Ensuring a culture of democracy and more women in politics in Bhutan

DIPD began its operation in Bhutan in 2011. The overall purpose of the DIPD effort in Bhutan is to strengthen democracy in Bhutan by supporting three constituent initiatives. 

The Bhutan Network for Empowering Women (BNEW) is a vibrant organisation working for women in politics. BNEW has worked hard since 2012 to have more female representation in elected offices and has been capacitating possible women candidates for national and local elections and advocated for structural change. BNEW inspires and capacitate aspiring women candidates for them to be able to run for office, being it either local or national level. BNEW also capacitates women elected for office in local or national assemblies. Moreover, BNEW advocates for female representation in politics through campaigns, journalist sensitization and lobbying. Finally, BNEW also works to strengthen itself as a strong civil society organization.

Overall, the number of elected women in national parliament has gone up from 11% in 2008 to 15.2% in 2018. Though this cannot be attributed alone to the work of BNEW what is noteworthy, is that BNEW has been in touch with- and capacitated most female candidates in the country.

In 2019 BNEW has been the key instigator of the Bhutan Women Parliamentary Caucus (BWPC) and acts as its secretariat. The sole female Minister was elected as its Chairperson. This was a result of various efforts over the past years, including 3 national conferences on Women in Politics in Bhutan. The BWPC comprises all the women MPs from both chambers in parliament, women representatives of political parties, CSOs and the Media.

Bhutan Democracy Dialogue (BDD) is a forum for the four political parties of Bhutan. The forum provides training for party members and facilitates dialogue between the parties. In Bhutan only the two parties with most votes get into parliament as ruling and opposition party, respectively. This is even though the two other parties in the 2018 election got app. 40% of the votes. Thus, the BDD plays an important role in keeping dialogue between the parties inside- and outside parliament. BDD predominantly capacitate party members of the four political parties. Through the partnership with DIPD, the Danish party Green Left is also involved to facilitate exchange activities with Denmark. Moreover, BDD facilitates dialogue activities between the parties.

Bhutan Democracy Dialogue (BDD) has acted as an important dialogue platform for the four political parties and the members of the political parties have participated in numerous trainings, including trainings organized by the Danish party Green Left .

Bhutan Centre for Media and Democracy (BCMD) is an organisation promoting democratic culture in the population, through Democracy Forums and the bi-annual Druk Journal. BCMD makes civic education for the broader public in order to create a stronger sense of democracy in the population.

BCMD has been an important voice in civic education activities related to creating a bigger understanding of democracy in the country. In recent years BCMD held its annual Democracy Forum with participation of the political parties and the journal on democracy in Bhutan, Druk Journal, is highly respected in- and outside Bhutan.