Radio and Women's Empowerment in Francophone West Africa

Front matter

JE PALGRAVE STUDIES IN COMMUNICATION FOR SOCIAL CHANGE

Radio and Women's Empowerment in Francophone West Africa Emma Heywood $ DNA ¥ i> |

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Index

AGD

AGR

APAC

CAR CN-RACOM

CSO DRC FGD FGM IDPs IGA MDG MMD MSF NGO OCHA ORTN

RFI

RTB SDG SHG

ACRONYMS

Age, Gender, and Diversity

Activités génératrices de revenu [Income-generating activities] Association des Professionnelles Africaines de la Communication Central African Republic

Coordination Nationale des Radios Communautaires au Niger (National Council of Community Radios of Niger

Civil society organisation

Democratic Republic of Congo

Focus group discussions

Female genital mutilation

Internally displaced persons

Income-generating activities

Millennium Development Goals

Mata Masu Dubara

Medicins sans Frontiers

Non-governmental organisation

UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs Office de Radiodiffusion et Télévision du Niger (Office of Radio and Television of Niger)

Radio France International

Radiodiffusion-Télévision du Burkina

Sustainable Development Goals

Self Help Group ix x ACRONYMS

SORAFOM Société de Radiodiffusion de la France d’Outre-mer (French Broadcasting Corporation of France Overseas)

SOS FEV Femmes et enfants victimes de violences familiales UNDP United Nations Development Programme VDPs Volunteers for the Defense of the Homeland (VDP, Volontaires pour la défense de la patrie)

LIST OF FIGURES

Fig. 6.1 Junior Fatal Show’s base Fig. 6.2 Groupement féminin Kalangou [the Kalangou women’s group |

173 179 xi

List OF TABLES

Table 2.1 Date and name of Studio Kalangou broadcasts 65 Table 2.2 Date and name of Studio Tamani broadcasts 74 xiii

Section One: The Role Of Radio

The book examines the significant role played by radio in empowering women in three West African countries: Mali, Niger, and Burkina Faso. The choice of these three countries enables a fair comparison: all three face similar social, economic and political problems, share similar religious, traditional and cultural backgrounds and, most importantly for this book, all suffer from similar, particularly high levels of gender inequality. Geographically, they border one another and are all subject to conflict and a deteriorating security situation. These problems, compounded by COVID-19, have had a serious impact on women, many of whom will have become heads of households because of their husband’s seasonal labour migration or because of conflict and the deaths of their husbands and male relatives. Radio is the most important source of information in the three countries as limited electricity, little internet, extreme poverty, and low literacy rates render other sources inaccessible to many, despite the emergence of social media. The three countries have French as their official language, but it is spoken by only a very small minority of the population, in contrast to the multiple national languages. Research into this topic area and francophone West Africa is limited in anglophone academic literature, and therefore, this book contributes to filling that gap. The book is based on five years of research conducted in Mali, Niger, and Burkina Faso investigating and assessing the impact of the work of

© The Author(s) 2024 1 E. Heywood, Radio and Women’s Empowerment in Francophone

West Africa, Palgrave Studies in Communication for Social Change, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-35985-9_1

Fondation Hirondelle, the Swiss-based media development organisation. That the book covers such a lengthy period, encompassing so many upheavals, allows some of the more recent difficulties experienced by women to be better acknowledged and understood.

