The United Nations Asian and Pacific Training Centre for Information and Communication Technology for Development (UN-APCICT) and the Ministry of Information and Communications (MoIC) of the Royal Government of Bhutan co-organized the Capacity Building Programme on Social Media for Development on 28 October – 04 November 2016 in Thimphu.
APCICT has been supporting the Royal Government of Bhutan in promoting the use of social media for development and governance. In April 2015, the Centre conducted a series of briefing sessions for the country’s leaders, including the Prime Minister, Cabinet Ministers and senior level officials, on how to leverage social media for development and how to develop a social media policy.
In January 2016, the Royal Government of Bhutan officially adopted its social media policy for government. Since then, MoIC has been undertaking awareness-raising activities to enhance understanding among civil servants on social media and governance as well as how to effectively implement the country’s social media policy. APCICT assisted MoIC by providing customized capacity development workshops for the country’s government leaders and civil servants using the Centre’s Academy Module 11 on Social Media for Development.
The five day programme consisted of a high-level briefing session for members of Bhutan’s National Council; one-day training for senior-level government officials; and a two-day workshop for information and media officers on social media for development and governance and social media policy implementation.
APCICT also provided advisory service to MoIC to review and enhance the Ministry’s monitoring tools for social media.
