worldwide.54 The organisation provides emergency assistance in disasters, as well as engaging in long term development projects. The organisation has worked in Kenya since 1984, focusing on Climate Justice and Gender Justice.55 It has funded Koch FM since 2006, when the station was started. Although NCA has a special interest in climate issues, it decided to work with Koch FM. As the NCA programme officer who deals directly with Koch FM explains:
…Koch is not entirely for us a climate change partner per se. They are very strong in as far as issues of governance are concerned, and again in terms of young people speaking, being at the table to make decisions and the opportunity to be involved in decision-making, this conversation about development, we saw that as an opportunity for Koch FM…we never wanted to digress them from their core business or their core agenda, which is governance issues, and accountability, we just wanted to see how we can be able to infuse the issues of climate change within the conversation of governance and development….And part of the contribution to the climate change problem is a governance problem. (IB 2015)
Thus, while NCA objectives and Koch FM objectives do not directly match, Koch FM was of interest to the donor organisation. Of interest is that while it sounds like NCA came in to support an already existent station, the organisation was actually part of the initial setting up of Koch FM. Approached with the idea of a youth radio station in the slum, NCA “donated
Burchell, Colin Gordon and Peter Miller (eds) The Foucault Effect: Studies in Governmentality, pp. 87–104..
Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.
54 Norwegian Church Aid page - ‘How we work’ https://www.kirkensnodhjelp.no/en/
55 Norwegian Church Aid page - ‘Kenya’ https://www.kirkensnodhjelp.no/en/where-we-work/kenya/
enough money for an old shipping container to house the studio and other facilities”.56 Koch FM’s physical location was also particularly attractive to the NCA, as it represented a demographic that the organisation felt is often overlooked:
We felt that as far as campaigns are concerned there is community engagement, but most importantly also the question of media. So many people have been using the national media, or the mainstream media so to speak [to transmit their messages], and unfortunately, probably there is this message that the people in the informal settlements identify as their own issues. Even when you go to these informal settings, their dimension of issues is far different from what you and I probably want to imagine.
Koch FM presented that opportunity… we felt that working with the community station that’s focusing on this group that not many people have paid attention to in as far as media engagement is concerned, for us we saw that as an opportunity. That’s one. And two, when you go to these informal settlements, again a majority of the people there are the young people. When they talk about the negative issues happening there, talk about crime, talk about drug abuse, talk about anything, it’s basically young people.
And who is reaching out to these young people with the correct message? With the message of inspiration, with the message of hope? No one, if you don’t use the media, I mean, the type of media that can be able to reach them, then you’re getting it wrong.
So for us that’s why we thought Koch FM was one of the best partners. And again being a radio station that is managed by young people, again it was speaking to what we were looking at, that is, working very closely with young people. (IB 2015)
From the above explanations, NCA views Koch FM as a sort of implementing partner for NCA’s climate change objectives. While Koch FM has its own objectives, chiefly governance, NCA sees potential to advance its climate change goals through the station. Also attractive for NCA is that Koch FM has a community engagement strategy known as ‘vikao vya jamii’57, in which the station staff meet community members formally and discuss issues of concern. Koch FM then, as per its documentation, uses these issues to inform its programming agenda. NCA has made use of this format to access the community and generate discussions in line with the global Conference of Parties (COP) discussions on climate change that take place annually.58 Since 2010, Koch FM has been doing a similar round of community discussions which they have dubbed ‘conference of people’, in which the station staff play the role of educators and awareness creators to the community on climate issues. Thus, Koch FM acts as a grassroots implementation partner for NCA’s climate change agenda, and is of value to NCA in that it offers access to the Korogocho community. In line with rhetoric in global development circles
56 See http://www.un.org/africarenewal/magazine/april-2012/community-radio-gives-voice-shack-dwellers
57 Kiswahili for ‘community gatherings’
58 See http://unfccc.int/bodies/body/6383.php
on the importance of community participation, the aspect of community engagement is valued by NCA. As the programme officer explains:
We have a strategy within the organisation [NCA], we call it community engagement strategy. Note that this is not just for Koch. It’s for all our partners. If you are an NGO or you’re in this field, your core agenda is working with the community….you have to engage the community to be able to structure that agenda. That is one of the key things that we’ve been helping these partners with. Basically training them on community engagement strategy, then we require them, we don’t coerce them, but we require them to develop on their own, to domesticate their community engagement strategy. That is one of our requirements, but again our funding is not pegged on that. Again there is no particular formula in terms of developing a community engagement strategy, so it’s something that continuously evolves….[…]….In fact part of what we usually report on is how many [people] called Koch FM to inform the agenda, for example. How many people sent messages or SMS to Koch FM, contributing about the agenda. When it comes to accountability, or what we are calling the humanitarian accountability partnership, that’s now where we are saying ‘how often does the community come to Koch FM to raise issues or concerns?’ And not just raise issues, it’s how many people come in to congratulate Koch FM. That ‘for us as a community, for a long time, tumekuwa tumefinyiliwa (we were oppressed). But at least now, we have a platform where we can raise our issues’. (IB 2015)
From the above, NCA views Koch FM as both a grassroots NGO and a broadcaster that creates space for community voice.59 NCA is of the view that it does not try to change Koch FM’s agenda, but rather, the organisation seeks to infuse climate-change issues into the programming at the station and discussions at the community level. Similar to KMD, ‘development’ is the underlying logic for NCA, albeit embodied in climate change issues:
…for us as an organisation …, we say that development is a conversation. Right now they may not be very sure about climate change, but within the process as we continue partnering with them, we’ll continue carrying our conversation about climate change.
