The purpose of this thesis is to examine the conviction of international organisations that consider community radios as an effective tool for economic and human development. Community radios are in fact regarded as a new source of growth to stand up to failing states due to their local presence and ability to broadcast information in local language. They are also representative of a participatory development considered as more effective than the traditional development "top-down" axis. This issue, which is quite recent in theoretical level, is very crucial since successive development policies promoted by states and international organisations have generated disappointments in many developing countries, particularly on the African continent.Due to a lack of theoretical literature in regards to the relationship between community radios development and economic and human development, the field survey was the mainstay of our analysis. We chose to perform the field survey in Senegal for reasons of practicalities and representativeness. Supported by statistics, particularly logistic regressions, and by a summary of a rich theoretical literature on development issues, our analysis convincingly argue that if community radios are a good development tool, their impact is nevertheless currently constrained by a number of limits, including their low budget. Once these limitations are identified, we will put forward proposals to allow community radios to become a truly effective tool for economic and human development while considering cooperatives or promoting the development of radio listening clubs.