Neema Hamisi is a tailor and the mother of one child from Ileje, a remote district in Tanzania's Southern Highlands. Ileje is one of four districts in Songwe encompassing 71 villages with a total population of approximately 110,000 people. Like most other people in the district, Neema also engages in small-scale subsistence agriculture.

Rural communities like Ileje face major challenges in communication and access to information. Farmers have trouble finding accurate and timely information on things like good agricultural practices, techniques to boost farm productivity and fair market prices for their goods. Small entrepreneurs, like Neema, also find it difficult informing customers about their businesses and products.

In 2015, the United Nations Capital Development Fund (UNCDF) partnered with the Ileje District Council and the Ileje East Environmental Conservation Group to establish the district's first community radio station. UNCDF helped Ileje FM acquire and install the radio communications equipment they needed to establish the radio station. For the first time in its history, the Ileje community was connected, providing residents with local and national content critical for social and economic development.

Agriculture is the lifeblood of the Ileje economy. Subsistence farming activities account for about 80 percent of total economic activity. The new Ileje community radio has meant that farmers like Neema can now access information that helps them increase their yields.

Neema explained,"Ileje FM has changed the way I farm and the way I do business. I tune in and listen to people who teach us better methods of farming, seasonal planting, weeding and timely harvesting. This has helped me grow more than just what my son and I need to eat. I grow maize and beans and now sell them in the market.”

The community radio also provides a marketing platform for small businesses. Small-scale entrepreneurs like Neema can now advertise their products and services for a small fee and reach potential customers beyond their own village and immediate network. As the first community radio in the area, Ileje FM draws listeners from the entire Songwe region, parts of the Mbeya region and even as far as Malawi. Neema places adverts twice a week for her tailoring business. She notes that this has more than doubled her tailoring revenues:

"Advertising on Ileje FM is affordable, easy to do and it works. I just write down the message I want aired, pay a small fee and the guys at the radio station produce and air the ad. This has worked well for me - I even had customers from outside Ileje call my number and place huge orders. Since I started advertising on Ileje FM, I am always busy - I have a big flow of orders. I've managed now to buy my own sewing machine, and I intend to buy another one soon to meet demand."

Ileje FM has had a visible economic impact on Neema and her household, representative of its multivariate impact on the district. The radio station has also been a catalyst in the empowerment of women across the district and in rural areas by addressing social and reproductive health issues that affect women.

Neema adds: "Oftentimes as we work, the other ladies and I will have Ileje FM playing in the background. There's a show we like that addresses women's issues and our group of tailors is one of the most active groups of women who call into the show."

In addition to providing access to timely and accurate information, community radios promote local identity and culture, champion a diversity of voices and opinions on the air, encourage open dialogue by providing an independent discussion platform, and promote social change while giving a voice to the voiceless. Issues of poverty, agriculture, gender inequality, education, social problems, political participation among others are the focus of its content and programming.

Through investments in community projects like Ileje FM, UNCDF assists communities to participate in improving their own local economy, by empowering them with free flow of communication, information, and knowledge. From the local government perspective, the radio station supports its public service delivery and is a new source of revenue to the district.

The District Commissioner, Hon. Joseph Mkude, notes: "Ileje FM community radio are partners to the government in driving development and social change. I've built a strong relationship with the producers and presenters because I use the radio to speak directly to citizens, listen to call-ins on current issues they are facing and share the vision we have for bringing about the change our district needs."

With its multidimensional impact on the thousands of farmers and small-scale entrepreneurs like Neema, and its direct support of the district government's development agenda, the Ileje FM project is an excellent demonstration of how ICT can be put to work at the community level to improve access to information - ultimately empowering communities. By unlocking private and public resources, UNCDF makes finance work for the poor.