Internews: Reinforcing Rural Radios in 3R-DRC (2022 - 2025)

During the year July 2023- June 2024 the most important results are; The project has worked for a new freedom of press law that is adopted and will lead to more effective public subsidies for community radios that will reinforce their business models and their independence. The project has also done a lot of advocacy work so that community radios can benefit from exemptions from custom duties on imports of their materials and equipment etc. Protection pour un Partenariat Integré (PPI) and Observatoire de la Liberté de la Presse en Afrique (OLPA) have come to play a more important role among press freedom defenders in the DRC. They have been able to publish detailed data on abuses against press freedom and to reinforce the efficiency of protecting journalists. OLPA and PPI have succeeded to find a positive end of 88% of 57 cases of journalists facing legal procedures by offering support of legal aid or financial assistance to 100 percent of the identified victims. During the December 2023 elections, PPI has been enabled to provide digital security support services to journalists, notably in South Kivu. PPI also set up the OONI-PROBE platform to monitor partner media websites and ensure that they were not hacked during the election period. With 3R-DRC support, HABARI-RDC trained 61 young bloggers (13 women and 48 men) that are now able to produce content on issues including electoral education, governance, and natural resources. Their work is based on accurate information and reliable sources with the objective of raising awareness in their communities. These young people produced 607 items (442 articles, 60 videos, 51 pod casts, 54 cartoons), which registered 2,315,031 hits on HABARI-RDC's online platforms. 19 community radio stations with training in Kinshasa, Bukavu and Lubumbashi to carry out their own audience surveys. They can now draw conclusions from the first audience surveys carried out in year 2 with the help of Target. These surveys have given radio stations a clearer understanding of the interests of their audiences, helped them to rethink their broadcasting schedules and thereby attract more advertising revenue, which rose from USD 23,456 in July 2023 to USD 115,310 in June 2024, for an 80% increase for this type of revenues. Improving the quality and inclusion of gender sensitive content by media organizations The Association of Women Media Professionals (Association des Femmes des Médias - AFEM) trained a total of 39 women journalists from 20 partner media outlets based in 11 provinces targeted by the project. The women journalists that participated to the training session made firm commitments to promote both individual and shared leadership among women journalists and to engage for the integration of gender and inclusion in media content. This training provided a great opportunity to raise awareness and served as a framework to reinforce the commitment and empowerment of women journalists in their respective media outlets. Results from pre- and post-training assessments conducted by AFEM show an 85% increase in the women's awareness of female leadership issues and the integration of gender and inclusion in media content. Training and coaching sessions in management, alternative revenue generation strategies and business plan development led some beneficiary radio stations to start their own alternative revenue generation schemes using internal resources. For example, Radio Jedidja located in Kambove, Haut-Katanga Province, launched a self-funded revenue-generating activity, with capital of USD 1,570 in June 2023. By March 31, 2024, the radio station had raised USD 1,630, or 104% of its initial capital. Open Media Fund micro grant beneficiary partner radio stations' average quarterly revenues increased by 85%, from a quarterly revenue generation of USD 15,217 in July 2023 to USD 102,098 in June 2024. A total of 1,281 pieces of public-interest media content (pod casts, magazines, daily newsletters, videos, posters, sketches, info graphics and cartoons) were produced during this second year, on key project themes. During the electoral period, 3R-DRC partner organizations combined efforts to produce content related to democracy and the elections. Through the 3R-DRC institutional capacity-building support, FRPC have been able to play a major role during the elections collaborating with the CENI on electoral education by addressing the responses to identified questions and disinformation in the communities on the electoral process. The public service announcements were broadcast 27,795 times on 44 community radio stations for an estimated audience of 30.25 million listeners during the week preceding the beginning of voting operations in December 2023. With MSDA support, Balobaki and FRPC participated by doing efforts to limit the impact of disinformation during the electoral process. The 3R-DRC project also contributed to MSDA efforts to include marginalized groups (women, young people, people with disabilities, members of indigenous communities) in the electoral debate. The 3R-DRC Project also supported the organization of the 5th edition of the Fair of Women Media Professionals (Foire des Femmes Professionnelles des Médias) held on March 20 in Bukavu, March 21 in Kinshasa and March 22 in Lubumbashi. The event was an opportunity for 133 women journalists (40 in Lubumbashi, 40 in Bukavu and 53 in Kinshasa) working for 56 media outlets (20 in Lubumbashi, 20 in Bukavu and 16 in Kinshasa) to showcase their work. Over all Internews and implementing partners have implemented a great part of the planned activities. No major delays are noted. It is also noticed that the annual audit is improved since Internews decided to stop the collaboration with two local partners that did not deliver results nor had the capacity. The reporting in general now is good (narrative, financial and audit). During the last year the embassy did a field trip to visit some of the implementing partners in the programme. One of the partners is AFEM The visit started at AFEM:s office in Bukavu city. The organisation is a local partner to Internews and exists since 20 years.They work with women journalists and against gender based violence as well as women's economic empowerment and women's participation in politics. The radio station that they manage is called Mama radio. They have 3 different strategies, - to inform to the broad society, Capacity building and alert of violence per sms to prevent GBV. They also do advocacy work on national, provincial and local level. The legislation on GBV that was voted not long time ago is the initiative of AFEM. AFEM works with female perspectives through radio, also male employees who work with female perspectives to give them a voice. 18 out of 36 employees are men. AFEM also works with research, e.g. with documenting and keeping statistics in order to better support their advocacy work. They also have research on women in the mining sector where they are exposed to sexual violence, sextortion and where they often are forced into prostitution in combination with abuse. By doing this field visit, a stronger connection to AFEM was established. AFEM participated later on during the year in an event at the Swedish residence where they presented the results of a sextortion study in DRC together with Kvinna till Kvinna which was a success and considered as the national launch of the report in DRC. This was also followed by a workshop organised in Kinshasa by Internews for all its Kinshasa based partners to inform about the sextortion report and to advocate for radio content production on this important subject. This is considered as a successful collaboration with Internews and AFEM and the embassy. The embassy also followed up on- Messanger de peuple-radio. It is located in Uvira which is an inaccessible area. The radio channel has 4 solar cells and batteries. They have a good electrical connection via these and can broadcast. In order to generate income for the radio, they have started letting people charge their mobiles via the solar cells for a fee. It has gone so well that they have also been able to acquire mopeds/motorcycles that function as taxis for a fee. This has also worked well and now they have been able to create an open office where they have acquired a printer so that people can come and scan, copy and print documents. It also works well. They have 500,000 listeners and broadcast on topics such as good governance, SRHR, education on gender equality, women and development, development through youth, sports and music and the environment. The radio has been up and running since June 2005. They have no other donors but receive some money from advertising. They currently have 16 employees. This is a good result of how the training on business plans and its implementation work.

The overall objective of this intervention is to promote a more open and vibrant community radio sector that meets the information needs of citizens in rural areas (with a focus on women and youth) and strengthens their participation in public debate. Internews and its local partners will achieve this through the following intermediate results: 1. Improve the legal framework and the capacity to protect journalists for rural community radios with media reforms and safeguarding mechanisms 2. Improve the business and financial sustainability of rural radio stations 3. Increase the quantity, quality and reach of rural radio content on democracy and human rights, electoral education and SGBV.