The following report was conducted through a partnership between Foundation Radio (FR), and the Youth Outreach Program in Bamenda, Cameroon and two graduate students Audrey Bottjen and Nicholas Wexler from the International Development Summer Internship Project at Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS), Washington, D.C.

Foundation Radio was established in 2007 as an entity of The Fomunyoh Foundation with a mission to share information and knowledge on issues that improve the well-being of Cameroonians. For five years, summer interns from SAIS have played a key role in building the capacity of FR staff and representatives of other media and civil society organizations.

The Bamenda Radio Listenership Survey is the first scientific study of this kind carried out in the Northwest Region of Cameroon. Young people from the Youth Outreach Program received training on design and implementation of an evaluation tool that analyzes the listening habits of citizens in Bamenda, Cameroon.

The training and survey was conducted over a five-day period and covered strategic regions in Bamenda and its surrounding areas. Three hundred citizens were randomly selected to participate in the survey which yielded general information on demographics (age and gender); listening preferences (language preferred, program preferences, preferred radio stations) and consumer habits (advertising habit and advertising motivations).

The research provided an opportunity for young people to be actively engaged in their communities; it also identified the needs and interests of radio listeners in rural areas of Cameroon, which could pertain to Africans living in rural areas across the continent. The results taken from this survey will assist FR in accomplishing our objectives to facilitate citizens' access to information and promote a well-informed citizenship.