Youth Radio for Peacebuilding: A Guide

The Youth Radio for Peacebuilding guide is the result of a workshop organised by the Radio for Peacebuilding, Africa project in Accra, Ghana, in September 2005. Attended by fifteen radio professionals from eleven sub-Saharan African countries, the workshop involved both adults and young people, including three who were under 18 years of age. Participants came from countries with a range of political situations including: armed-conflict, post-conflict, and non-crisis.

According to Search for Common Ground, radio has the potential to harness the creativity of young people. This guide is designed to help young people and those who work with them to design and produce entertaining radio programmes which help construct a peaceful future.

The guide provides tools which can help radio professionals produce youth programmes for peacebuilding and includes:

• An analysis of what happens to young people in conflict and how radio can help;
• Tools for media professionals to create youth radio initiatives;
• Guidance for adults working with young people on radio programmes for peacebuilding; and
• Tools to help youth producers participate in creating radio for peacebuilding.

This guide also aims to motivate those who have power over radio outlets to encourage radio initiatives for young people and to equip those who are committed to youth radio to do their work more effectively.

This second edition of the guide was developed out of a series of focus group meetings with broadcasters and experts in Sierra Leone, Burundi, and Belgium. Their recommendations led the publishers to make several changes to the structure of the guides - notably to add a section on conflict.