Community Radio Forum (FORCOM) confirms a strong common vision at second national conference

31 October – 04 November 2005: More than 125 participants took part in the second National Conference of Community Radios, representing 48 community media organizations. The conference in Chimoio confirmed that a strong common vision of the organization has been developed and that FORCOM has a strong potential to become an effective strategic forum ensuring sustainability to all members.

The National Forum of Community Radios (FORCOM) was officially established in April 2004, with the UNESCO/UNDP Media Development Project spearheading the process towards the constitutive conference. Being a strong supporter of FORCOM in its consolidation phase, the Media Project also played a major role in organizing the second conference in Chimoio 31 Oct – 4 Nov 2005. On the first general conference a total of 42 Mozambican community radios confirmed their commitment to join hands. Six new Community Multimedia Centres (CMCs) joined FORCOM right before the second conference. FORCOM includes community radios initiated and run by a broad range of development actors in Mozambique; the state through its Communication Institute (ICS), the

Catholic Church, IBIS (Danish NGO), one municipality and a growing group of community owned and community run stations. Eight of the members are radios established by UNESCO/UNDP Media Development Project. Six of the members are CMCs, established or supported by the UNESCO CMC Scale-up Initiative.

Ensuring the long-term sustainability of these community media is one of the most important objectives of both these UNESCO projects in Mozambique. In this regard the establishment of a national forum for community radios was crucial. The objective of FORCOM is to serve as a platform to network, collaborate and exchange ideas with others operating in the same field – to join forces and ensure joint responses to common problems and challenges.

First year achievements
During the five day conference FORCOM´s National Council annual report was presented, discussed and approved. Of the activities and achievements highlighted was the legal registration of FORCOM, the installation of the organization’s offices, the recruitment of an Executive Director, and the implementation of meetings with the seventeen-member National Council. Furthermore, fruitful partnerships have been negotiated with UNICEF, IBIS, NIZA (Netherlands Institute for Southern Africa), the Action Aid International, CNCS (the National Council against AIDS) and others. In terms of institutional capacity building, a manual on basic informatics has been produced and tested through training courses at three different radio stations. FORCOM also co-organized with the Media Project a workshop to strengthen the organizational skills of the community radio Women’s Network.

The agenda furthermore included FORCOM´s next Annual Plan of Activities, discussions on technical, financial and legal sustainability and a discussion of the Draft Strategic Plan for 2006-2009. For all the members of FORCOM this second conference was important, not just to reach technical reasons, but also to get together to build the spirit and consolidate the common vision of the organization, to strengthen the links between the radios, and to create confidence in the future development of the organization.

For more information please contact Tomas Viera Mario, National Project Coordinatior of the Media Project tomario@mediamoz.com or Nina Bull Jørgensen, Communications Officer, UNESCO, Nina Bull Jørgensen

Links: 
http://www.mediamoz.com