UNDP Oslo Governance Centre

This Guidance Note explains Communication for Empowerment and its importance to poverty reduction. It identifies trends in the media, and highlights key opportunities and challenges, including the impact of liberalization and the ongoing struggle many media face in holding onto hard fought media freedoms. The Note underscores the particular importance of radio in Communication for Empowerment strategies because of its reach, accessibility to the poor and increasingly interactive character. It also outlines a range of ways that UNDP and other development practitioners can best support Communication for Empowerment based on conducting information and communication needs assessments, and choosing the appropriate context specific intervention strategy. It suggests that UNDP’s established roles in-country of convening, facilitating, advising and advocating, as well as its focus on capacity development and its experience in democratic governance equip the organization to play a key role in furthering Communication for Empowerment

Supporting Public Service Broadcasting: Learning from Bosnia and Herzegovina’s experience (2004)

The aim of this paper is to contribute to UNDP practitioners’ understanding of broadcast media sector reform, especially reform concerning Public Service Broadcasting (PSB). The paper highlights some of the key challenges in broadcasting restructuring in trying to meet broader democratic governance and poverty reduction objectives, and is informed by a case study on broadcasting restructuring in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH). UNDP has supported two projects in that country which aim to strengthen the broadcasting system in a way that respects diversity and the right of access to information.