Background
The Zambia Community Media Forum (ZaCoMeF) is an umbrella body representing the interests of the Zambian community media sector. Membership of ZaCoMeF is drawn from all 9 provinces of Zambia. It was formed by the Panos Institute Southern Africa, in conjunction with other stakeholders, to address certain problems affecting local community media and to strengthen this sector. It also serves as a broker and clearinghouse for community media initiatives. A key goal is supporting what organisers describe as the vital role that community media, and community radio in particular, can and must play in ensuring the protection of the rights of economically poor and marginalised people in Zambian communities.
Vision
An empowered community media that is self-sustained.
Mission
To be the umbrella body for community media initiatives which support and promote the interests of community media sector to ensure media sector’s effectiveness and sustainability in serving communities throughout Zambia.
Communication Strategies
ZaCoMeF is an effort to bring community media actors together to exchange ideas and develop strategies for supporting this sector. Inclusivity in membership and focus is a key programme theme.
The forum caters to all community media initiatives and all forms of community communication (including traditional and/or folk media, such as live drama). Accessibility and local involvement are related emphases: in its definition of community media, ZaCoMeF focuses on accessibility as well as the degree to which community participation is actively supported and encouraged. Along these lines, ZaCoMeF sees community media as offering a platform to all members of the community so that members of marginalised groups such as women, youth, and children are given an opportunity to express themselves through a process of open dialogue. This process, fostered by community media, is envisioned as assisting communities in together identifying and resolving issues affecting them by using the information provided to drive their own development.
ZaCoMeF encourages its members to be active participants by engaging in the following 4 main areas of focus namely: Applied Research, Advocacy and Lobbying, Networking and Mentoring, and Capacity Building.
Panos Institute Southern Africa is the current host of ZaCoMeF, and works with the forum in implementing some of its activities. Funding for the forum’s activities is currently drawn from the German Development Service (GIZ), UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF), Open Society Initiative for Southern Africa (OSISA).
For more information about ZaCoMeF, contact the coordinator through the PSAf general contacts or email: zacomef@panos.org.zm
