Testimonials

"I know Birgitte as an extremely qualified, sharp-eyed and creative colleague and expert. I have recruited her as a consultant in media development programmes on numerous occasions over the last decade, always with excellent results – even in quite difficult circumstances and challenging environments.

I love to work with her because she has enough experience of work and life to trust herself and others equally. With this attitude she will always be trusted and listened to by the clients she works for – I have seen it happen so many times and I am always impressed."

Annelie Ewers, Director
Fojo Institute for Media Development, Sweden

"When it comes to the entire spectrum of community radio and assisting communities to find their own voice, Birgitte Jallov is the finest consultant that I know.

Birgitte blends creativity, passion and intelligence with results –
a rare combination . I've known Birgitte since 1999 when we worked together in Mozambique and have absolute confidence in her abilities."

Kristine Pearson, Director
Lifeline Energy, UK and South Africa

“I would like to stress once again that it was a pleasure for all of us to work with you. Rather than scared and awed by the unresolved issues, your mission has left everyone here energetic and keen to tackle what is left to do – quite a remarkable outcome of an evaluation mission! … Most importantly the major stakeholder in the project accepts and shares the major findings and has agreed to implement the recommendations.”

Matthias Meier, Programme Analyst
UNDP, Lao PDR

”Certificate given to Birgitte Jallov in recognition of her outstanding leadership and remarkable achievements in the project on ”Strengthening Democracy and Governance through Development of the Media in Mozambique”"

Lupwishi Mbuyamba, UNESCO Head of Office, Maputo
Marylène Spezzzati, UNDP Resident Representative

“Over the years Jallov’s many articles brilliantly examining the community radio work she has done and continues to do all over the world have been constant companion for me both as a researcher, teacher, and practitioner. Jallov can be depended on to bring a uniquely insightful perspective and always mindful of the empowering function of communication.  With the re-emergence of community radio as a significantly powerful and potent tool for empowering marginalized communities – even in the context of a globalized and technologically converged world – what better time to consolidate her more than three decades of experience and insight.”

Patrick Prendergast
Lecturer in development communication
Caribbean Institute of Media and Communication
University of the West Indies, Jamaica

“Birgitte Jallov lead a broad and ambitious UNESCO media development project in Mozambique from 1998-2004.
I followed her work on behalf of Sida in Maputo, one of the major donors to the project. I was impressed by Birgitte’s firm and enthusiastic leadership and above all her serious involvement and result awareness. Her particular enthusiasm was with the community radios, where direct impact could be seen on the increased awareness and participation in matters of general interest for the communities. Birgitte Jallov is one of the few in the world who has such a long, broad and successful experience of organising community radios. I would be happy to see that her experiences and advice are shared with all development aid organisations, international, national and NGOs.“

Eva Belfrage, Senior Advisor (retired)
Swedish International Development Cooperation Authority, Sida

“I have known Birgitte Jallov as a prime mover in community radio since the early 1980s when European activists in the field began to join forces. She was a significant voice in AMARC from its beginning and after her work for UNESCO in Mozambique I invited her to speak for a group of students on sustainable radio in development where her lecture made a deep impression. Her book – EMPOWERMENT RADIO - is important and timely and there is no one better qualified to write it.”  

Dr. Peter M. Lewis
Senior Lecturer in Community Media, London Metropolitan University

“I recruited Birgitte Jallov as I knew of her good work. Birgitte’s reputation precedes her! And I wanted someone with a lot of community communication experience. Given Birgitte’s communication for development work, through community radio it was easy to consider recruiting her!Birgitte’s involvement in UNECA’s tele-innovation centre project has led to awareness on community communications by policy-makers. For instance, since the training she conducted with the community Information centres in Ghana, they have asked for more training and ... specifically requested that they want Birgitte to come back!Birgitte’s commitment to a cause and working for impact is what makes her stand out in the crowd. I was conscious of this in Rwanda where you would prefer avoiding the 'politics' of government to working with people, using communication to empower them! Which is a great strength to have! Furthermore there are three qualities that personify Birgitte: Passion, commitment, and dedication.

I would warmly recommend Birgitte as an adviser, coach and facilitator to other UN agencies wanting to work at the grassroot level, particularly pursuing a communication for development agenda and also those working on women and gender issues.”  

Aida Opoku-Mensah
Director, Science and ICT,  UNECA, Addis Abeba

"I recruited Birgitte Jallov to design a communication and knowledge management strategy for a voice and accountability programme in Health in Uganda, where Birgitte highlighted the importance of clear easily understood communications and how community radio can be used as a force of empowerment. Birgitte brings to a team space to see things develop with patience – and an empowering approach combined with being clear in thinking.  We would like to integrate Birgitte to much of our work. This will particularly apply in relation to voice and accountability programmes, but also to other aspects of our work as communications and knowledge management approaches are so important!"

Lydia Richardson
Director, Triple Line Consulting Ltd, London

"I have worked and collaborated with Birgitte Jallov in various contexts over the years – I was a consultant to her excellent and ambitious media project in Mozambique back in 2002,  and we have for years worked in Danish media and communication fora, jointly advancing the community media and the communication for social change agendas. More recently I have had the pleasure of inviting her to speak at our 2011 Ørecomm Festival which focused on social media in development cooperation. Birgitte delivered a highly competent, energetic, inspiring, and very interesting presentation. It combined her long-standing and authoritative experience with community media, with the emerging agendas posed by the dynamic developments with internet and social media. Her presentation, ‘How Can the Internet and Social Media Contribute to Community Communication for Empowerment?’ was published in the publication that was produced following the festival. You can read her contribution here: http://orecomm.net/2012/social-media-in-development-communication/I am glad to see Birgitte pull together her vast experience and putting it into her EMPOWERHOUSE initiative,a community media oriented platform, network and forum, which I wish her all the best of success with."

Thomas Tufte
Professor, University of Roskilde, Denmark

"Of the many conferences I’ve hosted, I can say that Birgitte is among the best in her field. <…> Birgitte … could lead panel discussions with world experts, and facilitate thoughtful participation by a diverse audience. I would be pleased to work with her on all my conferences!"

Richard E. Stern
Lead Officer, Business Taxation Program, International Finance Corporation, World Bank Group, Vienna Austria

"Birgitte Jallov has a lifetime of experience working with community radios in many parts of the world, and the rich examples from the chapters of her book “EMPOWERMENT RADIO – Voices building a community” made her online training course on “How to turn voices into community change” a very valuable introduction to the real, practical world of community radio. Together with the chapters from her book, her inspired audio lectures and additional cases shared in the modules made ‘community radio’ live to me, with a clear development and empowerment perspective.

As a master student I have studied Journalism and International Development for three years and international social science for two years, and I feel quite well equipped theoretically. But his 7-week training course gave me a very different perspective at the theories, and things that I believed through my books and discussions at the university, I now understand in a very different way."

Camilla Simonsen
Master Student, Journalism and International Development, Roskilde University Centre, Denmark