The book discusses the output of one Fondation Hirondelle radio studio in each country, each funded by international development organisations or corporations and each broadcasting nationwide from their country’s respective capitals. The three studios were purposively sampled to represent different stages of radio growth within the overarching organisation, allowing development and experience to be considered. Studio Tamani in Mali is the largest and ‘most stable’ of the three. It started in 2013 and has 85 partner radios throughout the country (in 2022), reaching 80% of the population; Studio Kalangou in Niger started broadcasting in January 2016 and has 52 partner radios (in 2022), reaching 60% of the population; and Studio Yafa in Burkina Faso is new, having started in 2019, with 37 radio partners in 2022 (there are no figures yet available for its reach). Each broadcasts in French and national languages on similar themes but for differing amounts of time reflecting their stages of development (Studio Tamani—3.15 hours daily each week; Studio Kalangou—2 hours daily each week; and Studio Yafa—approximately 40 minutes daily each week). They were all created by the Swiss-based media development organisation Fondation Hirondelle. All are run locally with local editors-in-chief and local journalists and produce general news and information programmes in the form of debates, news programmes and short magazine programmes. Rather than broadcasting directly to audiences, each studio broadcasts to partner radios throughout their countries, which then use their FM networks to transmit the programmes to their communities, enabling local populations to access the information via FM radio sets or phones, connected, or not, to networks. This partnership with community radios, or proximity radios, is important because it provides the opportunity for the studios to connect with listeners and maintain proximity with their audiences, thus cultivating trust.

Radio plays an empowering role through the content it broadcasts, the manner in which it broadcasts (formats and platforms) and the choice of who is involved in the broadcasting, such as producers, editors, presenters, or guests. If women are portrayed in non-stereotypical ways and are included in the production and output of broadcasts, radio can influence how women perceive topics, how they perceive themselves and, importantly, how society perceives them. Yet radio programmes have to be carefully crafted to ensure that the information and any empowering messages that are broadcast align with the needs and requirements of the audience, are broadcast at convenient times, are accessible to listeners and are in languages the listeners can understand. This book discusses the cultural identities and social constructs that shape radio broadcasting and influence its impact on women’s empowerment.

Radio is an ordinary tool. It is simple to use and widely dismissed in our digital age. However, by bringing together the ordinariness and accessibility of radio and the power that it has as an information provider or knowledge resource (Heywood, 2020a) with the everyday lives of women, significant life changes can be triggered. Radio’s pervasiveness and ability to be relevant to all levels of society, all walks of life and technologies, linking vast geographical areas, enable it to remain the medium of choice in many sub-Saharan countries (Damome, 2006, 2019) with a complex societal value (Gunner et al., 2011). Given the vast technological changes that have occurred over recent years, it could be thought that radio was a dying medium, waiting only to be replaced by online means of communication (Heywood et al., 2023). However, to many, especially following extensive media deregulation in many African countries in the 1990s, radio has reinforced its position as an emerging public sphere. It brings communities together, enabling them to gain an otherwise unheard voice, challenging those in authority. Radio has multiple roles, including peacebuilding, strategic communication, media development, commercial, state, religious, and community building. All of these, as alternative media or not, serve very different purposes yet also bring communities together, be they communities of interest or geographical communities.

RADIO

Radio is an accessible and important broadcasting tool that, according to Tudesq, is the only medium that has been truly ‘Africanised’ (2003: 73), especially given its durability, portability, affordability, ease of use, adaptability to extreme conditions and its geographical reach, and its democratising ability to engage listeners through phone-ins and talk shows, allowing them to contribute and give feedback. In contemporary societies, radio plays the essential role of ‘crossroads media’ in that it ‘links rural and urban, literate, and illiterate populations, French speakers, and speakers of national languages. However, radio also links different types of media’ (Capitant, 2008: 209). It can be accessed via various platforms, including mobile phones (Chuma, 2013; Gilberds & Myers, 2012; Nassanga et al., 2013; Sullivan, 2011), solar-powered radios, and loudspeakers, among others, allowing urban and rural communities, including those with low literacy levels, to receive news and awareness-raising information.

