After a devastating civil war, Sierra Leone (with the support of the World Bank) is undertaking an ambitious decentralization program designed to bring decision making closer to ordinary people. With a history of hierarchical decision making, many believe that the feeling of exclusion from important decisions on the part of many young people helped provoke and prolong Sierra Leone's civil war. Therefore, it is an especially important and interesting place to study issues related to community cohesion, trust, collective action, information and awareness, and the impact of community driven development.

The World Bank and the Government of Sierra Leone are keen to evaluate and understand this decentralization process to learn what is working well and what is working less well. As a part of this broader research agenda, a key concern is understanding the best way to promote education and awareness among communities that traditionally lack access to information, so that decentralized government involves community participation and promotes good governance. 

For communities and groups with very little access to information, can radios improve lives and promote good governance by increasing knowledge about local and national politics, affecting attitudes towards gender, and/or improving knowledge of good health practices?

The evaluation piggy-backed on the National Public Services survey, which was administered in 2005, 2007, and 2008. The intervention consisted of giving gifts to 200 communities to thank them for their participation in the 2007 National Public Services survey. People in 200 communities receive gifts, 200 do not. Within the 200 gift communities, half (640 individuals) randomly receive radios, and half receive calendars.  People in 200 other communities were also surveyed, but received no gifts.  The 2008 National Public Services survey in December 2008-January 2009 included a module to measure the impacts of radios according to the questions posed above.