Bolivia and Mongolia: New Cooperation Projects

In Bolivia, DW-AKADEMIE and the German Development Service (DED) are cooperating on a journalists’ training program. And in Mongolia, DW-AKADEMIE is supporting the restructuring of the national broadcasting service.

It’s a worldwide premiere: In La Paz, DW-AKADEMIE and the German Development Service (DED) have opened their first cooperation office for media development. The local partner in La Paz is Universidad Andina Simón Bolívar. The goal of the cooperation project is to provide expert support to the university’s practice-oriented training and to help professionalize the local media.

“We’re pursuing our aim to get more involved in long-term media development projects with other German development organizations,” said Gerda Meuer, DW-AKADEMIE director, at the opening ceremony. Journalist and trainer Peter Deselaers is the new DED development worker at the university. His job is to coordinate DW-AKADEMIE’s media development projects and to promote journalistic professionalization at the partner organization, Universidad Andina Simón Bolívar.

Support for the Mongolian National Broadcaster

In Mongolia, DW-AKADEMIE has agreed to a new cooperation project with the Mongolian National Broadcaster (MNB). DW-AKADEMIE will support management and staff at the former state broadcaster as it restructures various areas.

The long-term cooperation project will primarily involve consultations during the reorientation of the broadcaster’s management and communication structures. Although MNB was decreed a public broadcaster five years ago, centralized thinking continues to prevail in many areas. According to the MNB management’s formal request to DW-AKADEMIE, the broadcaster urgently needs to strengthen its public information and opinion-forming profile.