An extended meeting of the media coordination group for the promotion of Sustainable Development Goals in Belarus was held in Minsk

December 17, 2019, Minsk hosted the first enlarged meeting of the media coordination group for the promotion of Sustainable Development Goals. The group was established in 2019 by the decision of the Ministry of Information to widely inform the public about the need and mechanisms for achieving sustainable development indicators at the local and national levels.

Alexander Karliukevich, Minister of Information of the Republic of Belarus, in his speech noted the importance attached in Belarus to the implementation of the program to achieve Sustainable Development Goals. “It is difficult to overestimate the role of media in the successful implementation of Agenda 2030. It is not only an information channel. We educate citizens about the possibility to make balanced and responsible decisions and influence the decisions of authorities on the implementation of Sustainable Development Goals,” said Alexander Karliukevich.

Marianna Schetkina, National Coordinator for Sustainable Development Goals, thanked the Minister and the working group for the initiative and its implementation. “The worldview is formed by mass media, which gives us an idea of the processes that take place in society. All states are working to achieve the SDGs, and we have reached such a stage that others also want to learn about our experience. For example, Sweden invited representatives of Belarus to discuss the promotion of Sustainable Development Goals,” said the National Coordinator of Belarus. 

The panel discussion “Contribution of Mass Media to the Promotion of Sustainable Development Goals in the Republic of Belarus” was attended by Aleksei Adashkin, Editor-in-Chief of the Radio Studio of the Representative Office of the MGTRK “Mir”, Aleksandr Bulai, Head of the Department for Main Directions of the information agency “Mogilevskiye Vedomosti”, Veronika Kolosova, Editor-in-Chief of the magazine “Rodnaya Prryroda”, Svetlana Knutova, Deputy Director of the Information Broadcasting Directorate of the Second National Channel, Vitalina Petrusievich, student of the Belarusian State University, and Vadim Scheglov, First Deputy of General Director of “Stolichnoe Televidenie”, who moderated the discussion.

 Participants of the discussion and the extended session discussed how to bring information effectively to involve the public in achieving the SDGs, as well as the impossibility of separating the Sustainable Development Goals from economic issues. Economy is a tool, not a goal, and knowledge of the SDGs allows the development of indicators for strategies and plans. “The Sustainable Development Goals are not pompous words or beautiful wrapping, but specific content. It is impossible to separate the economy from the SDGs,” said Alexander Skrabovsky, Coordinator of the Sustainable Development Partnership Group on interaction with business.

The extended meeting of the group ended with the award ceremony of the winners of the national contest for journalists “From Global Goals to Local Action”, organized in 2019 by the Ministry of Information.