Bhutan Democracy Forum foreshadows Media influence on upcoming General Elections
On January 13th, just before the fourth general elections, the 2023 Bhutan Democracy Forum on Media and Elections brought together a diverse group of 50 participants from the parliament, local governments, political parties, media and the government.
Key point of discussion that emerged was the importance of collaborations between government agencies, civil society organisations, and technology firms in the battle against misinformation and disinformation during elections. The forum also addressed the challenges in accessing reliable information that undermines the media's role in informing the public.
Additionally, it shed light on the ill-preparedness of youths to actively participate in democratic processes, emphasising the need for informed decision-making when selecting their representatives.
Inclusive and Participatory Planning for LG leaders of Samdrup Jongkhar
In collaboration with the Samdrup Jongkhar Initiative (SJI), BCMD has extended its capacity building efforts to foster participatory and inclusive processes in local government consultation and planning to the Samdrup Jongkhar local government administrators and elected leaders.
This collaborative effort aims to transform and empower the local government, fostering community-driven decision-making and inclusive planning processes for a more sustainable and inclusive community development..
GNH - Based Participatory Planning for the Local Leaders of Samdrup Jongkhar
Building on the success of the Training of Trainers (TOT) held at Jigme Namgyel Engineering College (JNEC) in Dewathang in May, BCMD continued its mission to empower local leaders in Samdrup Jongkhar in July with a group of 40 local government leaders and municipal officials.
The participants recognised the usefulness of the GNH-based participatory planning toolkit in identifying community issues and ensuring inclusivity during the planning processes.
Langchenphu Gup (elected local leader) shared that the GNH-Based planning toolkit provided him with the means to address community issues through productive discussions and recommendations, fostering unity among local leaders for the greater good.
In closing remarks, Dasho Dzongrab of Samdrup Jongkhar Dzongkhag, highlighted the substantial advantages of this workshop for local leaders, especially with the imminent arrival of the 13th five-year plan. The workshop's impact was evident, as leaders shifted their focus from infrastructure development to address the social issues impacting their communities and the well-being of their people. Dasho also expressed joy at witnessing the enthusiastic participation of several youths in the workshop, highlighting the importance of engaging the younger generation in community development.
Strengthening Good Governance and an Inclusive Democracy
On May 23rd and 24th, 2023, BCMD conducted twol focus group discussions at the Paro College of Education, bringing together 12 participants from diverse backgrounds. The group included women, educators, and members of the Local Government.
These discussions hold significant importance as they provide critical input to BCMD's civic resources aimed to strengthen good governance and promote inclusive democracy.
Evolution of Democracies – A Talk with Educators
The engaging talk at the Paro College of Education, attended by over 45 teachers, delved into the historical evolution of democracy in Western countries. It highlighted the indispensable role of education and media in nurturing and sustaining democracy.
Empowering CSOs for Effective Policy Advocacy
During the 4-day policy advocacy workshop, jointly organised by BCMD and BMF, 20 enthusiastic officials from various civil society organisations (CSOs) in Bhutan came together with a shared passion for driving positive change through policy advocacy.
During the workshop, one participant, representing the Bhutan Taxi Association, highlighted the urgent challenge faced by electric vehicle drivers due to inadequate charging stations. He expressed optimism, as the workshop provided him with valuable insights and approaches to address this pressing issue.
Another participant from Global Shapers found the workshop to be truly eye-opening. The diverse range of tools and techniques in policy advocacy broadened her understanding of how advocacy can be effectively employed to create a positive and lasting change in society.
Links:
The Druk Journal Conversation on Local Government
The Druk Journal Conversation on “Local Government” was held on 7th December. Students, faculty, political party representatives, local government officials, CSO members, government officials, and members of the media attended the conversation.
The Country Director of Helvetas highlighted the complexities for decision-makers when “efficiency and cost reduction,” a pragmatic approach to consolidating gewogs (counties) comes in conflict with the history and cultural identity of communities.
In light of the current state of the economy, a media person proposed how Local Governments can play a role in promoting tourism in the country.
