UNESCO’s radio toolkit – Linking Generations through Radio – is an open access document, which is inspired by children and youth who make up one-third of the world’s population. The majority may listen to radio but the likelihood they are invited to regularly produce interviews and programmes, express their information needs or their opinions about productions made for them is very low.

Radio reaches over 95 per cent of people worldwide and several radio stations in Africa have more than a million listeners each. One of the benefits of community radio is that it reaches a wide range of people and addresses the realities of local life. Community radio often speaks in languages ignored by mainstream media and shares vital information with hard-to-reach audiences.

Children and young people make up an important percentage of this audience. But young people’s voices are still not heard in a consistent and recognised way. The 62-page radio toolkit provides inclusive examples to allow free exchange of ideas between girls and boys and increase awareness of radio producers and managers about ethical and legal requirements particularly when working with minors. It may serve as a routine training or programming handbook in radio stations, a reference and resource for young people, and an advocacy tool to inform policy makers as well as the general public.