YES members meet ‘Shadow Ambassador’ of the Danish Embassy

Selected YES members from TIB-inspired YES groups of Dhaka shared their experiences from the anti-corruption movement with the `Shadow Ambassador of the day 2018’ of the Danish Embassy to Dhaka. During the meet up at TIB head office on 6 February 2018, YES members also engaged in discussion with Mr. Mikael Hemniti Winther, Ambassador of Denmark to Bangladesh.

TIB Executive Director Dr. Iftekharuzzaman welcomed the ‘Shadow Ambassador of the day 2018’ Ms. Sayma Afrin accompanied by the Danish Ambassador to TIB. Followed by the introduction, YES members shared their activities regarding how YES members have been voluntarily contributing to the TIB-led anti-corruption movement. They also shared both the success and challenging sides of stories of their involvement in the movement. Their sharing included challenges they face in creating anti-corruption social awareness in campaigns, day observance highlighting anti-corruption issues, assisting service recipients in selected public service delivery institutions in the sectors of land, health and education through Advice and Information desks (AI Desk), disseminating and encouraging mass citizens through organizing dialogues, debates, improvising theater shows  and how they have been making youth vigilant on resisting corruption by being cautious as they believe in the ways which result changes etc. YES members also highlighted their ongoing effort to informing and educating youth with ethics and values including saying no to corruption

In regard to YES member’s questions on how Denmark has less corruption, the Danish Ambassador shared briefly the journey of Denmark in securing the least-corrupt country status in Transparency International (TI)’s Corruption Perception Index (CPI). To resist corruption, Mr. Mikael Hemniti Winther stressed on two important areas i.e. people’s expectation and entitlement as well as integrity and strong will to defeat the rotten illness like corruption. Citing apolitical and performance and merit-based system of bureaucracy in Denmark, he highlighted importance of role of media in exposing errors of the society. In the fight against corruption, he said it is important to believe in system and the government instead of undermining trust as such approaches may harm the society further. He thanked the YES members for their encouraging stories.

Dr. Iftekharuzzaman praised the contribution of Danish Government to Bangladesh as well as continuing support in Bangladesh’s fight against corruption. Lauding the initiatives of Danish Embassy to reach out the youth of Bangladesh, Dr. Zaman said, each YES member is an anti-corruption ambassador of the youth of Bangladesh and changes are slowly taking places due to their courageous contribution in the movement.

Ms. Sayma Afrin, a student of BUET bagged the opportunity of becoming the ‘Shadow Ambassador of the Day 2018’ through participating in a quiz competition, organized by the Danish Embassy to Dhaka.

Among others, Professor Dr. Sumaiya Khair, Adviser, Executive Management, and Directors of different divisions of TIB attended.

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