Fish for Food Security in Zambia Project

By Misheck Nyirongo

SMALL-SCALE fisheries are an important livelihood and primary protein source for villages surrounding the 11 dams of the rural communities in Eastern province of Zambia, yet many are overfished and thus require effective and scalable sustainable fisheries management solutions.                  

Fish for Food Security in Zambia Project, being implemented by GIZ under the “One World - No Hunger” Initiative (SEWOH) of the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), uses radio to educate and create awareness on the nutritional value of fish and sustainable fisheries management in small water bodies in Eastern province by engaging the duty bearers in debate, under a component of Radio Program in Eastern Province.  

The Senior Advisor - Sustainable Fisheries Management, Mazuba Mwanachingwala of GIZ Chipata Office says, “Under the Fish for Food Security in Zambia (F4F) project, radio has become a dominant platform for communication across Eastern Province, with selected rural based radio stations that support the extension education efforts, especially using the local languages to communicate effectively and directly with small-scale rural farmers.”

“Fish for Food Security in Zambia (F4F) Project views radio as a key platform through which many rural and marginalized fishing communities can express themselves and engage with different stakeholders to resolve the fishery community’s development challenges, and propel themselves out of poverty and improve nutritional status at their households,” affirmed Mazuba Mwanachingwala.

He added that, Fish for Food Security in Zambia (F4F) Project is also focusing on women in the fish value chain, and helps to combat hunger, climate change, malnutrition and poverty, creating linkages between food and income security, environmental and natural resource conservation, education and women’s empowerment.

In Eastern province the project’s focus is on sustainable fisheries management of small water bodies and targets to work with 11 dam management committees, and each one oversees a dam fishery. To achieve this, Fish for Food Security in Zambia (F4F) Project under the Radio Program in Eastern Province component contracted KHUMBILO Agroecology Media Services, to provide media consultancy services.

Ruth Phiri - the Business Manager of KHUMBILO Agroecology Media Services said that the main objective of the media consultancy assignment was to develop and air radio episodes with selected radio stations in Eastern Province: Radio Breeze FM in Chipata, Radio Chikaya in Lundazi, andValley Radio Station in Nyimba.

The Community Radio Listening Groups are a group of people /participants who meet regularly over a given time to listen to audio programming and discuss issues and challenges; and then review awareness and content of programmes aired on a radio station.

Ruth Phiri said,“So far KHUMBILO has established and trained 136 Community Radio Listening Groups around the villages surrounding the 11 dams reaching out to 467participants on how to handle and operate the solar radios; of which 171 are female and 296 are male and distributed some solar powered radio sets in 6selected districts thus: Lundazi, Chipangali, Katete, Kasenengwa, Petauke and Nyimba in Eastern province of Zambia.”

The Community Radio Listening Groups approach has proven to be one of the best models for genuine village level engagement, creating platforms where fishery communities engage with their duty-bearers featuring on the live radio episodes to demand accountability and support in the sustainable management of fishery resources through information sharing as a quick effective feedback mechanism and is highly appreciated by local community members.

Each Community Radio Listening Groups are estimated to attract 30 Active Radio Listeners, per session/episode. It’s therefore, no doubt that 4,080 direct listeners’ are able to access the information on sustainable fish resources management from the 136 established and trained Community Radio Listening Groups.

Ms. Ruth Phiri, the Business Manager of KHUMBILO Agro Ecology Media Services also shared, “The lessons learnt are that, the local language programming has made the community members to feel a great sense of ownership when the radio programs were aired in their local languages, than when broadcasted in English or any other language. The broadcasting in the local languages also enables community members to develop a sense of identify and expressed themselves freely.”

Meanwhile, the notable challenge is that, some traditional leaders such as the headmen, are holding onto the radios, as personal property. This makes it difficult for the Community Radio Listening Groups to access the facility when they want to use them for the intended purpose. This is affecting the listenership of the groups, as most of the radio episodes are not properly followed, because the Community Radio Listening Groups are not meeting as planned.

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