Although used as a propaganda tool during colonial rule (Brennan, 2010; Gunner et al., 2011), radio has also represented alternative and disruptive voices and acts as a ‘tool of resistance’ (Hyden et al., 2002) by drawing on local cultures (Barnard, 2000) and the many national languages of the continent, overcoming literacy barriers while also competing with colonial languages (Power, 2000). The alternative platform that radio, be it commercial, local, or community, represents allows multiple voices to emerge through interactive programming. Alternative radio, which provides content that ‘expresses alternative vision to hegemonic policies, priorities, and perspectives’ (Downing, 2001: v), has played a political role in challenging state radio (Frére, 2008; Moyo, 2011) as a form of popular comment through ‘pavement radio’ or informal information relay networks (Ellis, 1989; Nyamnjoh, 2004; Wasserman, 2010) and as clandestine or pirate radio (Mabweazara, 2015; Moyo, 2010). Challenging messages from the mainstream media, this alternative role emerges strongly through community media, which have been widely discussed (Atton, 2001; Berrigan, 1979; Fraser & Estrada, 1998; Howley, 2005; Lennie & Tacchi, 2013; Myers, 2008), and particularly through community radio, whose practices, according to Rodriquez (2001), create a ‘fissure in the global mediascape’, allowing new forms of political agency to emerge and individual and collective identities to be produced (Ginsberg et al., 2002). Community or proximity radio, which will be discussed in Chap. 6, plays a key role with regard to the transformative power of alternative media (see, for example, Banda (2006) on South Africa). It brings together communities united by specific ideological or political purposes who feel marginalised by mainstream media but seek a representational voice. Generally run on a nonprofit basis for nonprofitable purposes (Fraser & Estrada, 2001), they have been defined as operating ‘in the community, for the community, about the community and by the community’ (Tabing, 2002: 11) with the ability to empower ‘ordinary people to become active producers, rather than mere passive recipients, of information and opinion’ (Gumucio-Dagron, 2001: 34). It is their programming and the manner in which listeners respond to it that can influence the formation and cohesion of social groups (Spitulnik, 1998) and thus have an empowering influence.

What is particularly relevant to the context in this book is that radio is widely considered to be an intimate medium (Douglas, 2004; Lovilglio, 2005; Shingler & Wieringa, 1998). This is advantageous to women listeners, as they can seek out information on sensitive topics such as rape, domestic violence, or health from radio, which may not be appropriate in mixed environments. They can then assimilate it and discuss it together with family or community members to organise and act for change (Heywood, 2020a). Because of this intimacy and the content devised for or by them, radio has been described as a ‘female medium’ (Mitchell, 2004). However, radio can also be a public medium. Characterised as a secondary medium and not requiring visual attention, meaning that listeners can be involved in other tasks simultaneously, radio can unite individuals by forming a sense of shared space in markets, refugee camps, compounds, workspaces, or gatherings, reinforcing Girard’s (2003) research on radio as a medium of social cohesion. In the case of women, this can allow them to gather through listening associations (Heywood, 2020b; Heywood & Ivey, 2021a), which are ‘small listening and discussion groups that meet regularly to receive a special radio program, which the members then discuss’ (Rogers et al., 1997, cited in Manyozo, 2012: 29). These support networks used by women to receive, share, and discuss information are discussed in more detail in Chap. 6 to illustrate the empowering capacity of radio in local communities to democratise and to strengthen the public sphere (Agosta, 2001).

The significance of radio in West Africa cannot be understated, and although much of the information above is relevant to this region, it is important not to refer to ‘Africa’? homogenously, given the diversity of experiences across the continent, but to examine the chosen three countries and their realities separately.

