Community Radio Bikrampur 99.2, Deputy Commissioner & District Magistrate of Munshiganj and Bangladesh NGOs Network for Radio and Communication (BNNRC) have honored to receive Participants of the South Asian Workshop on “The Role of Electronic Media in Sustainable Development Goals and Ending Poverty” on 13 November 2017 at Dewbhogh, Munshiganj.

Twenty-eight participants from the broadcasters and affiliates of Afghanistan, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Srilanka and host country are attending the workshop jointly organized by the Asia-Pacific Institute for Broadcasting Development (AIBD) and Bangladesh Television.

Earlier, Hon’ble Information Minister Hasanul Haq Inu has proposed to be called “the year 2020” as the `South Asian Year against Poverty’ and urged media for all-out campaign to bring people out of poverty.

In his speech, as the chief guest, the minister proposed this at the inaugural session of two-day Sub-regional SDG Workshop for Broadcasters on Ending Poverty, have taken place at BTV Conference Hall in Dhaka Wednesday on 13 December 2017.

Principal Coordinator-SDG Affairs of Prime Minister’s Office Mr. Abul Kalam Azad and Information Secretary Mr. Martuza Ahmed spoke as special guests while AIBD Director Mr. Chang Jin and Director General of BTV Mr. S M Haroon-Or-Rashid have delivered the welcome and concluding speech respectively.

Mr. Hasanul Haq Inu said, `The European Union had observed 2010 as `European Year against Poverty’. He urged that South Asia should better be late than never, to observe 2020 as South Asian Year against Poverty.’

`Let all South-Asian nations work together, involving respective media, and come up with specific roadmaps by 2020 and join together to uproot poverty ahead of the SDG timeline of 2030’, he added.

The minister said, `The role of broadcasters have grown over time and they are playing a key role in making people’s mindset. They must focus on achieving prosperity void of poverty and discrimination and building a democracy void of terrorism.’

In a 10-point charter, the Information Minister urged broadcasters to sensitize society more on poverty, promote social economy, advocate politics of zero-poverty, emphasize gender balance in education and work, address climate change and disaster risk factors causing poverty, open public forum utilizing the social media, treat poverty reduction stories with glory, train journalists on addressing poverty, engage media specialists for playing stronger role on ending poverty and to shed light on works of state and non-state actors for poverty eradication.

The United Nations launched the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development with a set of 17 goals and 169 targets in September 2015. The 14thAsia Media Summit was held in Qingdao, China on 6-7 June 2017 and passed the Qingdao Declaration on Media and the World’s Sustainable Development.

Sustainable Development Goal 1 – No Poverty will be the focus of this workshop in tandem with Bangladesh’s aspiration to cut poverty in a half to 15% by 2020.

As an inter-governmental organization focused on the capacity-building of broadcasters across the Asia-Pacific region, the Asia-Pacific Institute for Broadcasting Development (AIBD) takes cognizance of the influential role of media as a vital stakeholder in advocating the visions of SDGs.

Media has the ability to disseminate the messages on SDGs by shaping public opinion and also garnering their support in the implementation of national and international development policies.

Hence, the two-day workshop aims to engage news broadcasters and programmers to enhance their knowledge on SDGs and help them to further realize media’s role in communicating messages and information on SDGs with the special focus on Ending Poverty.

Objectives of the workshop are to: Have a broad outline of the SDGs and their role in conveying development policies of relevant authorities on poverty eradication; Highlight the various strategies adopted by government agencies, NGOs and civil society on poverty reduction; Analyze successful cases of SDGs implementation on poverty reduction; and Incorporating SDGs messages and promotion in content production for public consumption.

Workshop contents focus on the Sustainable Development Goals as inspired by the United Nations particularly SDG1 – No Poverty. Session 1 and 2 of the workshop features achievement of the SDGs in Bangladesh thus far from the perspectives of UN bodies and World Bank. News professionals are given a better understanding of the issues as spelt out in Agenda 2030 and treatment ideas.

Session 3 – 8 involve Bangladesh Planning Commission, relevant ministries, micro-financing on SDGs by Grameen Bank, and SDG Union in localizing the SDGs in Bangladesh with an innovative community-led approach. Case study of successful SDGs project will be highlighted and discussed.

Session 9 – Ideas on translating the SDG1 to be incorporated in broadcasting content production will be shared.

Profile of Participants is Head of News Department, Broadcast Journalists, Programme and Documentary Producers from major TV and Radio broadcasting organizations;

Outcomes of the workshop are- Participants upon completion of the workshop would have a better understanding about SDGs from the various experts who can help contextualize these stories. With the knowledge acquired, the participants could later produce programme or special new reports on SDGs towards the 2030 Agenda based on their countries’ perspectives for public consumption.

The outcomes to be expected include the program like Public Service Announcements, radio magazines, television documentaries, talk shows on radio and television and also the launch of media campaigns in their respective member countries.

The delegates included Mr. Chang Jin, Director of Asia-Pacific Institute for Broadcasting Development (AIBD), Ms. Monica Phang. Program manager of AIBD and Mr. Surath Kumar Sarker, Deputy Director General of Bangladesh Television. During the visit, they interacted in a lively warm session with Radio broadcasters in the meeting room of Radio Bikrampur. Before the station, they visited a women group of AMBALA Foundation in line with SDGs localization.

The interactive session started with the briefing on the activities of Radio Bikrampur by Mr. Shahadat Kamal and Mr. Md. Arif Sikder, Executive Director of Ambala Foundation.

Mr. Sikder told that Radio Bikrampur started its journey on 1st may 2012 and finally started broadcasting on 1st September, 2012. The station is managed and supervised by two committees- one is an advisory committee and the other is management committee. In response to several questions on area coverage, audience, programs and its impacts on the community. They informed that the broadcasting area of this station is 17 km.

They have 500 listeners club and about 0.4 million listeners. They are implementing their activities with the cooperation of local Govt. and community. Radio Bikrompur has 3 regular employees and 16 volunteers. Major Program contents are Modern Science, Use of Computer and Technology, Community Development, SDG issue, 10 development agenda by Prime Minister, climate change and disaster, Disadvantaged and other excluded Community Participation (Jele, Bedey, Dalit, Street Children, People with disability, day laborer), Health and Nutrition, Adolescent Reproductive Health, development of Youth and Adolescent, Agricultural Development, Women Development, Promotion of Game (Cricket, Football and other local Game), Promotion of Poem and Poets, Promotion of Local Cultural activities with the participation of local community.

After the visit of community radio Bikrampur, participants have also visited the Deputy Commissioner & District Magistrate of Munshiganj. Ms .Saila Farzana, Deputy Commissioner & District Magistrate of Munshiganj has welcomed the Participants of the South Asian Workshop on Role of Electronic Media in Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and Ending Poverty.