A lecturer of The Royal Thimphu College shared how a supposed apolitical forum at the Local Government level — Dham Ngoi Zomdue — has become political in practice and signs of corruption are emerging at the grassroots.
Capacitating CLCS Students to Engage with Local Government
A 4-day training on GNH-based community analysis tools was organised by BCMD for the College of Language and Culture Studies. Thirty-five CLCS students participated in the training.
The training was organised to equip the students with the skills of planning, understand the importance of data and to reflect on their role in community planning and development.
After completing the training, a BHS second-year student, shared “I never felt my input as a youth was vital for the community’s development. I will look for ways to participate and contribute to my community so that all the youths in my community are heard and represented.”
Youth Summit in Eastern Bhutan
31 youth from four different schools in Trashigang took part in a five-day learning experience where they explored their roles as youth in their community, discussed issues that affect their generation, and learned how to get involved in the development of their community. The Summit shed light on how to engage young people in the decision-making processes and empower them to participate as active members in their community’s development
A student of Udzorong Central School said “I never assessed Public Services and was unsure how to rate them as I never reflected on it. However, now I am aware of public services in our own community and how to analyse them; I can use this lens to learn about these services and also assess them to provide feedback to the elected leaders.”
The Summit highlighted the importance of young people and adults working together towards a common goal on community development.
Bhutan Democracy Forum - Media influence on upcoming General Elections
On the eve of the fourth general elections, the 2023 Bhutan Democracy Forum on Media and Elections was held on 13th January. The forum was attended by 50 participants including a member of the parliament, local government leaders, political parties, government officials and media personnel.
The forum highlighted collaborations between government agencies, civil society organisations and tech firms as a key to fighting misinformation and disinformation during elections.
The forum highlighted challenges in accessing information that undermines the mandate of the media to inform the public and the ill-preparedness of youths to partake in democratic processes aside from making informed choices of their representatives.
Youth Initiative: Learn about Child Rights
For the first time, children with disabilities and monks attend the Youth Initiative Camp with other young people (a total of 21) to learn about their rights and responsibilities and become advocates for child rights.
“I was unaware of my rights, but joining the Camp helped me understand them better. Now I will take the responsibility to share my learning with my friends at school,” shared a student from Yangchen Gatshel Higher Secondary School.
The students from Wangsel Institute of Deaf shared that it was insightful to listen to young people sharing their perspectives on matters concerning them and to have the opportunity to contribute to the discussion.
#PeopleCentredPolicy Advocacy Event
The #peoplecentredpolicy advocacy event brought to light stories of discrimination in the workplace, inequalities in education, information and public services for persons with disabilities, gender inequality, and social reintegration issues faced by people with disabilities, women, youth recovering from addiction, caregivers, and the LGBTQIA+ community.
One mother of a child with autism shared the social and economic burden on caregivers who are usually the mothers and appealed for better integration and transition to higher education, and schemes and benefits for children with disability.
A deaf instructor shared hurdles in accessing information which affect the provision of quality education for them. Similarly, a trans-woman shared how her community members face harassment and discrimination at school and workplace.
Representatives of marginalised groups highlighted inadequacies in policy execution during their discussions with policymakers.
The event was attended by over 100 people, including the Finance Minister, members of parliament, government officials, development partners, and representatives of civil society organisations, and members from SOEs. The guests present at the event expressed feeling emotional and empathetic listening to the stories and yet at the same time appreciating the confidence in the representatives as they advocated for their own cause.
The social media advocacy campaign had a total views of 4,19,415.
Together with Children - For Children’s Rights
A total of 12 children from vulnerable sections of the population (children in conflict with law and children in difficult circumstances) were oriented to children rights and responsibilities and were consulted, with informed consent, to help BCMD understand the status of child rights and challenges.
Most children highlighted the importance of parental care and support in their development and most children came from broken families or those with alcohol problems.
To supplement the country sate report on the child rights landscape in Bhutan further consultations with different groups of children and a camp will be conducted this summer.
