Like other countries, as Bhutan seeks to stride better during and beyond the COVID-19 crisis, UNDP Bhutan together with Bhutan Centre for Media and Democracy (BCMD) will launch a Conversation Series on ‘Reimagining Bhutan: Building Forward Better Beyond COVID’.
The conversation series will spark and bring forth new thinking and ideas that would help shape the future of Bhutan’s development. The conversation series will be launched this Thursday and live-streamed on UNDP and BCMD Facebook pages.
The bi-weekly series will bring together leaders, practitioners, and change-makers for five series on various themes critical and relevant to shaping Bhutan’s development amidst the Coronavirus pandemic.
“Now is the time as the government looks into the recovery pathways, what are the so-called no-regret policy choices and investments that we can make. So if we look back to the COVID period 2020, let’s say 20 years from now, we can confidently say that we have taken that opportunity to build a better society for our planet and we have done everything possible to take bold decisions and turned around the system and society altogether. So this platform is really about putting forward these bold solutions and innovations and really rely on the ideas and knowledge of the decision of the Bhutanese society,” said Azusa Kubota, the Resident Representative for UNDP Bhutan.
The UNDP Resident Representative added while there won’t be any resolution or legally binding document unlike the UN conferences, the ideas shared would be registered for the record for decision-makers to look into as they think through the recovery pathways.
The conversation series will also set the course for the future to prepare for recovery and development beyond COVID considering the recent nationwide lockdown the country went through.
“Sharing a very honest observation, I think one major issue that we have is our urban planning. When there is a crisis, we need to think about how we can take care of people and how people still continue to get all the essential services. And the recent nationwide lockdown has taught us this big lesson that we really need to rethink how we do our urban planning and how do we name the streets and make people use it. Since we don’t use it, when the time comes and when an emergency comes, we all go chaotic. So that is one example of an issue that we really need to look at,” said Chencho Lhamu (PhD), the Executive Director for BCMD.
The theme for the Conversation Series I is the Future of Works, Skills, and Education. The panel members will discuss key transformational policy choices and investments that can and must be made to build a more resilient and adaptive 21st-century workforce. The other themes include financing for development and future of the economy, green recovery, anticipatory governance, and social protection.
Sonam Pem