Rapio IN MALI, NIGER, AND BURKINA Faso

Radio in Mali

Radio received its main boost in many countries throughout Africa in the 1990s when technological and legislative changes allowed local media to broadcast freely and act as an alternative to the centralised information previously transmitted and symbolising a fight against a monopoly (Ba, 2019; Fardon & Furniss, 2000) that had been in place for more than three decades. Radio in Mali, prior to independence, broadcast information of interest to Europeans in the country and was broadcast in French. The state colonial radio, Radio Soudan, began broadcasting in 1957 from Bamako, the capital, as an extension of Radio France d’Outre-mer, France’s broadcasting network operating in France’s overseas departments and territories. It became Radio Mali (Radio Nationale du Mali) following independence in 1960 aiming to consolidate the country’s national unity (Traoré, 2007) but inherited many of the practices, policies, and staff of the colonial station, shaping its output. Programming remained in colonial French, which had the effect of continuing to exclude most of the country except the urban elite. Radio Mali expanded as a result of finance from the Chinese and then French governments in 1969 and 1970 (Diakon & Röschenthaler, 2017). It then became a radio and television station and was named Radiodiffusion Télévision du Mali (RTM) and then the Office de radiodiffusion et de télévision du Mali [Office of Radio and Television of Mali] (ORTM) in 1992. It was no longer under government control but was publicly financed. The Conseil Supérieur de la Communication (CSC) was created in 1992 as an independent regulatory body with the objective of advising the government on granting broadcast licences. It was replaced on 13 December 2013 by the Haute Autorité de la Communication (HAC), which is tasked with ‘the regulation of the communication sector in the fields of audiovisual, written press, audiovisual and written advertising and the online press’. The HAC has greater powers than its predecessor: “The High Authority, which is an independent body, also exercises its authority over all international and foreign media broadcast from a site located on the national territory, regardless of how they are made available to the public’ (REFRAM, n.d). Like the CSC, the independence of the HAC has been questioned, as the government appoints the members of this regulatory body, and it also receives state subsidies.

Conferences on the liberalisation of the media were organised in many African countries, including the Conference on Radio Pluralism in Bamako, Mali, in 1993 (Leguy & Mitsch, 2007; Myers, 1998; Tudesq, 2003). Mali began witnessing a shift in its broadcasting from a state monopoly to media pluralism following the legalisation of private broadcasters and the emergence of 300 private radio stations (Myers, 2014; Schulz, 2001).! Its first non-state radio station, Radio Rurale de Kayes (RRK), had already been launched in 1988 with the support of an Italian

1! However, over the years, Mali’s image as a pioneer of the liberalisation of the media has faded, having experienced a sharp fall on the Press Freedom Index from 26th in 2010 to 122nd in 2014, rising slightly to 111 in 2022 (RSF, 2022).

NGO forming a chink in the state’s monopolistic media armour, and it used an interventionist approach as part of the prevailing developmentalism. Radio Bamakan, and then Radio Liberté, were created in 1991 and formed part of the first group of radio stations to provide an alternative to the state ORTM, broadcasting in national languages (Myers, 1998, 2014). Multiple rural and urban radio stations were then set up by women’s groups, religious organisations, NGOs and others, all seeking to counter centralised broadcasting, acting ‘as the mouthpiece of the population in direct contrast to ORTM - the mouthpiece of the government’ (Myers, 1998: 202). Many of the local radios were FM radios broadcasting within 50 km of their stations, thus reaching their immediate communities. They were set up with the support of NGOs or local associations and were financed by advertising, personal announcements and advertising.

The liberalisation of the media in Mali in the 1990s enabled radio, in particular, to significantly impact the lives of the population. It was extensively used as a nation-building tool (Englund, 2019) but also aimed to improve living conditions and increase the participation of rural and isolated communities, forming bridges between peoples. According to Mbodj-Pouye in her detailed account of RRK (2021: 3), ‘radio would encourage the circulation of news between one locality and another and between migrants and their home villages. This in turn was seen as providing a new way to share experiences, and in particular development success stories’. Previously unable to understand broadcasts, listeners were suddenly able to receive information in a language they could understand on topics of interest to them. Radio programmes would cover farming, local conflicts, laws, and literacy and generally inform the population about codes, laws and procedures in the country affecting them in various formats (mini-dramas, discussions, spots). Gender was integrated into programmes as local radio gained popularity amongst women. Many women, being uneducated and therefore not in possession of French, benefited from awareness-raising programmes on life skills targeted at women in national languages that they listened to while conducting their domestic chores.

