[EAS] 4th AMARC Asia-Pacific Regional Conference of Community Radios, Yogyakarta, Indonesia

[media at openbroadcaster.com]

Hi Hi, Something that may be of interest, how community radio is used for emergency alerting in this part of the world.
Checking in from AMARC (World Association of Community radio broadcasters) conference at Yogyakarta Indonesia.  AMARC consists of 5000 members from 120 different countries.  Looks like I am the only person attending from the western hemisphere.  A sea of black heads and hijabs. You can find AMARC on Facebook, where they are LIVE streaming this 
 16-19 November 2018, with real time translations into English and Indonesian.  So many interesting presentations and people to share stories with.  I did not know there were so many community radio stations in this part of the world.  Food, facilities and hotel is quite decent. Very hot located slightly south of the equator.
I'm participating in a panel discussion about "Emergency broadcasting for disaster management" and have included sample questions that will be asked.  If anyone has any further points to bring up, shoot me a message. TY.
Sticking around this part of the world for a while.  Do let me know if there is anything I can assist with, anyone at stations I should meet up with.
Stay Warm,
Rob
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Panelists:

1.     AHM Bazlur Rahman, BNNRC, Bangladesh

2.     Sinam M Sutarno, President, JRKI representative, Indonesia

3.     Junichi Hibino, FMYY, Japan

4.     Laxman Khadka, Chairman, Hamro FM, Nepal

5.     Robert G. Hopkins, OpenBroadcaster, Canada

Main premise:

Community radios have proven their worth as effective tools of disaster risk reduction time and over. The value of community broadcasting as an early warning system and for disaster management has been established beyond doubt. This panel represents expertise with a common focus - using community radio for disaster management. At the same time, the panel also represents a huge diversity in terms of socio-cultural-economic conditions as well as under geographical and climatic situations. There can be much learning across the diversity. Learning can be drawn from our unique experiences as well as the mistakes that have been committed. Therefore, this panel discussion has two specific goals:

 
1)    To review the various ways in which community radio has been put to use for saving lives and livelihoods of those living under vulnerable conditions;

2)    To review how community radios have been used in post disaster conditions;

3)    To identify good practices and a list of dos and don'ts for community radios to be become more effective for disaster risk reduction.
 

Possible questions:

1)    Share with us one or two examples of how community radios have saved lives or protected livelihoods of people living in vulnerable conditions in relation to natural disasters;

2)    What in your opinion are the most critical factors that can make or break a community radio's capacity to serve as a disaster risk reduction tool? What are the main challenges for community radios in becoming highly affective for DRR? Is it people's participation or funds or preparations or absence of mapping of vulnerabilities in our communities?

3)    In the existing structure of community radios - given that we function with very little resource, often relying of donor's funds and never having adequate finances to prepare in advance, what can community radios do to improve their own resilience against disasters?

4)    What are the specific linkages between a country's media policy and its community radio sectors' ability to function as a DRR tool? (Referring to frequency allocation, convergence of media, collaboration with other forms of telecommunication, possibility of procuring extra equipment such as a portable transmitter, etc.)

5)    We have often discussed and acted upon advance preparation of content, policy advocacy, improved technology and so on. What is the next big leap that community radios need to make to serve people well, especially those that are located in vulnerable conditions?

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Rob Hopkins-Technician
867-457-CJUC
www.cjucfm.com
Whitehorse, Yukon