhancing access to independent public interest information in urban and rural areas with a specific focus on women and youth. While this represents the overarching goal of the project, the delivery of project outputs, in some cases, exceeded targets. For example, Habari RDC trained 102 young people, 45% of whom were women, on gender-based violence, blogging and podcasting surpassing its target of 75. These young bloggers went on to produce over 500 articles, videos, and podcasts, that generated over a million engagement online thereby inspiring a generation of young people that are taking a more prominent role in raising awareness on and responding to key governance issues. Similarly, Groupe Comédiens Citoyens (GCC) produced 45 soap operas in four local languages that were broadcast over 3,500 times on partner radios and radios in marketplaces. This is in addition to the production of 32 awareness-raising sketches that reached an estimated 6,600 people with engaging and inspiring content. While these examples provide a snapshot of the scale of project delivery, the impact of partner outputs can be summarized under three broad categories of the projects intermediate results: 1. Strengthened Legal and Regulatory Environment for Media The series of advocacy actions, technical support, and engagement of media partners has seen some progress with media legal reforms. This is reflected in the commitment demonstrated by the DRC government for media reforms as epitomized in the adoption of several provisions put forward by partners as the Etats Generaux des Médias et de la Communication. The new provisions call for alternative solution to the current fiscal and legal regime that seem to strangulate community radios and compromise their independence. The fact that the government has followed this up with several consultative meetings including technical working groups - led by the Minister of Communication and Media with the tacit support of the President - underscores the intention of governments commitment to put words into action. While this development does not automatically change the status of local media, particularly community radios, it however signals the strongest indication of progress to recognize the important role that community radios can play in strengthening DRCs democratization process. This development establishes a framework for continued engagement for media reforms. 2. Targeted media outlets are more independent and professional While legal media reform is a critical component to enhancing the independence and professionalism of local media, the range of capacity building support delivered under this project, brings to light the possibilities of change in the media sector. For example, L'Association Congolaise des Femmes Journalistes de la presse écrite (ACOFEPE), run a capacity building program for female journalists that delivered career changing developments for some women in the media sector. Jolie-Rebecca Tshibidi, Deputy Director of lAgence Congolaise de Presse started as Editorial Assistant before rising through the ranks to her current position, she credited the training received from ACOFEPE for the upward trajectory in her career in a male dominated media environment and a patriarchal society that often relegates women to the lower rungs of society. Her story is one of six women who reported career changing development in the media institutions they work for on account of the training received from ACOFEPE under this project. Improvement in partner capacity is a critical component for quality productions that respond to the needs of audiences and communities and can inspire change in communities. GCCs engaging market and sensitization events reportedly inspired market women at a market in Kinshasa to adopt good sanitation measures for regular cleaning of their market environment. Justicia TVs coverage of court cases attracted a disabled person to seek their support for justice and eventually gained freedom given the impassioned media spotlight that Justicia TV provided during the trial process - thus adding another level of transparency to court proceedings and accountability of the justice system. Justicias coverage of this mater did not only result in the litigant gaining his freedom after more than 10 months in prison without trial, but it also saw the court acting against the investigating judge for miscarriage of justice. AFEMs innovative approach of addressing sexual and genderbased violence (SGBV) in South Kivu through a dedicated phone-in and SMS system is throwing the spotlight on the scale of SGBV and the efforts being taken to address the problem. LAssociation des Femmes des Médias du Sud Kivu (AFEM) is now a reference point for SGBV issues in South Kivu with women seeking their advice and support for redress. In Mbandaka (Equateur Province), Kandindis Mbongwana radio program inspired its local radio partner, Radio Mwana to respond to the growing phenomenon of mob justice in the city by producing series of engaging Feedback radio program on the issue. These programs are credited to have contributed to improving community understanding of justice particularly the notion of presumption of innocence until proven guilty. This change was confirmed by community members during the project evaluation video, apparently contributing to the reduction of mob justice in the city. While this development does not attempt to paint a picture of comprehensive change in local media, it underscores the possibility of change even in the midst of challenges. 3. Improved income generation and management of resources Revenue generation and resource management remain a major challenge for local media. However, Justicia TVs bold efforts to diversify their resource base and building on the financial, material, and technical support from Internews is commendable. The outlet was able to generate revenue in the excess of US $18,000 within 8 months and increased the number of their subscribers from around 500 to over 6,000. The Covid-19 support Since June 2020, Internews also implemented activities related to the COVID-19 pandemic in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), offering a series of activities aimed at understanding communities' concerns about the COVID-19 vaccine. These activities included weekly radio broadcasts, online, and community engagement of audiences, especially women and youth, on the COVID-19 vaccine in project sites including Kinshasa, North Kivu, Haut Katanga and Kongo Central. These efforts aimed at achieving the project's goal, which is to build "trust around COVID-19 vaccines to ensure better access and use by establishing healthy information ecosystems in the DRC to combat vaccine misinformation. Despite the constraining environment caused by the coronavirus pandemic, that limited movement of people and direct public engagement of audiences, the project was able to deliver some significant results on the ground. Partner organisations either met or exceeded targets as part of concerted effort to engage audiences on the pandemic. Local partner ABCommunication produced a total of 112 radio programs, done in four national languages and shared with 20 partner radio stations with a reported broadcasting time of over 20,000 minutes. This exceeded the project target of 32 radio programs with a broadcast time of 18,800 minutes. The broadcast figure is much higher for radio sans frequence (radios in marketplaces) where ABCommunication succeeded in negotiating the broadcast of the 3-minute content of the Oye series for 2 hours per day (120 minutes) instead of the 5 times per day as originally planned, resulting in a reported broadcast time of over 200,000 - well above the target of 2,880. The same was recorded for outputs relating to online engagement of audiences where Next Corp - through the Lokuta Mabe journalists - produced 100 articles, 50 infographics out of the 45 planned, and 45 podcasts with contents shared in 112 WhatsApp groups and on social media platforms particularly Facebook, reaching 1,135,547 people, with 307 shares and 1,071 comments. Similarly, a total of 9,699 rumors were collected in the four target provinces and on social networks with 37 rumor tracking bulletins produced exceeding the target of 36.

The overall objective from the inception of this intervention from 2019 is to promote a more open and vibrant media sector that contributes to more responsive and transparent institutions in the DRC. Internews and its local partners will achieve this through the following intermediate results: 1: Legal and regulatory environment for media is strengthened; 2: Targeted media outlets are more independent and professional; 3: Access to high-quality public-interest reporting is increased. In addition to the above, the intervention was amended in June 2020 to also address resistance toward COVID-19 vaccination by: 1: Strengthening health systems in DRC to face the challenge of COVID-19 2: Building trust around COVID-19 vaccines to ensure greater access and uptake through establishing healthy information ecosystems in DRC to address mis- and desinformation and vaccine hesitancy.