ADDIS ABABA-Forum for Social Studies (FSS) is pleased to announce the lunching of a new weekly radio program to broadcast 14 half-hour episodes over the next 10-week period on the national and regional FM stations of Fana Broadcasting Corporate (FBC). The radio program is a component of the dissemination activity of the project Land and food security in Ethiopia’s transition to a democratic society: an informed dialogue and dissemination to inform policy makers being implemented by FSS with financial support from the Open Society Initiative for Eastern Africa (OSIEA).
The project comprises of, firstly, nine public dialogue events at which learned papers on national and regional issues relating to land and food security are presented and discussed and, secondly, a range of website, broadcast and print media programs/activities that are designed to disseminate the outputs of the dialogue events among relevant stakeholders as well as the public at large. The radio program that is being launched will broadcast the results of the seven public dialogue events that were successfully run by FSS from 26 December 2019 to 12 March 2020 when the dialogue program was suspended short of completion by only two events due to the corona virus pandemic.
Whereas, the radio programs produced in Amharic will be transmitted on FANA FM 98.1 on Thursdays from 8:30 to 9:00 pm (evening), those produced in Orommifa will be transmitted on SW 6110 KH, and alternatively on 7210 KH and MW1080 KH from 9:00 to 9:40 pm (evening). Moreover, FBC’s Tigray chapter, FM94.8, will transmit FSS’s radio programs on Thursdays from 7:30-8:00.Note that these radio transmissions will be uploaded on Radio Fana’s official website, i.e., www.fanabc.com
The timing of the radio programs is considered prime time and accessible all over the country on radio, mobile devises and vehicles, including on FBC’s official website: www.fana
Moreover, the programs will be uploaded on YouTube.
It is noteworthy that FSS is starting to broadcast radio programs in local languages other than Amharic(this time in Oromiffa and Tigrigna), which consists of its efforts to ensure inclusivity and wider reach for its programs.
The dialogue series of this particular project consists of nine dialogue events (six at national level in Addis Ababa, and three regional states, namely, Oromia, Tigray and Amhara).
So far, five of the six national dialogue events and two of the three regional dialogue events have already been conducted successfully. The specific topics on which the dialogues have already been conducted and on which the radio programs will be based are the following:
National
- General Assessment on the issue of Land and Land Tenure in Ethiopia
- Globalization, large scale agricultural investments and rural livelihood
- Women’s land rights
- Land, landlessness, and rural youth: the reality on the ground
- Pastoralism, land rights and certification
Regional
- The Issue of Land and Food Security in the Oromia Regional State
- The Issue of Land and Food Security in the Oromia Regional State
Two half-hour weekly episodes will be produced and broadcasted on each dialogue event on the two radio stations stated above.
You are all invited to tune to these stations on the specified date and time, when situations allow.
Your comments on the content, format or any other matter are welcome!
More on FSS’ Media Outreach Program
Apart from its impressive publication and dissemination record, FSS has realized the need to devise a better strategy to reach out to the wider public. Hence, it launched radio outreach programs as one of the core programs with a view to reach out to the wider public and increase public participation in government decision-making process.
To that effect, since 2001, FSS has been engaged in an innovative approach to reach the wider public. The outreach program consist of the use of FM radios and the newspaper articles, including TV programs to dissiminate the results of the various research and dialogues organized. Very recently, FSS redesigned its official website to ensure user friendly access by its partners and general the public and has actively started to use the social media (YouTube and Facebook) as part of its strategy to exploit the digital media to ensure wider reach and greater impact.