Radio remains Mali’s main information source and is still widely accessed via traditional radio sets, highlighting the digital divide between Global North countries and those in the South struggling to have reliable internet (Heywood et al., 2023). However, as in Niger and Burkina Faso, radio in Mali is increasingly accessed by mobile phones (in 2020, mobile phone subscribers represented 101.89% of the population in Mali, suggesting that many subscribers have more than one connection (Datareportal, 2020)). Listeners listen extensively to FM radio on their mobiles without needing access to costly, and often inaccessible, internet. Many mobiles, including the widely used Tecno from the Chinese mobile phone manufacturer, are equipped with in-built FM radio chips or apps. Listeners also use solar powered radios, often supplied by NGOs, to listen to radio broadcasts without needing access to electricity. These radios have the advantage of having phone chargers and lights attached, making them multifunctional (this is particularly the case in Burkina Faso, as we will see later, where internet access and electricity are limited). The falling costs of mobiles, which access radio stations, have brought about a change in the way that audiences listen to radio, highlighting the convergence between radio and digital mobile technologies.

Mali’s radio is characterised by the culture of listening groups, which are linked to local or community radios and are mixed or single-sex. ‘Grins or ‘tea groups’ (Bondez, 2013) are primarily for men or boys who gather around radio sets or mobile phones to listen to and discuss programmes while drinking tea. In recent decades, women have become increasingly associated with local radio as a tool for women’s empowerment, as we will see in Chap. 6 (Heywood & Ivey, 2021a). According to the 2019 Annuaire de Médias Mali (Malian Media Yearbook), there are 373 radios in Mali (Konaté, 2020). In addition to the state radio with its national channel and nine regional channels, there is the UN radio, Mikado FM,” 200 licensed radios, including 131 non-commercial and 69 commercial radios (Konaté, 2020). Mali also boasts many volunteer-run community, religious and confessional radio stations, most of which are members of the union URTEL, the Union des Radios et Televisions Libres du Mali, an association that seeks to develop and promote free radio and television broadcasting in Mali and to protect its members. Despite Mali’s low position on the World Press Freedom Index, radio is widely trusted and meets a range of interests. International radios such as RFI, BBC Africa, Deutsche Welle, and Voice of America (VOA) broadcast their information via these private and community radios and provide the stations with a vital source of income. Media development organisations such as Fondation Hirondelle, this research project’s partner, also broadcast information and awareness-raising campaigns via radio. As Konaté (2020) states, the increasing levels of insecurity in the country are

? https: //minusma.unmissions.org/la-radio-de-la-minusma impacting radio, as broadcasters in conflict areas must take care not to criticise armed groups given possible reprisals.*

Radio in Niger

Radio in Niger followed a similar path to that of Mali. The first radio in Niger, Radio Niger, was created in October 1958 broadcasting only to the capital and its immediate area and was managed by the Société de Radiodiffusion de la France d’Outre-mer (French Broadcasting Corporation of France Overseas—SORAFOM), formerly Radio France d’Outre-mer, which focused on developing radio broadcasting in French overseas territories (France d’Outre-mer). In the lead-up to independence in 1960, its aim was to create an ‘African radio’ designed for, and ultimately to be produced by, Africans in sub-Saharan Africa. SORAFOM created new radios throughout Africa, including Radio Mali mentioned above (Ilboudo, 2003; Perret, 2010). It was under SORAFOM that radio clubs were launched with the aim of encouraging radio listeners in rural environments to participate in the production of programmes in national languages, such as Hausa and Zarma, which would later lead to the explosion of community radios throughout the country (Perret, 2010). The Association of Radio Clubs was set up in 1962 and started broadcasting three years later as farm radios with information on fertilisers, crops, cattle rearing and health awareness-raising themes (Ilboudo, 2001).

