Rwenzori journalists trained in mentorship to improve public accountability broadcasting

Thirty one radio journalists from the Rwenzori Region based FM radio stations have been trained in mentorship so as to improve broadcasting for public accountability. The three days residential training held between 26^th to 28^th November, 2012 attracted journalists from Better FM, Voice of Toro (VOB), Gold FM, Life FM and Hits FM in Fort Portal, Guide FM and Messiah FM in Kasese, Voice of Bundibugyo (VOB) and Bundibugyo FM in Bundibugyo district and Kyenjojo Development Radio (KDR) and Kyenjojo FM in Kyenjojo district.

John Matovu of PANOS training radio journalists in mentorship

The training which was organized by Toro Development Network (ToroDev) in partnership with Rwenzori Journalist Forum (RJF) was facilitated by Lucy Ekadu from Uganda Journalist Union, Henry Tumwine from Uganda Pentecostal University and John Matovu from PANOS Estern Africa.

The mentorship training was intended to identify challenges and good practices among radio staff through sharing experiences on public accountability broadcasting for learning purposes, to improve mentorship skills of radio journalists and to strengthen journalist forums for improved advocacy on public accountability and service delivery broadcasting.

The participants who included news editors, program directors and public accountability program moderators were encouraged to use the skills to mentor their junior staff so as to improve public accountability broadcasting.

ToroDev in partnership with RJF will encourage mentors to submit monthly reports sharing their experiences regarding activities, challenges, success stories on public accountability broadcasting. Their experiences will be shared on http://rwenzorijournalistforum.blogspot.com/  to enable improved advocacy and learning. In addition, RJF and ToroDev will also conduct media conferences, field tours and exchange visits all aimed at sharing knowledge and empowering radio journalists on public accountability broadcasting.

The mentorship program will help improve participation of rural people in government planning and budgetary processes, monitoring service delivery, demanding accountability because the radio journalists have been empowered with skills to mainstream the voices of multiple stakeholders including the civil society, rural youth and women in governance processes.

ToroDev focused on empowering radio journalists in public accountability broadcasting because FM radio fits well with the lifestyle of many rural people in the Rwenzori Region, Western Uganda since it can easily broadcast in many local languages, people can listen to it while walking or working. Radio is also a popular media channel accessed by over 90 percent of the rural people.

The mentorship training follows another training earlier this year on public accountability broadcasting http://torodev.blogspot.com/2012/05/rwenzori-region-journalists-form-forum.html

Importance of ICT's especially FM radio's in Governance

The Uganda National ICT policy (2003) clearly explains the importance of access and use of the ICT tools to the local citizens. It highlights the potential of ICT tools to improve delivery of development services, transparency and governance through availability of public domain, particularly rural citizens [pg. 9]. However, the rural women and youth who comprise 70 percent of the total population in 7 districts of the Rwenzori region, face serious manipulation, and many times, intimidated to access public information and knowledge sharing on democratic dialogue and monitoring public accountability for improved service delivery from their political leaders. This is because of ignorance (local citizen not knowing what resources belong to them), illiteracy, and conservative cultures limiting women in decision making and demanding information concerning service delivery, economic dependency and poverty to access ICT tools like computers and the internet based tools, TVs and skills training.

Due to years of inadequate good governance traits based on transparency, engagement of local citizens in determining their priority needs and vigorously demanding public accountability without fear in Uganda, there has been tremendous manipulation and wastage of public resources. Transparency International ranks Uganda among the most corrupt countries in the world (TI Corruption Index 2011), while World Bank according to its 2010 Report estimates that between 500 to 700 billion Ugandan shillings is lost in corruption annually. Yet, the same amount of money is estimated to construct 50 modern hospitals to improve rural healthcare or 20 medium scale agro-processing industries to employ at least 100,000 jobless youth per year and increase exports of valued-added products. The same amount of money can build 100 modern secondary schools or construct 1,250 kilometers of tarmac roads to ease transport for rural agribusiness entrepreneurs to access better markets in urban centers, attract more foreign investors and ease access to health facilities for rural citizens particularly expectant mothers, to mention but a few. This trend of misappropriation of public resources has a negative impact on the Uganda National Development Plan (April, 2010), which desires to transform the Ugandan society from peasantry into a modern, industrious and prosperous one within the next 30 years. Interestingly, the same National Development Plan also acknowledges that there is serious lack of modern ICT skills and knowledge in the population that would propel local citizens to engage government for social economic development, especially in the rural areas (pg. 126), which this project specifically targets.

Being largely a subsistence agricultural population characterized by low incomes, FM radio fits well with the lifestyle of many people in Uganda and becomes a “hub” for converging all other sources/tools of information access for improved monitoring of service delivery. It is a popular media channel because it does not require electricity, and because people can listen to the radio while they work or walk. By broadcasting in local languages, radio goes a long way in addressing the information needs of the local citizens, especially on service delivery.