Community Media development-related ICT initiative of Bangladesh NGOs Network for Radio and Communication (BNNRC) has recognized as a Champions in prestigious UN World Summit on the Information Society (UN WSIS) Prizes 2021 and made Bangladesh proud in the World Platform. The award was distributed through an online platform from the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) Headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland on 19 May 2021.
The champion project title is COVID-19: Education through Community Radio in Bangladesh under the UN WSIS category of Category 15: Cultural diversity and identity, linguistic diversity, and local content.
Brief of the champion project is; BNNRC has been mobilizing all community radio stations for broadcasting awareness-building programs on COVID-19 from March 2020. Major focuses are;
Enhance the capabilities of affected communities through an equity lens, Focus on enhanced capabilities of Broadcasters and Stakeholders for exercising new, Normal, Accelerate of ICT applications for benefitting community people in all aspects of life, and Effective public access to reliable and timely information through ICT and media for countering infodemic
The initiative was to raise the awareness of the community people living in the rural areas from March in three phases including raising awareness on COVID-19 Pandemic and adapting the affected people to the new normal situation through raising the voices of disadvantaged community through access to Information and Communication Technology and community media to influence local administration and policymakers. In addition, to keep lives and livelihoods normal countering misinformation, disinformation, and mal-information and to protect the health of 1,000 broadcasters working with Community Radio.
The WSIS Forum represents the world’s largest annual gathering of the ‘ICT for development’ multi-stakeholder community and is a global multi-stakeholder platform facilitating the implementation of the WSIS Action Lines for advancing sustainable development. The platform provides an opportunity for information exchange, knowledge creation, and sharing of best practices while identifying emerging trends and fostering partnerships.
UN WSIS Prizes honor outstanding projects that leverage the power of information and communication technology (ICT) to accelerate socio-economic development. Besides the highlighted relevance of the project to the respective WSIS Action Line as referenced in the Geneva and Tunis Plan of Action, the selection process was based on the project’s impact on the community and linkages with the Sustainable Development.
WSIS Prizes has been recognizing remarkable efforts made by entities and organizations from around the globe that focus on accelerating the socio-economic progress of the whole world as a community. Out of 1,270 nominated ICT success stories from around the world, following a comprehensive review by the Expert Group of 360 projects submitted by the WSIS Stakeholders’ community for online voting, WSIS Expert Group has reviewed more than 1.3 million votes and finally selected 90 champion projects from all over the world.
It would be mentioned that BNNRC first won the WSIS Award in 2016 as the winner and champion of 2017, 2019, 2020, and 2021. BNNRC has been chosen for this award on account of its creative thinking, critical analysis, strong media development leadership, and exceptional innovation of media & community media sector contributing towards voices of the voiceless people at national, regional and international level.
About BNNRC:
BNNRC’s approach to media development is both knowledge-driven and context-sensitive, and it takes into account the challenges and opportunities created by the rapidly changing media environment in Bangladesh including community radio development giving voices for the voiceless in line with shaping the Future of Media, Information & Entertainment in the Era of the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4th IR) in Bangladesh. www.bnnrc.net
