Bangladesh NGOs Network for Radio and Communication (BNNRC) organized an annual review and planning meeting for sharing of achievements in 2017 and planned of activities for 2018 with Station Managers in line with the building capacity, research and development and technical cooperation to the community broadcasting in Bangladesh with a view to further strengthening of community broadcasting in Bangladesh with the support from Free Press Unlimited under the framework of the Strategic Partnership “No News is Bad News” on 29 November 2017 in Dhaka.
Specifically, the meeting sought to (i) Appraise key achievements for 2017 by reviewing activities executed to help develop a realistic plan for 2018; (ii) Develop a set of business models for community radio station, and (iii) Update the radio station on the future interventions.
In attendance were 30 participants, from 17 community radio stations and staff members of Bangladesh NGOs Network for Radio and Communication (BNNRC).
The meeting started with a welcome address from Mr AHM Bazlur Rahman, Chief Executive Officer of BNNRC through a presentation name Re-visioning of Community Radio in Bangladesh and Community Radio in Times of Uncertainty! Need Critical thinking and Reflection & followed by an in-depth presentation from BNNRC staffs are as follows.
Ms. Tamanna Rahman and Protiva Banarjee on “Building Capacity for Lobby & Advocacy to Contribute to Community Media Development & Fellowship for Women Journalist. The purposes of the project…
- To encourage more youth and youth women in the media and development community Journalism to work for the rural empowerment.
- To facilitate and contribute to creating an enabling environment for rural youth and youth women to develop a professional community
BNNRC is implementing this project since 2013 through the involvement of 17 Community Radio Stations in different parts of Bangladesh and has trained 124 Youths (Youth women: 110 & Youth: 10), out of that 42 are being worked as radio broadcaster & presenter.
Mark Manash Saha on “American English Radio Project”, the purposes of the project.
- To improve English language skills of the outreach radio audience by using Community Radio in Bangladesh.
Here it is noted that since inception i.e. 2012 to till date BNNRC has trained 365 local Teachers and 252 Listeners on Communicative English.
Kamaruzzaman on “STRIVE-Strengthening Resilience to Violent Extremism”. The purposes of the project…
- To enhance skills of young community radio producers & broadcasters to address violent extremism.
- To increase the understanding of rural community people regarding countering violent extremism.
As pilot basis “BNNRC” is implementing this project from May 2017 through involving of two community radio stations (Radio Sarabela, Gaibndha & Radio Barendra) and has trained 26 Program Producers & Broadcaster to run this project smoothly.
Bimal Kanti Kuri on “Family Planning in Bangladesh-Improving Quality & Access”. The purposes of the project….
- To improve and increase women access to safe Family Planning (FP), Menstruation Regulations (MR), Post Abortion Care (PAC) and Postpartum Family Planning services by increasing Knowledge and supporting environment.
BNNRC is implementing this project from September 2017 through involving of 09 Community Radio Stations (CRs) as development partners.
It was evident from the numerous presentations that significant numbers of activities had been successfully implemented in 2017 and some of the activities need to carry forward for next year as the demand of community radio stations (CRs) for scaling up.
The meeting ended with a session on developing a set of recommendations in line with Community radio business model to visualize how sustainable operation from community radio station provide to in the future, transforming community radio current services into business models. This was seen as a good initiative by many of the participants.