In 1967, the state took control of the media and created the Office de Radiodiffusion et Télévision du Niger (Office of Radio and Television of Niger - ORTN), established by law no 67-011 of 11 February 1967 and modified by ordinance no 78-21 of 12 October 1978. Following a military coup in 1974, Radio Niger was renamed Voix du Sahel, within ORIN, broadcasting programmes about agriculture, livestock, and health in national languages mainly to rural areas. The arrival of FM to Niger in the 1980s, as in Mali, revolutionised the country’s radio environment and, with finance from the German Agency for International Cooperation, led to regional stations being created in all provinces (Hamani, 2018). Broadcasting in national languages marked a change from previous

3 Since the period covered by this research, Mali’s ruling military junta suspended Radio France International (RFI) and France 24 in 2022 for allegedly reporting false allegations of abuse by Mali’s army, and other journalists have been detained https://www.france24.com/ en/france /20220317-mali-s-ruling-junta-orders-suspension-of-france-24-and-rfi output, which had mainly been in French with summaries in national languages.

In Niger, the radio revolution sweeping through much of Africa took hold in the 1990s with the advent of democracy and political liberalisation, replacing ORTN’s state monopoly of the media (Myers, 2014; Peter et al., 2007). Private radio stations began to emerge after the National Sovereign Conference in 1991, which is discussed more in Chap. 2, with Radio and Music (R&M) being the first private station in Niger created in 1994, followed by Radio Anfani in 1995. (The latter became one of the partner radios of Fondation Hirondelle and is included in this project.) Community radios also began at this time (for example, Bankilaré in 1999 and Tchintabaraden in 2000), with an additional 100 community radio stations springing up over the course of the following decade. This was encouraged by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and a variety of other international donors. Press freedom suffered during the authoritarian rule of President Mamadou Tandja from 1999 to 2010 but has improved over the years, with Niger moving from 104th on the World Press Freedom Index in 2010 to 57th in 2020 (RSF, 2020). Radio in Niger, as in Mali, is characterised by being widely accessed by mobile phones, increasing interaction between listeners and radios (Gilberds & Myers, 2012; Nassanga et al., 2013; Sullivan, 2011), and by a culture of listening groups and fadas (Boyer, 2014), which, like Mali’s grins mentioned above, encourage citizens to participate in public life. Mostly men gather to listen to and discuss radio programmes in fadas (Masquelier, 2019), whereas listening clubs and groups, associated with many community radios stations, are mixed or single-sex (Heywood & Ivey, 2021a). They enable listeners to discuss broadcasts, gain further information on given subjects through NGO and expert visits, contribute to selecting subjects for future programmes, and give feedback to the radio stations.

In 2019, in addition to the state radio, ORTN, which is widely accessible and accessed, there were 184 community radio stations spread over the eight regions in Niger (Amadou, 2021), the majority of which are affiliated to the Coordination Nationale des Radios Communautaires au Niger“ (National Council of Community Radios of Niger —CN-RACOM), itself created in 2004, and 60 commercial radio stations (CN-RACOM, 2017). Despite challenges from the authorities, these stations succeed in providing critical journalism. There is also religious and confessional radio

*https://cnracom.org/

1 INTRODUCTION Ill and several international radios, such as RFI, VOA, BBC, and broadcasts by media development organisations. Community radios in Niger do not have the right to broadcast news (CN-RACOM, 2007) and therefore rely on material supplied by international and NGO radios sources. The latter form an important source of income, equipment, and training for community radios.

