February eNews
The 46th Board meeting for Bhutan Centre for Media and Democracy (BCMD) was held on 15 February. The COVID-19 pandemic brought most activities and events to a standstill in 2020. However, BCMD adapted its training and activities to ensure we were still providing to our constituents by strictly adhering to the COVID-19 protocols. Here are some highlights of 2020:
Reimagining Bhutan: Building Forward Better Beyond COVID Policy Brief
With the submission of the 21st Century Economic Roadmap and the issuance of the Royal Kashos, the policy brief from BCMD and UNDP’s Reimagining Bhutan series has never been more timely and relevant. The series seized the opportunity provided by the pandemic to reflect and recommend bold policy suggestions on themes of governance, technology, economy, environment, education and social protection by drawing on the knowledge of experts and local non-governmental thought leaders. The policy brief provides recommendations which the partner organisations believe will help address the drastic changes and reformations taking place in the country.
You can access the policy brief here: http://bcmd.bt/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/Policy-Brief.pdf
Bhutan Democracy Forum
The theme for Bhutan Democracy Forum 2021 – Being “apolitical” in democratic Bhutan – seeks to open the space for a discourse on several interconnected questions around ‘apoliticalness’.
The Bhutan Democracy forum will bring together political parties, civil servants, civil society, media and the private sector into a conversation to deepen the understanding of the concept, its rationale and interpretation of the term to contribute to strengthening Bhutan’s young democracy.
As democracy is in recession in many countries today, what has Bhutan’s journey to democracy been like? How vibrant is Bhutan’s democracy? How participatory and engaged is the citizenry? Keeping true to the national goal of strengthening democracy for prosperous, sovereign and harmonious Bhutan, it is imperative to deliberate on such questions and concepts of democracy to seek clarity, dispel misconceptions, and to strengthen the system of democratic governance.
The forum is held in collaboration with the Royal University of Bhutan and funded by DIPD.
Youth Initiative 2021
Building on the momentum of last year where Youth Initiative (YI) members reviewed the National Youth Policy (NYP) and provided their views and perspectives, the upcoming 8th cohort of YI will build awareness on youth issues and realities that emerged as a result of their review. This will be done through advocacy campaigns on both local and national levels.
The 8th YI will begin early March this year with a meeting of the Steering Committee that will deliberate on YI 2021 plan and activities and provide some direction and clarity.
Intro to Photography
2020 was a challenging year for many and there were limited youth engagement opportunities. As the year begins with much optimism Bhutan Centre for Media and Democracy plans to open its Media Lab for 2021 with a 5-day photography training starting from March 11-15 at. The training is designed for youths to learn the fundamentals of photography techniques and the ethics of photography capturing different stories from the pandemic.
For enquiries and registration, contact ugyenlhamo@bcmd.bt or 327903.
Community Mapping for Local Leaders
Local leaders play a pivotal role in facilitating and delivering the concerns of the citizens to the decision-makers therefore, the Bhutan Centre for Media and Democracy will offer a series of workshops in the upcoming month to build the capacity of local leaders and gewog administrators.
The capacity-building workshops are designed to help local leaders and administrators develop community development plans based on inclusive public consultation and democratic decisions. The first training on community mapping is from March 18-21.
This training is supported by the Asia Foundation.