Giving a boost to new media, stakeholders will discuss enhancement of coordination for making community radio more effective and sustainable for increasing the scope of collaboration between organisations working on developmental issues.

The three-day consultation beginning tomorrow will bring together community broadcasters and other key stakeholders such as non-governmental organisations, media activists, academia and policy makers to take stock of the achievements of this sector of radio broadcasting in India and explore ways to take this movement to the next level.

The consultation seeks to analyse and assess the current community radio policy in achieving the goals of disseminating information, strengthening grassroots democracy and fulfilling social development objectives and discuss issues of financial and social sustainability of Community Radio Stations, a senior official of the Information and Broadcasting Ministry said today.

The discussions will help design joint action strategies and define the role of organisations such as UNESCO, CRF, CEMCA, various government departments and other partners in strengthening the CR movement, he added.

The Ministry is mandated to permit eligible organisations to run Community Radio Stations as per the Policy Guidelines of 2006.

The conference would be inaugurated by the Minister for Information and Broadcasting Ambika Soni tomorrow.

It will bring together 107 functional Community Radio Stations from across the country, policy makers from various government departments like Health, Rural Development, Information Technology, Science and Technology, Agriculture, Panchayati Raj, CAPART etc.

Several UN, national and international organisations like UNESCO, UNICEF, UNDP, World Bank, One World Asia, AMARC, Community Radio Forum are also participating.