A journalist by training, Mikel Aguirre worked as a radio reporter for the public broadcast of the Basque autonomous region in Spain before joining the UNESCO Jakarta regional office in 2011. He launched the first regional programme on Youth and Civic Engagement, where media played a central role as means to empowering youth and strengthening their voices. Since 2015, Mikel has been working at the UNESCO office in Myanmar where he is leading the organization’s programme on Freedom of Expression. He works closely with the government and journalists to open up a space for independent media as well as  promoting the right to free expression as a critical element of the  democratic transition that Myanmar initiated in 2012 after decades of military rule that kept the country isolated from the rest of the world. Mikel speaks to us about understanding the role of each development partner,  identifying the distinctive advantage of your organization, defending freedom of expression, the importance of collaboration and multilateralism, planting small seeds that can grow over time, the power of the media and the complexities of representation, the need to educate media consumers to become more conscious consumers, UNESCO's funding and organizational structure, the importance of putting more effort in learning about the country you are working in, and much more. He joins us from Yangon, Myanmar. Support the show (https://www.patreon.com/rethinkingdevelopment)