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Radio Ergo

Description

Radio Ergo is a unique radio that produces and broadcasts original humanitarian news and information across Somalia and the Somali-speaking region.

The content is built on reporting by our network of around 25 local Somali correspondents based across the regions, and other material prepared by our dedicated production team.

The programming covers health, education, displacement, agriculture and livestock, gender, employment, environment, culture, governance, and other issues and themes. The radio aims to provide local audiences with the critical information they require to make better informed choices on the important issues affecting their lives and livelihoods.

By speaking with women and men, farmers and pastoralists, displaced and urban poor, Radio Ergo focuses on raising the voices and stories of ordinary Somalis and enabling them to be included in matters of public discussion, including responses to humanitarian crises and developmental challenges.

Radio Ergo runs an independent call-in platform known as Freedom Fone. By calling the shortcode number 2012 from a basic mobile phone connected to any of the main telecom providers, listeners are invited to leave a voice message free of charge.

Listeners call to explain or comment on challenges or crises in their local area, such as disease outbreaks or a broken water well, and to ask questions to radio programme experts on health, livestock, or farming.

This feedback is harvested by the team for use in further programming, and an analysis is shared weekly with humanitarian and development organisations to inform their planning and response.

Local and global experts from various sources help Radio Ergo to develop or shape specific informative content on certain themes and to respond to listeners’ questions, for example on health or livestock diseases.

Listeners across the country can hear Radio Ergo broadcast on shortwave frequency 17845kHz every day at 3-4pm East Africa Time (12-1pm GMT). Shortwave transmission is a key element of our strategy, as large audiences in the rural and remote areas of Somalia are not served by local FM radio and therefore access vital news and information through shortwave radio.

The daily Radio Ergo programmes are also rebroadcast by a network of local partner FM stations in Somalia, who use the programmes to complement their own content.

The word “ergo” in Somali means mediators or envoys in the interest of people in need. It is therefore a word that carries significance and resonance. The radio tried to live up to the meaning of its name!

Radio Ergo is run by international NGO, International Media Support (IMS), based in Copenhagen, and supported through a local office in Nairobi, Kenya.

Currently, Radio Ergo is funded by support from the Swedish Development Agency, SIDA, and the Danish Development Agency, DANIDA.

Details

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