A new web-based radio station that aims to help shape the agenda on issues connected with leadership, peace and security in Africa is to be launched in Nairobi on June 24th. ALC Radio will be an independent medium of analysis of African issues that is publicly available to all via the internet.
The station has been developed by the African Leadership Centre (ALC), which was created through collaboration between two globally distinguished universities, the University of Nairobi and King’s College London, and will provide a forum to influence debate and policy development on the continent. Independent of governments or commercial interests, the analysis of issues it will offer will uniquely be informed by research at these two universities and will draw on expert opinion from around the world.
The media industry in Africa is growing at a frantic rate but few media outlets are able to provide authoritative content on the peace, security and leadership issues which are critical challenges facing the continent. Furthermore, international media rarely give in-depth coverage to alternative views about Africa and reporting can often perpetuate entrenched stereotypes about the continent. Through a versatile programming format that will include news analysis, round table discussions, ground-breaking interviews and public debates, ALC Radio will offer innovative programming that reflects local perspectives combined with expert opinion to spark debate and influence change.
ALC Radio broadcasts will be freely available, and African media outlets will be encouraged to download items and re-broadcast them. Content will include a series of high-level interviews with political and policy leaders called ‘Talking Africa’, as well as discussion programmes with multiple contributors. A team of experienced journalists, led by Desmond Davies (a former editor of West Africa Magazine in London) and renowned former BBC journalist Mounira Chaieb, will focus on putting critical issues facing Africa under the spotlight, and will forensically examine the solutions proffered by existing political elites as well as those suggested by other, often radically different, thought-leaders. By creating a community of listeners across Africa and beyond, and actively involving them in discourse, ALC Radio aims to give a voice to a wider public, which currently has few platforms available to it.
Dr Godwin Murunga, Director of the African Leadership Centre and a leading policy analyst at the Institute for Development Studies at the University of Nairobi, commented, ‘For too long Africans have not had access to an independent media outlet that combines expert analysis of key peace and security issues with an ongoing discourse with the major players as well as members of the public. I am very excited that ALC Radio aims to change that.’
Professor Funmi Olonisakin, the founding Director of the African Leadership Centre, and currently a member of the UN Advisory Group of Experts reviewing the UN Peacebuilding Architecture, observed, ‘ The ALC was established in 2010 to train a new generation of African leaders and serve as a forum for transformative discourse on peace, security and development in Africa. I have every confidence that ALC Radio will play a vitally important part in fulfilling this mission.’
For Further information contact: Alfred Muteru: Landline: + 254 (0) 20 387 0225 | Mobile + 254 789 387 225 | Email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. | Twitter: @Radioalc