For the Southern Africa Institute for Media Entrepreneurship and Development (SAIMED), 2006/2007 was another challenging year. Since SAIMED’s formation in 2002, the organisation had concentrated on media outreach programmes. During the year under review, it became clear that SAIMED, MISA’S media development arm, also needed to look inwardly to preserve itself. What had SAIMED achieved in the past four years? What impact had it made and what challenges lay ahead? How relevant were SAIMED’s mission and vision? How formidable were the private and community media that had participated in SAIMED entrepreneurial interventions? What should SAIMED be focusing on as it moved forward? SAIMED began tackling these issues with a view to attaining a more harmonious course between entrepreneurial outreach and organisational sustainability. The institute’s existence is based on the belief that the private and community media it serves contribute not only to the quicker democratisation of southern Africa, but also anchor its tenets for the good of all. Compared to mainstream media, particularly those with Western influences, community and private media are well placed for SAIMED: while they operate in a regulated environment, they exist where and when they want, for whom they want, on whatever scale of operation they want – by radio, internet, localised newspaper, video distribution or television transmissions. On these grounds, SAIMED continued to provide entrepreneurial training and consultancy during 2006, and thus contribute towards the region’s media development, despite the challenges it faced as an organisation. Financial Performance During the year under review, SAIMED continued to record a modest financial position. At the time of writing, the audited report had yet to be released. While the organisation solicited new donor support, three donor partners – The Open Society Institute of Southern Africa (OSISA), Free Voice and Netherlands Institute of Southern Africa (NiZA) – continued to be the main supporters for SAIMED’s entrepreneurial training programmes and to a large extent administration costs, although a few private media enterprises solicited SAIMED’s services and training and met their costs. To this effect, SAIMED had a number of training projects in its portfolio that included the following: Donor Duration Amount Programmes Type of Projects /Countries provided for Amount towards institutional support SAIMED Total Received OSISA One year ending June 30 2007 US$80 472 Private media mentorship – Zimbabwe, Zambia, Lesotho, Malawi, Botswana, Swaziland US$44 772 New offices and training resource room preparation and rent to SAMDEF. US$125 244 Private media in-house training in Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique and Botswana 70 Annual Report 2007