Bee the Solution! initiative chosen as educational program best supporting the implementation of the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals
Bee the Solution! – a Hungarian innovation
It is the first time a Hungarian program received the Global Contribution Award on the Golden World Awards, and became the educational campaign best supporting the implementation of the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals worldwide. The cross-border Bee the Solution! initiative draws attention to the dangers of the destruction of pollinators and the role of beekeepers. One of the most prestigious awards of the International Public Relations Association (IPRA) was presented in Barcelona, the best sustainability campaign was selected from hundreds of entries by the international jury.
Life on Earth is inconceivable without the activities of bees and other pollinating insects. Their contribution is indispensable for the production of seven out of ten foods products, and the value of their work reaches 30 trillion dollars a year. However, due to climate change and the use of agricultural pesticides, pollinators are dying in large numbers worldwide, threatening with a global food disaster. That is why the UN and other international organizations are increasingly taking action to protect biodiversity, including limiting the use of chemicals that are harmful to pollinators.
The Bee the Solution! program is Hungary’s largest pollinator protection program, launched in 2020 by Pressinform communications agency with the cooperation of state and professional organizations, as well as the private sector, with the broad involvement of the Hungarian population. The aim of the program is to draw attention to the mass extinction of bees and other pollinators, to improve the situation of the beekeeping industry, which provides the livelihood of twenty thousand Hungarian families, and encourage domestic honey consumption. The Bee the Solution! program’s message has already reached five million people in recent years.
This initiative was now awarded by the International PR Association: the international professional jury awarded the Global Contribution Award to the Hungarian program out of hundreds of entries. This one of the most prestigious professional recognitions can be awarded to the entry that best promotes the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals. According to the rationale, the Bee the Solution! contributes to achieving two global goals: Zero Hunger and Life on Land.
Many supporters behind the program
The award was presented on Friday at the Golden World Awards gala in Barcelona, the most significant global competition in the international PR industry. This year, campaigns were rewarded in 38 categories, and the two most prestigious awards, the Grand Prize and the Global Sustainability Award, were also presented. The significance of the program’s success is further emphasized by the fact that Bee the Solution! has already won several international and domestic awards, received a prize at the IPRA 2021 regional Golden World Awards competition, and was selected as one of the four best programs in Eastern Europe.
One element of the award-winning Bee the Solution! program is Europe’s largest exhibition titled “Buzzing in the Museum,” which opened at the Hungarian Natural History Museum in 2022. The exhibition, which is still open for visitors, uses numerous illustrative tools to introduce visitors to the mysteries of the world of bees and other pollinators, the secrets of honey production, including spectacular animated films, a car-sized bee, and an air-conditioned beekeeping demonstration room. The exhibition has been visited by approximately 150,000 people.
As part of the Bee the Solution! program, Pressinform organized a nationwide kindergarten drawing contest, in which 3-7-year-old children could demonstrate the importance of bees in their lives using their own tools. Every sixth kindergarten in Hungary and forty settlements beyond the borders were represented in the competition, and the children submitted a total of 6,300 drawings.
The Bee the Solution! program is organized by the Pressinform PR agency on behalf of the Pannon Értéktár, the National Hungarian Beekeeping Association, and the Hungarian Natural History Museum. Here is a video of the program:
About previous awards of the Bee the Solution! program
The Bee the Solution! program has won multiple important domestic and international awards. At the IPRA 2021 regional Golden World Awards, it received the main award in the category of supporting urgent action against climate change and its effects, and it was also selected as one of the four best programs in Eastern Europe.
In 2022, at the Apimondia International Apicultural Congress, two of the program’s books were awarded: the cookbook by Magdi Rúzsa and József Vida, “Buzzing in the Kitchen…” received a silver medal. Adél Várszegi’s storybook for preschoolers, “Buzzing along woods and meadows” won a bronze medal.
The Bee the Solution! program won the “Best environmental responsibility” category of the CSR Hungary Award 2021 competition, and was recognized with a special award for environmental issues at the Good Doing CSR Award in 2021.
We wrote HERE that Hungarian honey was promoted in Strasbourg, while in THIS article, we summed up how Hungary would like to protect the Hungarian honey.