Author and Institution:
Ryan Jones, FrontlineSMS
Bill Siemering, Developing Radio Partners
Outline:
With support from the Foundation to Promote Open Society, Developing Radio Partners (DRP) launched a one-year pilot project in these border communities, working in partnership with three local radio stations in each country. The primary aim of Zachilengedwe Tsogolo Lathu (“Our Environment, Our Future”), as the participants named it, was to empower rural Zambians and Malawians to address key climate change issues, especially local deforestation, by improving their access to information on the subject via radio and mobile phone – rural Africa’s two most ubiquitous and trusted ICTs.
The project focussed on climate change mitigation, by emphasising the value of local forests in both economic and ecological terms, and adaptation, by sharing insights into ways that rural communities could preserve their households in the face of a changing and uncertain climate.