And we are pretty sure even beyond NCA, if NCA was to close shop tomorrow for example, I’m pretty sure the agenda on climate change, the agenda on governance, will continue. Reason being NCA never came to tell them now stop what you are doing, focus on what we want you guys to do, but it’s what you have been doing, before we gave you support to establish yourselves, you had actually come up with that concept.
So continue with your concept, continue with your agenda, let’s see how we can be able to come on board and basically be able to contribute towards what you are doing. (IB 2015)
One area however that NCA is overtly involved in transforming is Koch FM’s administrative structures. Through ‘strengthening’ the board and the management, and participating in the
59 How well Koch FM plays this role is discussed in the chapter 6, which focuses on programme content and audience participation.
development of a strategic plan, NCA plays a part in influencing the creation of administrative structures at the station. Again, in line with indicators for community involvement conceptualised in the international development field, NCA is keen to ensure that Koch FM has a functioning management board and accountability mechanisms:
For us the three key things is a board or the management, two a question of accountability - not that we have any problem with their accountability - the point is we want to institutionalise that, so that when another donor comes in, some of these donors who are very caught up on issues of accountability - ‘you have to give us audited financial reports and everything’ - we have built their capacity or we’ve facilitated building of their capacity to be able to get to that level….Because you see all donors are not the same. For us as NCA it’s the approach that we have that we want to work and walk with these partners who’ve not yet gotten to the level that other donors would want to work with in terms of being established…. we want to work with those that are emerging, they have passion, they have the commitment, they may not have the structure. (IB 2015)
In actively seeking to create management and accountability structures at Koch FM, NCA is operating on the ‘dual logic’ (Mosse 2001) that characterises development projects. One logic emphasises local-level planning and participation in the project, while the other logic puts emphasis on the operational demands of the funding organisation, especially upward accountability (to the funder) and delivery of the project goals. As such, the project is not free to operate outside of pre-determined organisational goals. Therefore, while NCA supports Koch FM’s engagement with the community, it also actively seeks ways to ensure that the station exhibits accountability through mechanisms pre-determined by the funder. It is interesting that the programme officer describes this streamlining process as not only accountability to NCA, but as a way of ‘preparing’ Koch FM to engage with other donors; to fit into the international NGO landscape. Koch FM therefore finds itself imbricated at both the local and the international levels. While the station was commenced to serve community priorities, the accomplishment of these aims – the survival of the station, in fact - relies on the station shaping itself to fit into a pre-determined place in the global development communication ecology. Ultimately, Koch FM is conceptualised as not only a local broadcaster, but also as a community-based organisation (CBO) which plays a part in community development, and which fits into the global development chain as a member of civil society.60 Structures to enable better accountability to international development
60 ‘The World Bank has adopted a definition of civil society developed by a number of leading research centers:
“the term civil society to refer to the wide array of non-governmental and not-for-profit organizations that have a presence in public life, expressing the interests and values of their members or others, based on ethical, cultural, political, scientific, religious or philanthropic considerations. Civil Society Organizations
organisations are privileged in this approach, and the station is evaluated not as a broadcaster, but as a grassroots civil society organisation. Indeed, organisationally, Koch FM acts as a civil society organisation and plays by the rules of the NGO sector, for instance submitting a progress report to NCA every quarter on each activity proposed, and an annual report accounting for funds provided.
According to NCA, the focus on creating management structures at the station is so as to make it easier for Koch FM to get future donors. While this easier access to future donor funding is portrayed as an effort to ensure Koch FM’s sustainability, it also demonstrates NCA’s conception of sustainability as ‘successfully securing donor funding’. The station’s continued existence is thus visualised not in terms of the station generating its own funds, but rather, becoming more competent to source international donor funding. This reliance on donor support raises questions about the station’s independence; if the station will always be reliant on international donor funding, there is then always the possibility of the station working according to donor priorities rather than community goals. For instance, NCA’s climate-change agenda is visible in Koch FM’s mission statement, which highlights environmental issues as the station’s corporate social responsibility focus. Although this in itself is not negative, it demonstrates how the plan of action is not fully set by the station, but rather, is the result of negotiation between external and internal priorities.
