Dialogue with the Grassroots: A Collaborative Project in Nepal 
between Mountain Forum Secretariat, Radio Sagarmatha, and Asia Pacific Mountain Network

Towards this, the Mountain Forum Secretariat is launching a pilot project in association with the Asia-Pacific Mountain Network (the Asia-Pacific node of the Mountain Forum) and Radio Sagarmatha, which is the oldest independent community broadcasting station of South Asia. Being a community radio station, the voices of people are consistently brought into the fold of the radio programmes through interviews in the field.

Radio Sagarmatha reaches out to people at the grassroots level in 8 districts of Nepal. Radio Sagarmatha has also established a network with eight community radio stations across the country to fill the vacuum of information and critical perspective at the grassroots level, particularly communities outside the valley. In addition, membership of the World Association of Community Radio Broadcasters (AMARC) has facilitated the stations in international networking which has in turn helped provide them with exposure to community radio models and practice around the world.

Mountain Forum on the other hand, is made up of academics, students, experts, professionals and policy makers across the region and the world. What we aim to do through this project is to form a bridge between the audience (and participants) of the radio programmes and the Mountain Forum community. This way, we hope to be able to facilitate a dialogue between communities at the grassroots in Nepal and the global and regional communities of the Mountain Forum.

The way this will work is simple.

1. Radio Sagarmatha staff and Mountain Forum staff will identify potential issues for discussion.
2. These ideas will be posted on MF discussion lists seeking input from subscribers. This input could be in the form of related questions to be asked, information on the issue etc.
3. MF staff will also search the Online Library of the Mountain Forum to provide further information on the issue to Radio Sagarmatha producers.
4. Input from MF subscribers and MF staff will be sent to the radio producers to incorporate into their research.
5. Radio producers will go out into the field and pose questions, and record voices and reactions on the issue. This will happen in the local language.
6. The programme will then be produced and broadcast in the local language.
7. Meanwhile, the content of the programme (including the voices of the grassroots people) will be translated and adapted for MF discussion lists and posted (in English).
8. Mountain Forum discussion list subscribers will be asked to respond to the posting.
9. Responses of the MF community will be broadcast in the next programme by Radio Sagarmatha.
10. Other responses from the radio audience will be posted on MF discussion lists.
11. A summary of the dialogue will be provided on MF discussion lists at the end of this cycle.

In the first phase, we are planning to produce 8-10 such programmes and the tentative date for the first broadcast is 17th of September 2004. Each episode will be of 15 minutes duration and will be broadcast once every week. If this model works, then we hope to scale it up and take it to the next level.

To the best of our knowledge, this kind of a model, which attempts to foster a dialogue between a well-defined online community and communities at the grassroots has not been implemented anywhere in the world yet. Such an initiative will hopefully provide these typically separate and discrete groups of people access to each other's knowledge, skills and experiences.

We look forward to your active and enthusiastic participation in this project.