The Impact of the BBC World Service Trust's Afghan Woman's Hour: Results from a National Survey in Afghanistan

This 68-page report is an evaluation of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) World Service Trust (WST) radio project Afghan Woman's Hour (AWH), which seeks to empower women by broadcasting programming on gender issues. Broadcast since January 2005, the weekly magazine format aims to help Afghan women explore new ideas, find solutions to their problems, and participate more fully in the rebuilding of their country. A group of 20 BBC-WST-trained female journalists from all over the country gather original stories, conduct interviews, and record folkloric songs. The programme is broadcast in the 2 main languages of the region, Dari and Pashto, with 100 programmes per year.

The report includes the results of a quantitative survey covering a national sample of 3,213 Afghan adults age 15 and older from all 34 provinces of Afghanistan; the purpose of the October 8 to October 24 2007 fieldwork was to measure the awareness and reach of AWH as well as to measure changes in knowledge, attitudes, and self-reported behaviours (practices) regarding key programme issues including gender equality, education, women and work, governance-related issues, and family life (e.g., forced marriage, domestic violence). In addition, the survey looked at the following issues to provide context and to guide the project: media habits and consumption, life in Afghanistan, and awareness of HIV/AIDS (to inform future programming).

This report also presents the findings of qualitative audience research commissioned by the BBC WST from November 2006 to March 2007, and analysed in LeRoux-Rutledge, E. (2007) Afghan Women's Hour: Psychological Empowerment Using a Mass Media Approach (a Master's dissertation from the London School of Economics and Political Science). The team conducted 76 in-depth interviews and 8 focus groups; BBC WST researchers developed the discussion guide with guidance from the country director and head of project. These data were supplemented with two semistructured expert interviews conducted with the programme's presenter/producer and the programme's editor.

Overall awareness of AWH in Afghanistan was found to be high; 50% of all those who had listened to the radio in the previous month were aware of AWH. Awareness was higher in the South Western region (at 64%) compared with the lowest level of awareness at 23% in the Hazarjat region. Awareness was higher among women (60%) than men (40%). The survey found that about 45% of active radio listeners aged 15 and older (those who had listened to radio in the last 4 weeks) had ever listened to AWH, indicating that the programme has been heard by approximately 11 million Afghans. More than half of all female active radio listeners (55%) had ever listened to AWH. Of all those aware of AWH, 76% of men and 83% of women had listened to it in the last month or more recently. As expected, the majority of AWH listeners are female (61%), but researchers point out that it is notable that 39% of those who report listening to AWH in the last month are male.

Over half of listeners (56%) reported they had talked with someone regarding something they heard on AWH. Women were more likely to do so than men (65% compared to 35%). Those who discussed issues with others did so mostly with family members and friends.

96% agree they think more positively about lives of women after listening to AWH. 91% agree the show helps them better understand women in different situations than them. 91% agree that listening to AWH helps them to solve problems. 80% agree that they often talk about things they hear on AWH. 79% agree that men enjoy listening to AWH.

The specific questions addressed in the LeRoux-Rutledge, E. (2007) publication were:

• How is empowerment defined in the development literature and where does psychological empowerment fit in?
• How can psychological empowerment be measured in a development context?
• What evidence of psychological empowerment is there among AWH listeners?

The qualitative component of the research indicated that women listeners displayed "a significant capacity to aspire", which included specific aspirations in domains relevant to the programme segments to which they had recently finished listening (suggesting, according to the authors, that AWH has made an impact). They also had critical awareness of social barriers, could identify causal agents that might help or hinder them, displayed the ability to brainstorm (what the authors characterise as an important component of problem-solving), and had the capacity to "express voice" within the all-female focus group. Furthermore, they displayed the intention to inform other women of relevant issues, and, in some cases, the intention to discuss these issues.

However, for the most part, these women's aspirations were not found to be particularly focused or specific. Also, they had a low "perceived ability to influence" and low "perceived competence" outside the domain of childrearing. This meant that they did not display knowledge of the ways in which to influence causal agents. For example, a woman might demonstrate knowledge that men were causal agents, but not be able to indicate how she would go about attempting to influence them. There was little evidence for leadership, and little indication that participants would take any direct action to influence outcomes other than discussing the issues raised with other women. Even in the areas where the women excelled, such as in their capacity to brainstorm, they displayed passivity; the suggestions they generated indicated not what actions they could take, but what could be done for them.

The authors conclude that, in order for AWH to help women translate their aspirations into action, it must attempt to facilitate agency through psychological empowerment. In order for empowerment to occur, however, aspects of the opportunity structure (such as male opinion) must also be addressed. "As there is a large male audience for AWH, a significant opportunity exists for the programme to tackle this aspect of the empowerment framework as well."

It is recommended that AWH:

1. explore methods of increasing its reach in Hazarjat and the Northern provinces, while continuing to build on the high reach in other areas, and continue to appeal to male listeners.
2. showcase the successes of other women in specific small-scale endeavours that could be replicated by listeners, in order to help listeners develop concrete, achievable goals.
3. provide specific information that will enable women to replicate what they have heard about, thus increasing their perceived ability to influence and perceived competence - for example, modelling the kind of conversation a woman might have with her husband in order to get permission to work outside the home would be more useful than just hearing about a women who got such permission.
4. highlight "facilitators" - anything from skills, to knowledge of community organisations, to information - which can enable women, in both small and large ways, to overcome barriers.
5. address ways in which women can influence men, heads of households, religious leaders, radio and television stations, and government - for example, segments could include arguments to support a woman's case and information on how to contact members of parliament (or how to persuade a literate family member to write a letter on one's behalf).
6. focus on developing women's decision-making and leadership skills - by, for example, interviewing successful women to learn about how they make or have made important decisions. AWH could also try to facilitate more active thinking about how to overcome barriers - by, for example, asking interviewees about the specific ways in which women themselves can take action. "Testimonials are also a vehicle for showcasing how women's own actions have helped them overcome adversity."
7. clarify resources necessary to achieve certain concrete objectives - for example, after a segment about a woman who runs a dairy cottage industry, there could be a short instructional section about the resources required to run such a business, such as livestock, pasture, family support, buyers for products, etc.
8. continue to recognise the value of audience research to ensure the programme is covering issues relevant to women, in a manner that women can relate to. "Also, the act of giving input can itself empower the listener."
9. bring women together into collectives to listen to the programme.