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Summary and Overview: Providing Locally Relevant Information

Key Points

• In Mozambique, where half the population is illiterate and most cannot afford television sets, satellite TV, cable TV or mobile phones, radio might be a more effective way of reaching populations.  For development professionals, this might be the easiest way to reach many target groups -- including those who are illiterate or live in difficult to access, less-developed regions.
• Provincial differences in culture, language and development challenges mean that populations across provinces are looking for varied information that is suited and targeted to their local needs.
• Despite these provincial differences, our survey results suggest Radio Mozambique is the best way for developmental professionals to target a broad spectrum of respondents. This is because Radio Mozambique has broad reach within each province and nationally due to the high broadcasting capacity of its transmitters that private stations, with limited funding and advertising revenues, lack.   It also broadcasts in several local Mozambican languages as it has 11 affiliate radio stations in all provinces. Together, these factors ensure that Radio Mozambique has access to rural, non-Portuguese speaking audiences. 
• In many instances, provinces that need local stations the most (Niassa, Nampula, Cabo Delgado, Zambezia, etc.) have the least number due to low economic development.  
• To complicate matters for non-state provincial stations, they are not able to attract advertising revenue, and remain forever vulnerable and dependent on government and development organizations who may withdraw support at any time. It is hard for them to broadcast locally relevant information and they often have to resort to entertainment and music-based programming to attract advertisers. 
• However, the key finding of this report is that although provincial non-state radio stations are second to Radio Mozambique in most provinces, this is not simply because respondents prefer state-run radio. In many of the provinces, respondents expressed deep interest in local programming specific to their needs, broadcasts in their vernacular languages, and access to current information. Local stations can capitalize on this and present themselves as fulfilling a niche within their provinces, thus competing better with a national state-run radio network. Private stations need to focus on crafting relevant content for their listeners to distinguish themselves from Radio Mozambique as an independent (from state control), culturally relevant and local source of information that their audiences can rely on.

Provincial Radio Overview

The 11 provinces (divided by us into southern, central and northern regions) in Mozambique have differing information needs reflecting local development issues.

Although state-owned broadcasting station Radio Mozambique (RM) dominates radio listenership, our survey also shows that many Mozambicans also listen to local radio stations broadcasting from within their provinces. Many of these private radio stations only broadcast entertainment (including Brazilian soap operas which are very popular) and music-related content. However, some stations are nonprofit community radio stations established by the foreign-funded UNESCO Media Project, religious organizations (mainly the Catholic Church), as well as the government Institute of Social Communication, and municipal authorities. Community radio stations play an essential role in Mozambique, as they allow greater pluralism in disseminating information and they deal with local matters in a manner accessible to citizens, often broadcasting in the country’s various local languages.

When creating a communication-related strategy for development which is province-specific in Mozambique, these private or nonprofit radio stations might be important to consider. Here we present a province by province analysis of development issues, media use and effective ways to reach audiences through radio.......

Why Focus on Radio?

In Mozambique, radio is the most effective method for disseminating information among target groups. Many citizens are illiterate, cannot access newspapers and television reaches only affluent populations in urban areas. Even those who have access to television sets can only access state television, Television Mozambique, as it is the only nationally available channel. Satellite TV and cable TV remain very rare and only respondents in more developed, urban areas have access to it.

Provinces-Regions

We have roughly grouped the 11 provinces into Central, North and South to delineate specific challenges. But in many cases, development issues spread across regions and these divisions are not meant to be binding or definitive.

In the CENTRAL provinces, alternate floods and droughts have led to crop failure, food shortage and the spread of water-borne cholera.

In the NORTH, economic development has yet to take off in the largely rural landscape and an influx of refugees from nearby conflicts could further complicate development efforts and further burden the already depleted supply of natural resources.

In the SOUTH, an HIV epidemic threatens to endanger Mozambique’s youth.

These diverse challenges demand local media sources geared to provide listeners with localized information relevant to their lives.

State-Run Radio Mozambique- A Formidable Force

As can be seen in Map 1 to the right, state-run Radio Mozambique is popular in almost all of the states and dominates listenership in most provinces.

However its listenership varies across provinces: Provinces in the north such as Niassa, Tete and Cabo Delgado, where non-state radio stations are few and far between, report high listenership for Radio Mozambique.  Meanwhile, a plethora of non-state owned radio stations are able to displace Radio Mozambique’s popularity in the southern provinces- Maputo City, Gaza and Inhumbane.

Differing Expectations from Radio across Provinces

In addition to expressing their opinions and listenership habits related to specific radio stations, respondents also weighed in on what they expected or liked about radio as a medium. This information, when broken down by provinces, gives us an insight into the differing expectations about the medium across provinces.

For instance, in Gaza, Inhumbane and Tete, most respondents overwhelmingly preferred to listen to a station that broadcasts in local, vernacular languages. In Zambezia and Inhumbane, respondents also favored radio stations that informed them about political issues. While in Niassa, respondents in large proportions preferred more music and less talk on radio. However, in most provinces, respondents said they like to listen to radio to keep them updated on current events.

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A Note about Methodology: In order to collect weekly listenership data for the radio channels that were being listened to across the 11 provinces, this report used the following methodology: Respondents in the Synovate/Steadman Media Diary Survey 2009 were asked to name (first spontaneous and then prompted) radio stations they had heard of or listened to. Once this list was ascertained, the respondent was then asked when they had listened to these radio stations last (yesterday, last week, last 4 weeks, and longer than that/never). From this we tabulated weekly radio listenership for all possible radio stations and then cross-tabbed this with a variable listing the province from which the respondent belonged. Radio stations that registered higher than 15 percent listenership in any province are featured in this report.

Information and Some Key Data for this report was sourced from

INE, 2006 (Mozambique National Statistics)

Mozambique: Drought and floods bring food shortages IRIN News 

Mozambique: After the Floods.  IRIN News

Mozambique: Floods could aggravate seasonal cholera IRIN News

Mozambique: Cholera Situation "Stationary" All Africa.com

Mozambique: Cholera Outbreaks in Five Provinces All Africa.com

Millenium Challenge Corporation Mozambique Fact Sheet

Mozambique Aids Profile/Summary from University of California, San Francisco

United Nations High Commission on Refugees- Mozambique Profile 

Mozambique: Sharp Population Growth in Maputo Province All Africa.com

Mozambique-New African Frontiers