Determinants of the Sustainability of Community Radio Stations in Sub-Saharan Africa

Protocol for a systematic review examining the determinants of financial, organisational and social sustainability among community radio stations in sub-Saharan Africa. The station is the unit of analysis rather than the listener, which distinguishes the review from the larger body of work measuring the effects of radio campaigns on audiences. The primary outcome is station survival and continuity of broadcasting. Secondary outcomes are financial self-sufficiency, volunteer retention and motivation, and community participation in station governance. The review searches Communication and Mass Media Complete, Scopus, Web of Science, Sociological Abstracts, Africa-Wide Information and African Journals Online, alongside a systematic grey literature search of donor and sector sources including AMARC Africa, UNESCO, CIMA, Development Media International and Farm Radio International. Included studies will be appraised with the Mixed Methods Appraisal Tool 2018 and grey literature with AACODS, with confidence graded using GRADE-CERQual. Synthesis will be thematic within a narrative synthesis framework. The protocol is reported against PRISMA-P 2015. Registration is with OSF rather than PROSPERO because the outcome is organisational rather than clinical.