(A participant sharing their experience through the River of Life Activity)
Links:
Empower Bhutan's Citizens to Engage in Democracy (#21600)
Transforming Planning Processes at the Grassroots
The highland communities of Merak and Lumang in Trashigang brought community residents beyond the regular “head of the family” to discuss community development needs. The consultation used the Gross National Happiness-Based (GNH) Participatory Planning Toolkit of BCMD which provided multiple lenses to co-investigate community issues in an inclusive setting.
A local leader from the Lumang community stated that it was the first of its kind in the region and helped the community ideate new developmental plans.
The year ended with a 5-day Training of Trainers (ToT) on GNH-Based Participatory Planning and Community Analysis with 12 diverse participants from Trashigang and Monger on 26th November 2022.
Check Kuensel’s article on the event: https://kuenselonline.com/gnh-based-planning-for-lgs/
A Collaborative Policy Review for Social Protection
Over twenty public officials and civil society organisation members representing vulnerable groups (women, People With Disabilities, LGBT+ and youth) underwent a week-long training of trainers (ToT) workshop on Design Thinking.
A mental health worker remarked, “As a civil servant, we rely on our experience and qualification to develop policies, but this doesn’t necessarily encompass the experiences of the vulnerable groups. The Design Thinking workshop made me realise how dangerous it is to look at the world from our desks alone.”
Following the ToT, in October, close to seventy participants from vulnerable groups - women, people with disabilities, single mothers, recovering addicts, and LGBTI community members - including government officials attended a week-long workshop to look at social protection issues through Design Thinking processes.
On the last day of the workshop, a participant shared that the workshop was an ‘awakening’ experience for her as she got to hear lived experiences of PWDs, youth and women and it made her understand the purpose of her work.
Bringing Youth to the Centre Stage
The 2022 Youth Summit focused on promoting child-friendly local governance. Thirty-two youths and 12 local leaders, including district administrators, attended the 5-day Youth Summit in Tsirang. The Summit saw the budding of a trusting relationship between the Local Government leaders and the young participants.
Check out this article by Kuensel covering the event: Empowering youth to build child-friendly LG | Kuensel Online.
Here is the link to the news covered by Bhutan Broadcasting Service (Dzongkha news: 1:11:36 – 1:14:55 English news: 3:14:35 – 3:17:58)
Tendrel- a Citizen Engagement Platform was launched on October 15th to crowdsource citizen views on pertinent issues. Kickstarting the platform, over 4,436 youths and citizens took part in a poll on “How should Bhutan balance economic development and environmental conservation?”
Nurturing a Media-literate Society
Cyberbullying, phishing, misinformation and personal data breaches are growing concerns in the digital world. Forty-two local leaders from Thimphu and Paro attended a 3-day workshop to raise awareness on such issues and to prepare the local communities to navigate the digital world more safely.
Thirteen participants including Members of the Parliament, Assistant Research Officers, and officials from constitutional agencies received a three-day workshop on media and democracy literacy. An official from the government agency surmised, “Information as a public good is essential for making decisions. However, when authoritative sources do not engage the media, the danger is the consumption of misinformation and disinformation by the masses.”
Nurturing Democratic Student Representatives
Democracy is best taught when it is lived. To infuse the school culture with democratic values, BCMD organised a “Nurturing Student Representatives” workshop for middle and high school teachers of nine schools.
One key takeaway for many participants was that student leaders are more than information disseminators and it is necessary to involve them in decision-making in school activities. Referring to the workshop developed for schools, a participant noted that “the workbook is the immediate resource that will help them ‘materialise’ the democratic culture in schools, and prepare students for the future”.
Strengthening decentralised planning at the Local Government level
As the planning process for the 13th Five Year Plan commences by mid 2022, 61 LG office bearers and community residents from Thimphu, Paro and Trashigang are equipped with community analysis tools and facilitation skills. A planning officer noted how the tools would be useful in gathering the ‘actual needs’ of the people and enable a shift from the current infrastructure focused developmental plans to addressing social issues. A Tshogpa from Genkha remarked on the timeliness of the training as 22 out of 44 participants were newly elected members.