Radio in Burkina Faso

As in Mali and Niger and many other African states, radio broadcasting in Burkina Faso started post-independence. Radio Upper Volta, created in 1959, was the first station and was government-run, acting as the mouthpiece of the single-party state. It was predominantly broadcast in French targeting the capital’s elite and adapted its content to reflect the changes in government (Nombré, 2000). It opened a relay radio in 1962 in the second city, Bobo Dioulasso, continuing to broadcast similar programmes rather than more regional news and information to target the local populations. Rural radio was launched in 1969 as part of a national radio network to broadcast educational and information programmes to the mostly illiterate rural communities, to promote new agricultural methods and boost development. It was launched by the then leader Colonel Sangoulé Lamizana and broadcast in national languages to encourage listeners to implement the proposed development policies. Local stations supplied radios to listeners who could not afford to buy one, leading to the creation of the listening club culture where listeners would gather around a radio set to listen to broadcasts that were then discussed collectively (Nombré, 2000). This received financial and technological support from Germany until 1985, after which, due to poor financing, organisation, and technical failures, there was a decline in radio listening, particularly with regard to the lack of trust in state radio information, which had been used as a protectionist and propaganda tool for almost 40 years (Balima, 2000). Foreign radio provided a welcome alternative, as did the explosion of local or associative radios from 1991, which broadcast information of interest to the community and in national languages, reaching 80% of the country. Having been considered ‘one of the success stories of Africa regarding freedom of the press’, Burkina Faso’s ratings declined from 36th in 2019 to 58th in 2023 following the coups d’état in 2022 and the deteriorating security situation (RSF, 2023). Press freedom was legally guaranteed in the 1991 Constitution, yet frequencies were controlled by the state, and local radios, which were required to have a registered office in the town where they broadcast, were not permitted to broadcast nationally. Capitant (2008) outlines the complex system that existed whereby local radios had to create a second separate registered address if they wanted to extend their reach, with a new frequency, broadcasting different material.

A press law was introduced in the 1993 Code de l’Information and, as in Mali and Niger, Burkina Faso has a regulatory body, the Conseil Supérieur de l’Information (CSI) set up in 1995 (Frère & Balima, 2003). The CSI was criticised for being under state influence (Loada, 1999) and for suspending programmes critical of the government. The CSI was replaced by the Conseil Supérieur de la Communication (CSC) by decree n°95,304/PRES/PM/MCC of | April 1995 in application of Article 143 of the Code of Information (CSC Burkina, 2015). The CSC is the new administrative and regulatory body, whose task of remaining seemingly independent is challenging given the security situation.

In 1999, the Radiodiffusion nationale du Burkina (RNB) and the Télévision nationale du Burkina (TNB) were transformed into an Établissement public de l’État (EPE) [State Public Establishment] and named under the current banner ‘Radiodiffusion-Télévision du Burkina (RTB)’. The RTB comprises television (five stations), radio (four stations) and a rural radio division. In 2020, Burkinabés were the most enthusiastic radio listeners according to a Kantar study of eight sub-Saharan countries (2021), with 92% of the population aged over 15 listening to the radio every day, with an average of 3 hours per person per day. There are 164 private and public radio stations in Burkina Faso. The 135 private radio stations comprise 40 faith-based stations, 51 community radio stations, 40 commercial stations and 4 international stations (UNICEF, 2018). The BBC, VOA, and Radio France® Internationale (RFI) broadcast full-time and INGO radio studios and air information and awareness campaigns via radio. One of these is Studio Yafa, whose radio output is analysed here.

Studio Tamani, Studio Kalangou, and Studio Yafa

This book centres around research conducted on the radio output of the Swiss-based media development organisation Fondation Hirondelle.f The

5 RFI broadcasts were suspended in 2022 on the charge of false reports relating to an alleged foiled coup attempt and giving a voice to Islamist militants (Wilkins, 2022). é https: //www.hirondelle.org/en/ research has covered multiple projects, starting in 2017, in Mali, Niger, Burkina Faso, and the Democratic Republic of Congo. The overarching objective has been to assess the radio provision by Fondation Hirondelle in various topic areas, predominantly women’s empowerment but also youth, misinformation, and COVID-19. Participatory approaches involving working closely with radio experts, journalists, associations and academics in the field have been key. It is acknowledged that the purposive sampling of the studios discussed in this book provides only a very specific glimpse into the radio sector in the three countries. Neither they nor the discussions in this book can claim to be representative of the sector. Nonetheless, the studios’ work can highlight the significant role radio can play in promoting women’s empowerment, particularly given the extensive network of (community) partner radios they work with throughout each country.