Community Media/ECONEWS/Radio Mang'elete OD News story

MANG’ELETE COMMUNITY RADIO ORGANISATIONAL CAPACITY DEVELOPMENT WORKSHOPS

The organizational capacity development workshops for Mang’elete Community Radio, popularly known as Radio Mang’elete (RM) in Kenya, took place on 24-29 November, 2008.

The workshops were carried out on site at a local boarding school adjacent to the Radio Station near a small shopping centre known as Nthongoni market in Mang’elete sub-location, Kibwezi district, Kenya. The workshops were organised by EcoNews Africa [1]in conjunction with the staff and the management committee of Radio Mang’elete [2]

They were conducted by facilitators from EcoNews Africa, the Kenya Community Media Network (KCOMNET)- [3] and Ujamaa Centre from Mombasa [4]. The workshops were funded by the Commonwealth of Learning (COL)

Two workshops were held. The first workshop was a three days session for 66 members from the 33 women groups, two members per group, that make up the umbrella organisation known as Mang’elete Community Integrated Development Programme (MCIDP). Radio Mang’elete is a project of MCIDP. The second workshop took two days. This was a Strategic Planning session for about 30 people comprised of the elected officials of MCIDP, the volunteer staff at Radio Mang’elete and representatives from the local civil society organisations and government administration who collaborate with Radio Mang’elete.

The Process

The workshops had been preceded by the participatory curriculum development process that was undertaken into two phases:

Phase I

A two-day brainstorming session which involved the relevant staff from EcoNews Africa, representatives from KCOMNET and the identified support facilitators. The session brainstormed on the following:

• Purpose and objectives of the OD process
• Roles of the collaborating partners, ENA, COL, KCOMNET and Radio Mang’elete
• Traced the history and developments of Radio Mang’elete
• Reviewed the formation documents of the Radio station such as the concept document, constitution and original proposals
• Sampled other documents available from COL community media node and other community radio partners related to organisations’ capacity development and curriculum.
• Highlighted issues pertinent to the Radio station and deduced the key areas that would inform the organisational development process.
• Laid out the next steps for the process.

Phase II

A two-day reflection meeting to develop the draft curriculum for Radio Mang’elete. It was held at EcoNews Africa office in Nairobi and involved facilitators from Radio Mang’elete. Representatives from Radio Mang’elete comprised of officials from the umbrella group, MCIDP, the Radio Management Committee and representatives of the staff.

The reflection was in the form of a workshop and was conducted by the four (4) facilitators. The issues identified during the reflection that would inform the training curriculum were:

• Organizational structure
• Leadership and management
• Organizational policies and guidelines
• Functions, roles and responsibilities
• Skills and competencies
• Team building and conflict management
• Organization culture and relationship-building
• Organization learning
• Ownership
• Strategic planning

These issues enabled the facilitators to formulate the objectives of organisational capacity development workshops and the training curriculum. Draft Curriculum available at (http://www.wikieducator.org/Community_Media/ECONEWS/Workshop_Outline_Draft)

The workshops

Two workshops were undertaken: The first workshop on 24 -26, November was to strengthen the governance structures of the umbrella organization, MCIDP. The second workshop on 27 and 28, November was a strategic planning session for the community radio station.

The workshops were largely carried out in a hall at the school neighbouring the Radio Station. Team building sessions and small groups’ break-out sessions took place on the open grounds in the school compound. Food, drinks and accommodation for the participants were arranged on the site.

Key outputs

• A clarification and understanding of the governance and management structures at Mang’elete Community Radio
• Ratification of the organisation constitution
• Election of the new Board of Directors for MCIDP and the Radio Management Committee(RMC)
• A stronger Radio Mang’elete that is able to effectively undertake its roles and responsibilities as a community radio
• The existing training materials on organizational capacity development from COL and other partners working on similar objectives identified and adapted
• An updated curriculum on community radio organizational capacity development
• Documentation materials available include: Photographs, video footage, the updated curriculum and programme and workshops’ reports