Conversation on “Democracy Today”
Keeping up with the biannual publication of The Druk Journal, two Suja Dzaw Conversations were held on the theme ‘Democracy Today’. The Conversation’s attendees involved a diverse group that included the political parties and the media. The Conversation discussed a wide range of topics from political ideology to the teaching of civics in the Bhutanese Education system and democracy as a means to realise Gross National Happiness:
Looking towards equitable growth after pandemic
As the country emerges from the whirlwinds of the pandemic, the Bhutan Democracy Form 2022 was organised on the theme “Equitable Prosperity through Inclusive Growth.”
The Forum deliberated on numerous and pressing issues such as the need to stabilise the volatility of Bhutan’s economy, diversify the economy from hydropower that is vulnerable to climate change, and the need to invest in R&D to forecast economic opportunities and shocks.
About 130 participants from government agencies, political parties, civil society organisations, the media, academic institutions and schools attended the Forum.y
Links:
Teach one, Reach all - Multiplier Effect of Teachers
BCMD conducted training for over 150 teachers from 5th January to 23rd March on media and democracy literacy. The in-person and virtual training included teachers from Tsirang, Thimphu and Tashigang districts from both public and private schools. The sessions included how to verify information in an age of infodemic, safe and responsible use of social media as online learning becomes the new normal during the pandemic, how to distinguish fake from real news and so on.
The teacher participants prepare to conduct in-school professional development sessions to spread media literacy and start media clubs in the schools.
Youth Engagement for Inclusive Decision making
The winter camp of Youth Initiative 2022 began in January with 26 youths deliberating on the theme of climate change. The youths identified mitigation and adaptation strategies to tackle climate change. These solutions from the youths are uploaded on Youth Conversations Platform, a digital platform, to crowdsource ideas and seek citizen views on the poll question, "What can Bhutan do to tackle Climate Change?" The findings of the poll would contribute to informing programmatic decisions for parliamentarians and policy-makers.
Continuing to put the youth at the heart of our discussion, 46 teachers, youth and members of civil society joined the Suja Dzaw conversation in December to talk about the role of the youth in tackling climate change, children in difficult circumstances and what our youth learn.
In the same month, BCMD supported Camp Rural Urban Friendship (RUF) with 130 copies of Jurwa: Changing times (parts 1 & 2) - a graphic novel on Bhutan’s transition to democracy. The novel follows the difficulties and triumphs of the protagonist, a young civil servant, as he aspires to stand for a seat in the parliament.
“I finished both Jurwa novels in one day. I liked the book because it followed the story of a youth who wanted to do something that usually adults are seen doing. I learnt that women and youth should also stand for elections and that they are equally qualified to become leaders of our country”, shared a high school student at the Camp.
Cultivating a civic mindset and civic action
Civic education is vital to democratic forms of government. It equips and empowers citizens with the agency to influence and shape society and be active in democratic processes. The ongoing pandemic demonstrates the complex nature of social issues that require different sectors, organisations and individuals to join forces for effective responses. To contribute to shaping a democracy that serves Bhutan’s needs, BCMD organised a webinar on Cultivating Civic Mindset and Civic Action on 25th March 2022.
Over 800 people from diverse backgrounds – secondary and tertiary educators, students, policymakers, district administrators, local and international NGOs along with engineers & planners, police officers and doctors – and from all over Bhutan registered for the webinar.
With perspectives from international and national academia and practitioners from the school and civil society contexts, the webinar shed light on the status of civic education in Bhutan and how to harness it to address societal needs. The webinar also called attention to the role of parents in developing a civic mindset and how it is related to spiritual practices.
Links:
Project reports on GlobalGiving are posted directly to globalgiving.org by Project Leaders as they are completed, generally every 3-4 months. To protect the integrity of these documents, GlobalGiving does not alter them; therefore you may find some language or formatting issues.
If you donate to this project or have donated to this project, you can recieve an email when this project posts a report. You can also subscribe for reports without donating.
Support this important cause by creating a personalized fundraising page.
Start a Fundraiser
Make a monthly donation & get 
