The BBC World Service Trust joined forces with London’s Southbank Centre and the BBC World Service for an evening that combined debate and drama in a show of support for the Millennium Development Goals.
In September, world leaders attended a summit in New York to assess progress on eight UN MDGs adopted 10 years ago and renew efforts to meet them by 2015. With just five years to go to achieve the development objectives, many goals – including those relating to women’s development – are lagging behind their targets.
In the week prior to the summit, a special edition of BBC World Service interactive discussion programme World Have Your Say examined issues around the role of women in development. In a debate broadcast from the Southbank Centre, BBC listeners, along with a live audience, discussed the role played by women in achieving the UN’s development targets.
Through our dramas, our debates and our radio and TV programmes we follow the BBC tradition to ‘inform, educate, and entertain’
Following the debate, a reception co-hosted by the BBC World Service Trust explored the role of creativity and drama as tools used to provoke lasting social change, informed by examples from our work around the world.
The event, held in partnership with the Southbank Centre, brought together a range of figures from the arts including theatre directors, actors and representatives of cultural bodies.
The focus was on the role of women and girls in bringing about social change. The central issue considered was the power of innovation and creativity to empower women, reduce child mortality and improve maternal health.
The reception was hosted by Nigerian-born British theatre and film actress Nikki Amuka-Bird.
She said there is an “increasing recognition” of the “critical role of women and girls” in meeting the MDGs to reduce poverty and foster a more equitable world. The actress said the World Service Trust and Southbank Centre were asking people to consider the “the role that creativity and drama can play in sparking potential and igniting social change”.
“I have been privileged to experience, first hand, and witness the power of the dramatic arts to inspire, to comfort, to facilitate debate and bring communities together.”
And Southbank Artistic Director Jude Kelly spoke of the important role played by the arts around the world.
She said: “I am proud to be linked with the BBC World Service Trust.
“I believe in equality of imagination. We all have a need to find a way of expressing ourselves through drama, literature, dance - any method that is in some respect abstract. We don't have to do it professionally but we have the need for it to be done by us, for us or with us.”
Caroline Nursey, Director, BBC World Service Trust, told attendees: “Through our dramas, our debates and our radio and TV programmes we follow the BBC tradition to ‘inform, educate, and entertain’. In doing so we can help people living in some of the poorest parts of the world make choices and find solutions to the challenges they face.”
