Rezaul Karim Chowdhury, Chairperson of BNNRC Received UN WSIS Champion Prizes 2019Bangladeshi Community radio got international recognition

Community Radio related two Initiatives of Bangladesh NGOs Network for Radio and Communication (BNNRC) have been recognized as Champions in UN World Summit on the Information Society (UN WSIS) Prizes 2019.

Mr. Rezaul Karim Chowdhury, Chairperson of Board of Trustees of BNNRC and Executive Director of COAST Trust has received the UN WSIS champion certificate from Mr. Houlin Zhao, Secretary-General of UN International Telecommunication Union (ITU) on Tuesday 9 April 2019 at a ceremony at Geneva International Conference Centre, Switzerland as part of the annual UN WSIS Forum 2019. International Telecommunication Union (ITU) announced 90 Champions of the prestigious World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) Prizes contest while the 18 Winners, out of these 90 Champions.

The champions projects are: Climate justice and resilience through Community Radio at coastal areas of the Bay of Bengal in Bangladesh, Supported by the COAST Trust, Bangladesh. https://bnnrc.net/climate-justice-resilience/ & Creating Awareness on Right to Information (RTI) through Community Radio, Supported by Friedrich Naumann Foundation for Freedom (FNF), https://bnnrc.net/creating-awareness-on-rti/

WSIS Prizes is a unique international contest developed in response to requests from the WSIS stakeholders to create an effective mechanism to evaluate and recognize individuals, governments, civil society, local, regional and international agencies, research institutions and private-sector companies for outstanding success in implementing development oriented strategies that leverage the power of ICTs as an enabler of the 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. The contest was held for the first time in 2012, and rapidly gained attention and popularity within the ICT for Development (ICT4D) community.

Building upon the outcomes of the United Nations General Assembly Overall Review on WSIS as well as the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, the WSIS Prizes 2016 reflect close linkages with achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The WSIS Prizes contest serves as the platform for identifying and showcasing the success stories across the WSIS Action Lines defined in the Geneva Plan of Action and SDGs. It also provides us with models that can be replicated in the interests of empowering the community at the local level, providing everyone with an opportunity to participate in the contest and, most importantly, recognizing the efforts made by stakeholders to contribute to the development of society and their commitment to achievement of both the WSIS goals and SDGs.

BNNRC is in Special Consultative Status with the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) accredited with World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) of the United Nations. 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.

It would be mentioned that BNNRC won the WSIS Award in 2016 as the winner and champion of 2017. BNNRC has been chosen for this award on account of its creative thinking, critical analysis, strong leadership and exceptional innovation of community media sector contributing towards voices of the voiceless people in rural Bangladesh.

Reported by: Mustafa Kamal Akand, Mobile: 01711455591