- Barza Wire - https://wire.farmradio.fm -

Sharing the results of our survey of radio partners

Last year was another excellent and very busy year for Farm Radio International and our radio network. We collaborated with hundreds of radio partners on dozens of activities. Of particular note: the campaign to increase confidence in COVID-19 vaccines [1]. But we also conducted an online discussion on addressing sensitive issues [2], and hosted many WhatsApp group discussions about COVID-19 vaccines. 

We also shared various types of written resources, including many on sexual and reproductive health and rights—like our suggested interview questions [3] and radio spots [4]—and covered a wide range of other topics, including climate change, agroecology, and gender-based violence. And we translated some of our resources into many local African languages [5]

To improve our resources and services, Farm Radio reaches out to our radio partners every year with a survey. The more we hear from you about how we’re doing, the better we can serve you.  And the better you can serve your audience! 

This year, a total of 337 broadcasters from 161 different radio stations in 21 different countries responded. The highest number of respondents were from Malawi (43), Uganda (42), Côte d’Ivoire (40), and Burkina Faso (32). Thank you to all survey respondents!

Here are a few highlights from the survey: 

Using FRI resources and services

We asked radio partners which of our resources or services they had used in the past year. 

We also asked partners how frequently they use our resources. About a third (32%) said they use them every week, while 37% said several times a week. 

The survey found that more than 80% of respondents had used one of Farm Radio’s resources in the past 2-3 months, compared to 73% in last year’s survey. This is excellent news, and shows that our resources and services are not only valued but actively used. 

Usefulness of resources and services

The survey asked radio partners to rate eight different types of resources in terms of how useful they are. Respondents found that Barza Wire stories were the most useful, followed by interview scripts, radio spots, and FAQs on COVID vaccines. It is great to hear that broadcasters valued the FAQs. We will produce more FAQs in the coming year, as well as more radio spots and our regular biweekly Barza Wire stories. 

During the last year, we produced a number of sets of suggested interview questions. More than 80% reported that they had used them. This is excellent feedback on this relatively new format, and encourages us to continue to publish suggested interview questions, which hopefully make preparing for an interview even easier. 

In 2022, we translated various resources into many local languages. More than half (58%) of respondents said they were useful, while about a third said they didn’t speak the languages we had translated our resources into. We hope to learn more about what languages will best serve our radio partners. 

We also asked respondents about their preferred training resources, and the top three were: Radio Resource orientation workshops, Broadcaster how-to guides [10] (BH2s), and in-station trainings. We plan to offer an online orientation workshop later this year, so stay tuned for news on how to sign up. We will also be publishing several new BH2s very soon.  

Over the last year, we distributed different kinds of resources on issues related to gender equality, sexual and reproductive health and rights, and gender-based violence. We wanted to understand whether these new resources had helped broadcasters create programming on these issues. So we asked respondents whether their confidence in producing and airing programs on gender issues had changed since last year. More than 80% said that they felt much more confident. This is excellent news. As we continue to develop more resources on these topics, we hope your confidence will continue to improve. 

We also learned about our radio partners’ interest in using interactive tools in their radio program. Farm Radio offers the Uliza poll to collect listener feedback via survey questions and voice recordings. Nearly all survey respondents said they want to use this tool in their programming. Almost all (80%) said they would use it to include listeners’ comments and opinions on air. About 70% would use it to learn more about their audience, while two-thirds said they would use it to get feedback on topics to cover. More than half would use it to run quizzes. 

We asked many more questions in the survey, and are continuing our analysis. Your feedback on the survey questions will help us improve all our resources and services. Thank you! 

We randomly selected ten prize winners to receive $50 CA in mobile credit. Congratulations to: