Community Multimedia Centres provide development services

Community Multimedia Centres (CMCs) combine community radio and telecentre services to form a comprehensive information and communication platform serving local development needs. Launched in 2001 by UNESCO, today there are over 50 centres in Africa, Asia and the Caribbean and scale-up projects are underway in Mali, Mozambique and Senegal.

Manhi�0Š4a Community Multimedia Centre in the southernmost province of Mozambique serves both the individual and the community. Right: a woman queues at the reception desk of the telecentre, which offers telephone, fax, scanning and computer services. Above: Radio Komati is attached to the telecentre. The DJ pictured, Elias Raul S. Langa, is also a farmer. Photos by Sergio Santimano

Telecentres make it easier for poor and marginalised communities to access new information and communication technologies (ICTs). Operating community radio stations alongside telecentres seeks to ensure that more informed radio programming reaches communities marked by illiteracy and limited access to information. Radio presenters broadcast information obtained by email, through the Internet or on a CD, explain what these technologies are and encourage listeners to come in and use them. Community members can use computers, get training, access email, scan documents, make phone calls or send faxes.

The participatory model and the role of information mediators determine how the technologies' potential is exploited. Useful information for farmers or traders may exist on the web, but only local radio can convey it in local languages, put the information in context and initiate discussion. Using the telecentre, the farmers or traders can then individually follow up the broadcasted information. Users unable to read or write are helped by facilitators who also offer a variety of training and educational activities. Unlike privately run cybercafés, the CMC offers a combination of for-profit and subsidised or free services.

Results reported by CMCs include:

• Increased uptake of public services, including health and education. In Sengerema town in Tanzania, the District Council uses the CMC to inform people about vaccination drives, voter registration, seminars and meetings. Following the announcement of a vaccination drive over the radio, the rate of vaccination of children under five increased.
• Gradual shifts in power relations between genders, social groups and economic levels, encouraged by the CMC's ability to give local people a 'voice' and take up issues with local administrations. For example, when Cocodrilo CMC opened in Cuba, the community successfully lobbied for an increase in its electricity supply.
• Strengthened cultural expression through broadcasting and publishing local music, drama, festivals, stories, and news on websites. Koutiala CMC is championing use of the N'ko alphabet in Mali for desktop publishing.
• Improved economic opportunities. Artisans use the centres' digital cameras and email to market their products more widely. By using the CMC to publicise their work, including selling a publicity video, the Sengerema Informal Sector Association's income increased from 7 million Tanzanian Shillings in 2003 to 25 million Shillings in 2004.
• Other traders cut import costs by ordering goods online, rather than travelling to buy them.

Simply placing ICTs in a community is not enough, however. In addition to developing key tools with partners to support CMCs (see box below), UNESCO's scale-up strategy for CMCs involves:

• building on existing initiatives by adding components to an existing radio station, telecentre or other community centre
• staff training and developing local content, notably through national resource centres, wherever these can be established or developed
• multi-stakeholder coalition-building at local, national and international levels to support CMC development and operations
• integrating the centres into national strategies for ICTs as well as health, education, agriculture and environmental protection.

UNESCO's experience and evaluation of CMCs has shown that combining new ICTs with community radio can create effective grassroots development service providers. CMCs offer direct delivery of a wide range of development activities. Partners can reinforce the CMC and help ensure the sustainability of their crucial role by using the centres to deliver projects.

Stella Hughes
Media and Society Section
UNESCO
1 Rue Miollis
Paris 75015
FRANCE
s.hughes@unesco.org

How to Get Started and Keep Going: A Guide to Community Multimedia Centres, edited by Stella Hughes, Sucharita Eashwar, Venus E. Jennings, Paris: UNESCO, 2004
www.unesco.org/webworld/cmc

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