The BBC World Service Trust is the BBC’s international charity which seeks to use media and communications to reduce poverty and promote human rights.  The organization works in over 40 developing and transitional countries.

BBC World Service Trust’s Vision

Believing that independent and vibrant media are critical to the development of free and just societies, the organization seeks to provide accurate, impartial and reliable information to enable people to make informed decisions; it aspires to a world where individuals and civil society use media and communications to become effective participants in their own political, economic, social and cultural development.

BBC World Service Trust’s Strategy

To achieve its vision, the BBC World Service Trust partners with civil society, the media and governments to build long term development solutions. They do this by:

• Assessing the information and interaction needs of individuals and communities.
• Strengthening the media sector by building professional capacity and infrastructure.
• Producing creative programmes in multi-media formats that inform and engage audiences around key development issues
• Extending the reach and impact of programmes through listening clubs, learning groups and other outreach activities
• Applying rigorous research to measure impact and value for money.

BBC World Service Trust’s Focus

In order to achieve the most critical development goals, The BBC World Service Trust focuses on six key issues:

• Education
  It has worked with partners to deliver radio programmes and face-to-face tutorials which taught more almost 30,000 people in Somalia how to read and write.
• Emergency response
  It broadcasts life-saving information on radio to 6.5 million people in Darfur, including two million people living in the region’s 85 camps for refugees and people displaced by the conflict in Sudan.
• Environment
  It worked in association with Indian NGOs to deliver training to hundreds of journalists and NGOs in nine Indian states to improve the quality and quantity of environmental information published in the media.
• Governance and Human Rights
  It works with local media to produce political debate TV and radio programmes in Bangladesh, which help voters hold politicians and their leaders to account. Seven million people tune in every week.
• Health
  It worked with Indian broadcasters and government partners to produce a mass media campaign that changed the attitudes of millions of people in India to HIV-related issues, including wearing condoms and challenging the stigma and discrimination against people living with the virus.
• Livelihoods
  It produced a national radio programme to help people involved in raising and trading livestock in Somalia. The show delivered the practical skills, technical knowledge and business awareness required to increase incomes and improve livelihoods.

In total, the BBC World Service Trust has produced over 1,000 hours of education and health programming in 28 languages in 2006/2007. Its TV, radio and online programmes reached audiences totaling 119 million people worldwide.