Participant: Ms. Ugyen Yagzom
Course: KCCP (Country-focus) Strengthening Community Engagement in Local Governance in Bhutan
In 2023, Ms. Ugyen Yangzom attended training in Japan on the course-Strengthening Community Engagement in Local Governance in Bhutan through country-focused training project. She is currently serving as Gup (Block Head) of Ngatshang gewog in Mongar district.
After her return from Japan, she implemented Do-Nou technology that she was inspired from the training program among many learnings. Do-nou is a Japanese word for gunny bag with soil wrapped in it. Do-Nou technology is a soil reinforcement method that involves filling gunny bags with materials such as sand, farm soil, or gravel. The technology makes use of locally available resources which is sustainable and can be easily replicated across other communities.
This innovative technique was applied to address the persistent road issues faced by the residents of Laptshor community in Phanas village. Farm road constructed in 2007 remained unused for more than a decade due to marshy condition particularly during monsoon creating significant challenges for the farmers during paddy harvest. Despite annual budget allocations for restoration and maintenance by the gewog administration, the road remained in poor condition and same problem recuring every year.
In such hard situation, Ms. Yangzom’s learnings from the training in Japan came out as an excellent solution!
Local people of that community through Community Engagement Platform (CEP) came together to implement Do-Nou technology. This simple technology has resulted significant improvement in the quality of farm road, making it accessible through out the year. This initiative has also alleviated the need for allocation of annual budget for the road repairs but also ensured long-term benefit to the resident of Laptshor community. Farmers can now use their vehicles to lift their farm products from the field, anytime.
“I would like to acknowledge JICA for wonderful training opportunity. My learning from Japan training has not only strengthen my knowledge, but also my people and gewog administration. Now, our administration doesn’t have to worry about the budget for conducting maintenance of this essential farm road. I would also like to thank JICA for the CEP projects and for providing materials, it has really helped us to bringing community people together in solving the issue without any administration burden. The successful implementation of this simple technology from Japan will serve as a model for our future initiatives” -Ugyen Yangzom, Ex-participant of JICA Training.
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