Top 5 things to know from our 2021-2022 Annual Report
We recently released our 2021-2022 Annual Report. In case you haven’t had a chance to read it yet, we’ve summarized the top five things that you need to know. Discover our annual report highlights below, or skip to the full report here.
1. We reached millions of listeners in 38 sub-Saharan African countries.
This year, we reached 61 million potential listeners—people who were able to listen to Farm Radio International-supported radio programs. Of those, 24.5 million were regular listeners. And 4.9 million listeners improved their farming, health or nutrition practices thanks to Farm Radio.
These interactive radio programs were broadcast from stations in 38 sub-Saharan African countries.
2. We experienced growth in many areas.
In the 2021-2022 fiscal year, Farm Radio experienced growth in the number of radio stations we supported, the number of hours of radio broadcast, and the type and quality of services we offered.
Our network grew to 1,221 radio stations. That’s 138 more stations supported with resources like guides, scripts and training! On the topic of training, the number of broadcasters who received in-station training jumped from 446 to 1,112.
This year, we also introduced new services, including On Air Dialogues, in which rural people use mobile phone-based listener polling to share their perspective on a topic.
3. We implemented 33 projects in 17 countries, including our largest-ever project, RECOVER.
In 2021-2022, we implemented 33 projects (15 fewer than last year due to an increase in the size of our projects). For these projects, we partnered with 259 radio stations, which spoke 68 languages on air. The projects took place in 17 countries in West and East Africa, including 11 projects in Ghana, eight in Ethiopia and six in Burkina Faso.
We started—and completed—our largest-ever project, RECOVER. This project helped rural communities recover from the impact of COVID-19, improve their farming practices and engage in economic recovery. Other notable projects focused on gender equality, including DÉFI, which aims to reduce barriers to girls’ education in Mali.
4. We facilitated nearly 2 million interactions between listeners and radio stations through Uliza, our suite of digital tools.
This year, we facilitated 1,936,591 interactions using Uliza—our first time cracking 1 million interactions! Uliza makes radio a more powerful two-way communication tool for dialogue by allowing program listeners to use their mobile phones to interact with radio programs for free. Interactions included calling in to radio shows, participating in polls and leaving voice messages.
This year, we developed two new tools for boosting interactions between radio programs and their listeners. For example, with Uliza Quizzes, our system randomly selected participants to take part in quiz competitions with prizes. The incentive resulted in more people calling in.
5. We announced a renewed statement of values this year, which emphasizes communication justice.
Farm Radio International’s values are centred by a deep commitment to communication justice. We understand communication justice to exist when the human right to seek, receive and impart information and express ideas and opinions is equitably available to all regardless of frontiers or barriers, as declared in Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
Communication rights, though universal, are not equitably available to all. Farm Radio works for communication justice by expanding and strengthening powerful interactive radio services that overcome barriers presented by language, literacy, access to media and technology, poverty and isolation.
This year, we updated our statement of values to reflect who we are as an organization,
and who we aspire to be.
Are you curious to learn more about what Farm Radio got up to in 2021-2022? Read our full annual report here.
About the Annual Report
The 2021-2022 Annual Report covers the activities of Farm Radio International between April 1, 2021 and March 31, 2022. Our audited financial statements for the same period are available here.