Workshop on Operational Sustainability for Community Radio Stations organized in Bangladesh-Chapai Nawabgunj, Bangladesh, 09-11 June, 2013

Workshop on Operational Sustainability for Community Radio Stations organized in Bangladesh, 09-11 June, Chapai Nawabgunj, Bangladesh

As the fourteen functional community radio stations (CRS) in Bangladesh enter their third year, challenges of making CRS a sustainable operation have begun to emerge.  CEMCA with its continuing engagement on this issue facilitated a three day exploratory workshop for functional CRS in collaboration with Bangladesh NGO Network for Radio Communication (BNNRC).  Hosted by Radio Mahananda at Chapai Nawabgunj, the workshop was attended by two representatives from twelve out of the fourteen CRS. The workshop began with participants making a   brief presentation about their CRS and voicing some of the challenges faced by them. Using the framework developed by CEMCA and working in groups, participants categorise the challenges into technical, social, institutional and financial aspects. Participants converted these challenges into specific questions and developed parameters for different aspects of sustainability. They also developed a template to prepare action plan in short, mid and long term basis by identifying the specific issues and actions required. Post workshop, each CRS will continue to work to refine the parameters and customise their action plans, based on which CEMCA will plan further engagements with specific CRS in Bangladesh to develop a model for sustainable CRS.