In addition, while enhancing Koch FM’s capacity to source donor funding is possibly well intentioned, this approach does not seem to take into consideration the potentially harmful impact of foreign funding structures on local participation, as detailed by Conrad (2014), for example. Research on donor-funded projects has shown that with the influx of donor funding, communities tend to engage less in decision-making concerning the project and instead, revert to the role of passive beneficiaries (Mosse 2001; Conrad 2014; Kothari 2001), partly because it is a familiar role and partly not to jeopardise the influx of funds. Despite the rhetoric of equal participation for all, if the need of the community is funding for their project, they are unlikely to express opinions or pursue priorities that may jeopardise that funding. Ironically, therefore,
(CSOs) therefore refer to a wide of array of organizations: community groups, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), labor unions, indigenous groups, charitable organizations, faith-based
organizations, professional associations, and foundations”.’ See ‘Defining Civil Society’ page by the World Bank at
http://web.worldbank.org/WBSITE/EXTERNAL/TOPICS/CSO/0,,contentMDK:20101499~menuPK:244752~p agePK:220503~piPK:220476~theSitePK:228717,00.html:
the aim that such projects state they seek to achieve – community participation and decision-making – is jeopardised because of the tilted power balance that occurs in favour of whoever holds the financial means. While the community has collective decision-making power, this is far too often subsumed by the financial power that comes with donors. The workings of power in development interventions should therefore not be taken for granted (Wilkins 2000/2006).
From the foregoing, community broadcasters exist within an international political economy in the development sector, and they develop strategies to ensure their stations’ continuity in this context. To secure the international funds that they are often heavily reliant on, these broadcasters create administrative structures, adopt management practices and incorporate project priorities that match those recommended by their funders. Unfortunately, focus on financial and institutional/organisational sustainability endangers a station’s social sustainability61: its acceptance by and support from the community. It has been argued that financial sustainability is assured only when there is social and institutional sustainability, and not the other way round (Dagron 2001; Lush and Urgoiti 2012). However, this consideration is often not the most important.
Apart from streamlining the station’s management structures for future donor funding, NCA also supports Koch FM’s bid to acquire revenue through advertising, as commercial stations do. Thus the station is not expected to come up with an alternative financial survival strategy, free of the influence of the market, although this has been idealised as one of the characteristics setting apart alternative media from other media.62 The programme officer argues that the station – all community radio stations, in fact – should be allowed to carry advertisements, and hints at NCA supporting Koch FM’s efforts to engage in advocacy for the same:
… if you acknowledge there is a constituency listening to that radio station, what’s the problem with them running a commercial? I mean, that’s the only place that they can be able to get [revenues]…they have a constituency that is listening to them, that probably is not listening to Classic FM, to Kiss, to Capital, so one of the things we have been discussing with them is how to even engage in terms of advocating and ensuring that that clause that prohibits CR from running infomercials is withdrawn. (IB 2015)
61 Financial sustainability refers to a station’s ability to fund itself, while institutional sustainability is about the station’s management structures. Social sustainability is the community’s view of the station as part of its communicative ecologies. See for instance(Lush and Urgoiti 2012), (Jallov 2007) and (Costa, n.d.) for a discussion of these different forms of sustainability.
62 See for example Atton (2001), Jankowski (2003) and Myers (2011), who include non-commercial financing as one defining feature of alternative media, which community radio is often taken to be part of.
As such, NCA is involved not only in supporting Koch FM, but is also – even if not overtly - involved in efforts to influence the legislation surrounding community broadcasting. Thus, development of the sector is not always driven by the State, but rather, is partly a response to pressure from international bodies. This is an example of the centrality of foreign funding organisations in both the development of community radio stations in Kenya, and in developing the policies around them.
On the other hand, advocating for commercial financing for community radio stations highlights the sustainability dilemma facing the sector. If community broadcasters also become reliant on advertising revenue as their primary source of funds, would they remain an independent third sector of broadcasting as they are intended to be, or would it transform them into small-scale commercial broadcasters, serving commercial interests? Arguably, advertising funds may be easier to come by than grants and sponsorships as currently required by the legislation. Advertising is therefore an attractive option for community stations under pressure to survive. However, it needs to be a well thought out model that will not compromise the aims of community broadcasting. For instance, limiting the percentage of funding that should come from advertising.
4.8 United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO): ICT