The representatives of the eight resident UN agencies and Bhutanese journalists met in Paro over two days. They interacted to get to know each other better and find common grounds to collaborate and work together in promoting and achieving the development goals of the country.
The One United Nations Media Workshop was the first such initiative to bring together the UN agencies and the media to build and promote partnership between the two.
The Director of the United Nations Information Centre for India and Bhutan, Derk Segaar, was the workshop facilitator. He also led a session on development journalism for the journalist participants.
Derk Segaar says media, of course, is independent but there is a lot of space for partnership between the United Nations and the media.
“The United Nations work a lot on the ground with communities. They have access to data and information. It is very important that this doesn’t stay with policy discussion,” he says.
“The UN is very keen to work in partnership with the media to provide information to raise issues that are of potential concern to Bhutan and also to celebrate big successes.”
The media communicating such information will help to make the Bhutanese people aware of all the facts, figures and complex realities surrounding the issues that affect their lives.
The One United Nations Media Workshop, a first of its kind, was initiated by the UN in Bhutan in collaboration with the Journalists Association of Bhutan (JAB).
The UN Resident Coordinator, Gerald Daly, said such partnership has become urgent. He says it would create a win-win situation for the government, the UN and journalism in Bhutan.
In the case of UN, he said, the media closely following the activities of the UN would give them the much needed accountability.
“The United Nations, over the five year, will be responsible for bringing in as much as $120 M. So, that’s a significant amount of resources but in order for us to be doing truly great work, we need to be accountable,” he said.
“That’s why, for example, we come up with Country Result Report for 2017 where we show how we are accountable not only to the government of Bhutan but also to the people.”
The workshop also explored the ways in which the media can play a critical role in helping the government achieve the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
There are 17 UN SDGs and 169 targets.
They were developed through an unprecedented consultative process that brought national governments and millions of citizens from across the globe together to negotiate and adopt the ambitious agenda.
The SGDs are bold universal agreement to end poverty in all its dimensions and craft an equal, just and secure world for the people, planet and prosperity by 2030.
The UN says the Bhutanese media can play a vital role in ensuring the government meets the ambitious SDGs by 2030.
Some of ways in which the media can play its role are by informing people about SDGs, efforts being made to achieve them and tracking their progress.
The workshop also provided a space for the participants to connect on a personal level for better professional partnership.
