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Introduction
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Appendix
Fourth conference on women
Resolution 1325
Convention on the elimination of all forms of discrimination

Chapter 15

Women in Aceh Demand Gender Budgets

By Bianca Migglioretto

In Northwest Sumatra, Indonesia Radio “Women’s Voice” broadcast programs on good governance and on how budgets are being used or should be used, so that women will take part in setting development strategies. The station manager Nurhayati Kahar says: “The Indonesian Government always talks about good governance and transparency. But this is rhetorics. Especially at the local level, government budgets are hardly ever used for women’s needs such as health sevices, child care, income generation or tuition fees for girls. Through our program we inform our listeners what they are entitled to according to the government’s promises and we encourage the women to advocate for their rights, so that women are no longer be left out when it comes to budget allocation by the local governments. We learned from the experiences of women in other parts of Indonesia such as Papua. Our slogan is ‘Women Speak Out and Sue Budget’ so that women are no longer objects of development but become subjects of development.”

The example of Women’s Voice in Sumatra is only one example on how women hold governments accountable through community radio thus contributing to what is described as good governance. In the newspaper, in doscourses, on national television and in parliament the policies sound very promising, but: Who monitors the actual implementation at the community level? How can women make sure that they are among the beneficiaries of the government programs when most of them do not even know what policies were decided on and what they are entitled to?

In the community of Mabuhay in Mindanao, the local women’s organization BaBAE decided to make use of a small community radio station that was left idle by the local government. They started a radio program and for the first time, issues such as cyanide fishing, malnutrition, domestic violence, health and sanitation were discussed publicly in their community. Honeylyn Joy Alipio who assists the radio radio production by women, said: “Producing their own program enriched the knowledge of the BaBAE team members as they are researching the issues and it boosts their confidence, to make their views heard.”

When health programs or government programs to reduce domestic violence are not being implemented because the money is being used for other projects or it disappears into the pockets of some politicians, women can usually not do much about it. To whom should they complain? The provincial and national governments are far away and mostly uninterested. But when they are able to inform the community what women are entitled to, over the local community radio. When they demand transparency and accountability from the local government unit. It becomes much harder for the politicians responsible of mismanagement to get away with it.

The National Commission on the Role of Filipino Women (NCRF) launched a radio campaign November 25, 2006 to inform the public about the existing laws that protect women from violence and what victims of violence are entitled to get through government services. NCRF distributed a CD with a series of informative radio plugs (spots) in different local languages all over the country. While the commercial radio station was not interested in playing the plugs for free, the small local commercial and community radio stations did broadcast the plugs. Isis International-Manila helped in the dissemination of the CDs. We learned from the experience that if we give the plugs to women who are in charge of their own program, they play the plugs and even discussed the issue further by inviting responsible government officials to the studio. When women were not in control of the program content, it became much more difficult to place the radio plugs.

Community radio bears a great potential for women to monitor and advocate for the implementation of good governance but often women in community radio do not have access to the decision making on the content of the program being broadcast. In an email survey among women broadcasters in community radio in Asia Pacific conducted by AMARC-WIN and Isis International-Manila, we asked the respondents what changes they see necessary in their respective community radio. The most important change women want is to improve women’s access to leadership, decision making, management, and to editorial, financial and accounting responsibilities. The survey showed that women occupy only 28 per cent of the leadership positions in community radio. There are still a number of stations that have no women on the board or at the management level. Among the radio staff, women are often reduced to the role of presenters, of so called “soft news,” while the “hard news” are being drafted by male editors. Women’s issues are often considered “soft news,” they are left to women anchors but at the same time, they are not given the same importance in the programming as to what is considered “hard news”. In other words, women tend to be much less interviewed on the radio and they tend to have much less chances to hold governments accountable.

It is not surprising therefore that when we asked the women broadcasters about what they consider to be the most important training needs, their priorities were the following:

• Gender and feminist perspectives in community radio

• Management, administration and sharing in the decision making

• Production and technical skills including ICTs

AMARC-WIN is working toward women’s empowerment within the individual community radio stations, and among the community radio movement, by responding to women’s training needs and facilitating the exchange of experiences and best practices among its members. Through the network of women community radio broadcasters, we strengthen and support each other and establish direct contacts. Here are some examples: Women from one community radio station in Nepal tell their sisters in another station how they were able to get editorial freedom for their own women’s program; In a training on engendered peace journalism by Isis International-Manila, a young woman broadcaster from a small community radio station taught an anchor woman who was in commercial broadcasting for 20 years how to operate the mixing console and how to edit her interview; A community radio broadcaster from Bangalore will conduct a radio workshop at a rural women’s conference in Tamil Nadu thanks to a contact between the two organizations established by AMARC-WIN.

But knowledge sharing needs to go beyond the broadcasters. AMARC-WIN plans to initiate program content sharing, so that not only do the community radio broadcasters learn from each other, but also their respective listeners. Listeners need to learn how women in community radio were crucial in the reconstruction after the tsunami in Aceh or in the post-conflict peace building in Upi, Mindanao.

© 2005-2009 AMARC