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Intergovernmental Programmes

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International Programme for the Development of Communication (IPDC)

Fostering Media Development. Building Democratic Societies

The UNESCO-IPDC Prize for Rural Communication is intended to recognize a meritorious and innovative activity in improving communication in rural communities, chiefly in the developing countries.

It was established in 1985 by the Executive Board of UNESCO in pursuance of a decision of the 5th session of the Intergovernmental Council of IPDC.

The UNESCO-IPDC Prize, consisting of a sum of US$20,000, is awarded every other year.
Previous Winners:

2010: La voz de los campesinos, Mexico
Amr Mamdouh Ellissy, Egypt
(joint award)

The radio station La voz de los campesinos (The Voice of the Peasants), founded 32 years ago in the eastern state of Veracruz, was the first indigenous community radio in Mexico. The station promotes interactive radio communication with communities, encouraging them to share their history, customs and music. It also helps reinforce the collective rights of the indigenous populations of Veracruz. Programmes are transmitted in three local languages in addition to Spanish. Transmission covers 400 communities, approximately 100,000 people. La voz de los campesinos is part of the Latin American Association of Radio Education (ALER) and the World Association of Community Radio Broadcasters (AMARC).

Amr Mamdouh Ellissy is Editor-in-chief of the weekly newspaper ElKhamis and Editor and Presenter of both the documentary programme Ekhterak on Egyptian State Television and Dream TV’s weekly social programme Wahed Men El-Nas (One from the Public), which informs rural populations on issues directly concerning them, in particular in the fields of education and health. Mr Ellissy seeks to work with governmental authorities and civil society organizations to find solutions to social problems in rural areas. He also carries out fundraising and public campaigns through his television programmes.

2005: Malayala Manorama - India
Malayala Manorama is a daily newspaper of a circulation of 1,4 million copies, published in Kerala, India. It was awarded for its imaginative communication campaign aimed at raising awareness among the people of Kerala on the importance of water conservation as a solution to the problem of droughts in the region.

The “Pala Thulli” (Many a Drop) project was launched by the newspaper to inculcate people with a new water culture which would preserve Kerala’s plentiful rainwater and protect rivers and other water sources from drying up. Exhibitions and video shows demonstrating various methods of water conservation were organized throughout the region and attracted huge crowds. A string of creative initiatives bear testimony to the impact of this campaign: colleges, schools and even fire stations have followed Manorama and built their own rainwater harvesting systems.

2003: Radio Toco - Trinidad and Tobago
Radio Toco 106.7 FM, the first and only community-based radio station in Trinidad and Tobago, was established in 1997 under the UNESCO Women-speaking-to-Women Programme in collaboration with the local NGO, T&T;/CAN Citizens' Agenda. It is recognized as an outstanding FM medium for information sharing and exchange amongst the rurual communities of North-eastern Trinidad. Radio Toco has spearheaded a strong Caribbean grouping of grassroots organizations committed to empowerment through community radio and has positioned itself as the pivot around which sustainable development is taking place in the Toco community.

2001: Maestro Pablo Pizzurno – Argentina
The Maestro Pablo Pizzurno School runs the Huanacache radio network that brings together all the schools and communities in the northern part of the Mendoza province, 90% of which is situated in the desert area. In addition to broadcasting cultural, educational and literacy programmes, the station also offers training of trainers and encourages initiatives aimed at stimulating the participation of associations and socio-cultural groups.

2001: Radio Quispillaccta – Peru
Radio Quispillaccta has been producing programmes in the Quecha language for the entire farming community of the Ayacucho region, southeast of Lima, Peru, for the past ten years. Its programmes revolve around the transfer of knowledge related to the farming techniques, the preservation of Andean culture and the strengthening of a sense of community through the production of contact programmes. Its audience rating is between 80 to 85% of a potential listening public of around 450,000 inhabitants.

1999: Radio Tanzania, Dar es Salaam (RTD)
Radio Tanzania produced a radio play entitled Twende Na Wakati (Let’s Move with the Times), aired twice a week for thirty minutes and was highly acclaimed by the local communities. For six years, Twende Na Wakati addressed a range of topics varying from fertility, family planning, maternal and child health, AIDS and STDs, to the need to educate girls, the fight against domestic violence and all sorts of discriminatory cultural practices such as excision. Public awareness in the rural world on such moral issues was the strongest impact of this project.

1995: The Filipino Community Radio Project - Tambuli
Tambuli represented an important effort to develop rural, independent and pluralistic communication in the isolated regions of the Philippines. This project had promoted appropriate communication facilities that stimulated the exchange of information among community members. Tambuli radio provoked major changes in Filipino local community life, in particular the elimination of gambling and the improvement of social life in communities.

1993: The Collège des Ondes of Mauritius
The 'College of the Air' had run an extensive campaign in the Creole language to make people aware of the problems associated with modern life, especially stress, which was conducive to alcoholism, hypertension, obesity and nicotine addiction, all matters of concern to the Mauritian authorities. As a result of the campaign, a marked drop in stress-related illnesses had been observed.

1991: Jordanian journalist Mazin Al Qubaj
For more than 33 years, Mr. Qubbaj had directed an innovative programme of rural broadcasts for Jordanian Radio and Television.

1989: The group Popular Cultural Action of Colombia, and the Cuban Farmers Association
The Asociacion Nacional des Agricultores Pequeños (National Association of Small Farmers) of Cuba, a recently formed organization, and the Accion Cultural Popular (Popular Cultural Action) of Colombia were awarded due to their patient efforts in various communication activities, most of their success due to internal restructuring.

1987: A rural radio project in Congo-Brazzaville
This rural radio project served as a means for illiterate rural populations in Congo to actively participate in their country's national development. The radio programmes were directed not only at farmers, but also at those living outside the cities, especially women; it also organized vaccination campaigns, the construction of boreholes and latrines, and the creation of kindergardens.

1985: The Kheda Communications Project in India
Kheda was an exceptional example of the combining of modern technologies with a participatory approach to communication. The project employed traditional cultural expressions of a rural community in the creation of its audiovisual programmes, while using modern evaluation techniques for its programme planning. Overall, this project proved to be a good example of the applications of communication for the promotion of human development, particularly of the rural poor, women and children.

http://www.unesco.org/webworld/en/ipdc-prize