Project News

In June, a total of 8 members from Sri Lanka visited Japan to participate in the Country-Focused Training Course for the Project for Training of Frontline Officers in Community Development in Conflict Affected Areas (hereafter the "FORWARD Project"). The FORWARD Project aims to improve the quality of public services provided in the conflict-affected areas of Sri Lanka – Northern, North Central, and Eastern Provinces – through the training of the Frontline Officers and developing their capacity on community development activities.

Directors from each of the Management Development Training Unit in the three provinces, a Senior Consultant from the Sri Lanka Institute of Development Administration (SLIDA), and an Assistant Secretary from the Ministry of Economic Development visited JICA Chugoku and JICA Tokyo from 16th to 28th June; Chief Secretaries from each of the three provinces also joined the course from 22nd to 26th June.

The participants were given lectures on topics such as "Civil Servants System in Japan" and "Local Administration in Japan". They also visited various places and organizations such as the Public Administration Training Center of Hiroshima Prefecture, Ohnan-cho in Shimane Prefecture, Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park & Museum, Local Autonomy College in Tokyo, and the Hitodukuri Extended Association (Personnel Authority) of Saitama Prefecture.

Based on what they saw and learned about local administration systems in Japan and examples of community development activities, the participants worked as a group to develop and present an Action Plan in the last few days of the training course. The Plan identified 5 outputs and a total of 20 activities to be implemented in the remaining period of the FORWARD Project, and the participants plotted them on an actual weekly calendar to bring back to their organizations.

One of the participants has commented that "I can select appropriate field visit sites for study tour of training in order to strengthen the FLO (Field Level Officers) training by having insights learned through community development cases in Japan. Wherever applicable, these insights can be inserted in regular programs of my institute." With the experience and knowledge gained from this training course in Japan, the Project will continue moving forward for the improvement of public services in the three provinces of Sri Lanka.