National level JCC (Joint Coordination Committee) met for the first time on 5 April on the occasion of the visit of JICA Monitoring Mission from Tokyo.With Mr. Rafiqul Islam, Secretary RDCD in chair,high level officials representing concerned ministries/ departments discussed and recommended on the issues including
(a) overall progress in Project activities for the last 10 months
(b) Plan of Operation for the coming year
(c) partial revision of Project Design Matrix. Those attended were from RDCD, BRDB, ERD, BARD, NILG (LGD), DPHE, Fisheries, Livestock, Primary Education, Youth Development, Social Services, Ansar VDP, NGO Affairs and JICA & JICA Mission.
The JCC found overall activities satisfactory, and recommended that steps should be taken so that Link Model is institutionalized in BRDB's mainstream and widely recognized among GOB departments/ agencies, donor communities, NGOs, local governments and other local bodies.
JICA Monitioring Mission Visit Kalihati Site
Kalihati site received a JICA Tokyo's project management monitoring mission on 03 April 2006. They observed Elenga UCCM, Pukuria Icchapur VCM (Shahadebpur union) and a para-road at Poshna village (Narandia union) which was just completed under VC Scheme. Another program of attending a village gathering for VC formation in a village (Birbashinda union) was given up by a heavy shower they met on the way to the village. At a farm house where they happened to take shelter from the rain, lively conversation with the villagers took place for about an hour.
The mission members were Mr. Hiroshi Sato, IDE Japan (mission leader), Mr. Tetsuo Tsutsui, Shapla Neer Tokyo, Mr. Ken'ichi Matsumoto, JICA Tokyo, and Mr. Kentaro Yokota, DRR, JICA Bangladesh. They shared some information and issues related to PRDP-2 management with Kalihati staff including UDO/O and research staff.
VC Schemes in Kalihati In Kalihati site, seven new VC Schemes have been either completed or underway as of the end of April as shown in the table. They are all para-link-roads. Every one of them has been planned on the basis of the villagers' common interest, designed, cost-estimated, 20% cost-shared and built bottom-up by the respective VC. Our UDO/O as well as LMTC (WTI) instructors assisted the VC in all the processes. 20% cost-sharing and UP tax clearance were made successfully, but UP's cost-sharing is yet to be realized. governance in this region.
Bangra Chairman Advocates Link Model
Mr. Riaz Uddin Ahmed, UP chairman of Bangra union and chairman of Bangladesh Union Parishad Federation, advocated Link Model as a proper approach to the advancement of rural Bangladesh at a meeting of the Federation held at Dhaka on 16 April. "We welcome and wish the movement of PRDP-2 extends all over Bangladesh to ensure economic and social growth in rural Bangladesh", he told the audience at the meeting. He furthered that "I would emphasize that for the sake of villagers, we need to work together". He said a key to success is proper cooperation and coordination among different stakeholders including UP, NBDs, local NGOs and village representatives. Of particular importance is regular and continuous devotion of facilitators, viz., UDO/Os. This is exactly what PRDP has been practicing for the last five years.
VC Schemes in Titash Jagatpur UCCM has approved five more new VC Schemes in February as shown in the table below. By proper contribution and coordination between villagers and PRDP-2 most of the Schemes have already been completed as of April. Villagers' 20% matching contribution has become a norm, but UP contribution to the Scheme is yet to be confirmed..
New JOCV Join
In April 2006, in addition to the present three JOCV, five more JOCV volunteers joined the respective unions. Their name and their working Unions are as follows:
Everyone has had different backgrounds in Japan, but all of them share the same and strong desire: "We wish to do something good for the people." They will render their services for the community people during their two-year term. They might face some difficulties in conducting various activities, but we believe that they would successfully work in cooperation with project staff and villagers. Wish their willingness for serving people bear some fruit at an early date.
Training-cum-study Tour in Japan On invitation of JICA, PRDP-2 sent three project personnel to Japan for one month-long training-cum-study tour from late February. They are Project Director, Assistant Director (Training), and UNO, Kalihati. Director General of BRDB joined them during the last two weeks. They reported respective experiences in Japan at the first PRDP-2 Study Forum held on 27 April. Among them Mr. Mahbubur Rahman, Project Director, gave an impressive observation:
He summarizes the driving force that pushed up social and economic advancement in post-Meiji-Restoration Japan as follows: (a) deliberate decisions taken by a relatively small number of elites following the Meiji Restoration in 1868, (b) guided capitalism, particularly initial investment by the government and then transfered to entrepreneurs, (c) light cottage industries all over the country, (d) social overheads by making rail road and irrigation system, (e) modern educational institutions keeping traditional values, and (f) continuous efforts of developing agriculture and village livelihood. Japan's experience in cultivation of postage-stamp plots of land and rural development efforts offer a great deal of promise and expectation in developing countries like Bangladesh.
His unique observation on the present rural Japan includes the followings:
(1) Local government and rural development system are fully integrated and not separated,
(2) Heavy government subsidy; e.g., 70 staff to serve 2,000 population (Kamikatsu township),
(3) Office layout: one big room accommodating all the staff, instead of separated small rooms, that makes daily communication easier,
(4) Kaizen (outsider-driven improvement) to Mura-okoshi (village development by inherent own initiatives),
(5) Cooperatives: No central registrar, no savings, but bank loan with insurance,
(6) Quality-oriented monitoring rather than quantitative,
(7) Attractive rural Japan with museums, event-based activities, rural area but super-urbanized, rural tourism, women power; 100% women drive cars,
(8) Livelihood improvement programs: e.g., 1-8-8 (daily one egg, eight kinds of vegetables and eight hours sleep), water-based cooking and not oil-based, eliminating kitchen drudgery and up-keeping hygienic sanitation,
(9) Unwritten family law of every family member shares work either outside or at home including children.
To conclude his speech he referred to MD Kennedy: "By external circumstances and the ambitious temperament of her own people, Japan has been obliged to compress into a few decades an economic development which most other industrial nations have spread over at least a century."
Kalihati site received a JICA Tokyo's project management monitoring mission on 03 April 2006. They observed Elenga UCCM, Pukuria Icchapur VCM (Shahadebpur union) and a para-road at Poshna village (Narandia union) which was just completed under VC Scheme. Another program of attending a village gathering for VC formation in a village (Birbashinda union) was given up by a heavy shower they met on the way to the village. At a farm house where they happened to take shelter from the rain, lively conversation with the villagers took place for about an hour.
Mr. Riaz Uddin Ahmed, UP chairman of Bangra union and chairman of Bangladesh Union Parishad Federation, advocated Link Model as a proper approach to the advancement of rural Bangladesh at a meeting of the Federation held at Dhaka on 16 April. "We welcome and wish the movement of PRDP-2 extends all over Bangladesh to ensure economic and social growth in rural Bangladesh", he told the audience at the meeting. He furthered that "I would emphasize that for the sake of villagers, we need to work together". He said a key to success is proper cooperation and coordination among different stakeholders including UP, NBDs, local NGOs and village representatives. Of particular importance is regular and continuous devotion of facilitators, viz., UDO/Os. This is exactly what PRDP has been practicing for the last five years.
In April 2006, in addition to the present three JOCV, five more JOCV volunteers joined the respective unions. Their name and their working Unions are as follows:
