Inside

October 2004, Volume 34

For a better tommorow for all

TIA Follow Up Study Team

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Nursing in Nepal

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Development Study on the Water Supply

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JICA-NGO Partnership Project

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Experiences in the Natural

JICA’s

Request Survey

History Museum…

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Still a Long Way to Go…

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Diversity, therefore Nepal

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News in brief

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Mr. Kenichiro KOBAYASHI ARR

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JICA's programs are planned based on the results of the Request Survey that the Embassy of Japan (EOJ) conducts to determine the needs of His Majesty's Government of Nepal (HMG) for Technical Cooperation, Development Study and Grant Aid Projects. However, for JICA, the real purpose of the survey is to find projects that are consistent with the sprit of our Country Program, which mainly aims at reducing poverty. Every year, the Request Survey starts with beginning of monsoon season in Nepal, and it is finished when the result is sent to the JICA Headquarters at the end of August. Subsequently, the result is examined among the JICA Headquarters, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and line ministries. Then, around March EOJ informs the list of approved projects. Those approved projects start after discussion with Nepali side about the project framework, period and so on.

JICA Nepal Office Hariharbhavan, Lalitpur Nepal Mailing Address: P.O.Box 450 Kathmandu, Nepal Tel: 977-1-5552205, 5552269, 5552710 Fax: 977-1-5552284 Email: [email protected]

JICA Nepal Office and EOJ have frequent meetings with the Ministry of Finance that is the responsible agency of foreign aid in HMG in order to formulate projects that make a positive impact for the development of Nepal. However, it is important that Japanese side and Nepalese side have honest everyday communication to formulate good projects.

TIA Follow Up Study Team

Mr. Sourab B. RANA PO

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In response to the request from Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal, JICA decided to conduct the Follow-Up Study on the "Project for Modernization of Tribhuvan International Airport." A three-member Follow-Up Study team headed by Mr. Takeshi CHIBA visited Nepal from August 22 to September 17, 2004. The purpose of the study was to implement a survey on operation and maintenance of equipment and machineries, provided under Grant Aid to the Tribhuvan International Airport, Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal. The Team during their visit to Nepal observed the radar facilities at TIA, Phulchowki Repeater Station, Civil Aviation Academy and the Training Center at Thimi. The team also had a lively discussion with the

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concerned authorities in identifying the past existing situation of the management, operation maintenance situation. Furthermore, the team briefed about the problems faced by the Nepali and the efforts made to address it.

and and was side

A Minutes of Meeting (M/M) was signed on September 10, 2004 between the Officiating DG of CAAN Mr. Rajesh R. DALLI and the Team Leader of the Follow Up Study Team Mr. Takeshi CHIBA. The M/M describes the undertakings of the HMG/N side like strengthening the maintenance mechanism and adequate budgeting. Similarly, the Study team has recommended some measures for JICA Follow Up Cooperation like dispatch of engineers and supply of vital equipment.

I am currently working at the Burn Unit of Bir Hospital as a JOCV nurse. I am taking care of burn patients along with the Nepalese nurses. The burn unit of Bir hospital is the only burn unit,

NURSING in Nepal

which offers treatment for major burn

Chieko AKIYAMA

cases at low cost. So, quite a large

JOCV Nurse of Bir hospital

number of burn patients come from all over Nepal for treatment.

M

Most of the cases are involved with suicide. Especially, the suicide burn cases of females under the age of 25yrs have been increasing lately. These cases relate to family dissension. To make matters worse, most of these patients unfortunately have little hope of recovery. The circumstances of medical services in Nepal are very different from Japan. There are bare minimum medical instruments and facilities for treatment in our hospital. Patients have to buy almost all necessary medicines. Poor patients cannot buy them. This is a big obstacle of medical service in Nepal. When we change a dressing of a burn patient, we need many bandages and dressing pads. However, due to the lack of bandages, we cannot change dressing daily. As burn patients are predisposed to infectious disease, this situation delays the recovery.

As we all know that pain of burn is very severe, we have to give a pain-relieving injection for a patient when we change a dressing. But if a patient cannot buy a painrelieving drug, we are obliged to treat without giving an injection. I cannot stand to see the patient who is suffering from grievous pain. I always think that if this situation was in Japan, this patient could receive a good treatment. Sometimes I feel disappointed. Every human being's life should be treated equally, irrespective of caste, class, religion or nationality. In Nepal, a nurse seems to be considered just like an assistant to doctor. I admit that every Nepalese nurse has a good skill on administering his or her duties. But I do not think all the nurses give enough attentive nursing cares to the patients due to various reasons such as inadequate human resources, work pressure due to working environment. I hope that every patient can receive treatment in comfort. Heart to heart communication, words of comfort and rekindling their spirit are very important to patients. So I try to stay with them and communicate with the patients. I would like to see my patients' smiles. Even with some bitter experience at times in the hospital, I look forward to enjoying my work and shouldering my responsibilities with the cooperation from all staff of my unit and continue to serve as a nurse in Nepal. Namaste !!! A quarterly newsletter of JICA Nepal Office

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Development Study on the

Facilities Improvement Water Supply

Mr. Sourab B. RANA PO

HMG/N has accorded high priority to the provision of water supply and sanitation facilities in order to uplift the general health status of the people. HMG/N's commitment is to provide safe drinking water and basic sanitation to all by 2017. Realizing the importance, JICA is assisting Ministry of Physical Planning and Works (MOPPW) in conducting a Development Study on the Water Supply Facilities Improvement of Urban Centers and Kathmandu Valley.

A

A local consultancy firm, SILT Consultants (P) Ltd. is conducting the Study with the guidance of JICA Expert Mr. H. ISHIHARA. The Study started from August 25, 2004 and will be completed by March 25, 2005. This Study will identify the present condition of water supply facilities under Japanese grant and will provide the recommendation to ensure the better service delivery and sustainability of these projects. The Study will create a database for future planning and improve service delivery in water and sanitary works. Furthermore, the Study will identify and prioritize the projects to be funded under Japanese grant aids in future. Digitized maps of existing water supply of Kathmandu Valley including distribution pipelines drawing with detail information and classification of pipe types. Diameter in 1:20,00 scale will also be prepared which can be very helpful for the better service delivery and better operation & maintenance of water supply facilities in Kathmandu Valley.

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In order to incorporate valuable suggestions from the major stakeholders, the kick off meeting of the Project Steering Committee was organized by the Ministry of Physical Planning & Works on September 20, 2004.

JICA-NGO Partnership Project Kam Chhodau, School Pathau Mr. Krishna P. LAMSAL PO

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In November 2003 a contract between JICA and Save the Children Japan (SCJ) had been made to implement an education project in selected VDCs of Dhanusha and Mohottari districts. The main aim of the project is to "getting all out of school children out of work and into school" (Kam Chhodau, School Pathau). As SCJ have worked with Aasaman Nepal as a partner NGO for last five years in the target district. Initially project efforts were focused on direct enrollment of out of school children in formal schooling. Later based on the experiences, it was realized a need of paying more attention for the retention of enrolled children in the school. It was felt that the children could not get required attention in the school by teachers especially at grade one and two due to high student teacher ratio, lack of enough training for teachers, lack of teaching learning materials, lack of skills and practices to make teaching learning process more child friendly and lack of regular and systematic monitoring of irregular and drop out students. Other socio-cultural and economic factors are also found as hindering factors for access and retention of children. Now, several activities to improve the retention of children in the school are being focused. The main activities includes 1) support volunteer teachers, 2) organize and teachers meeting and interactions, 3) Organize Child committee for meeting and conduct training, interaction, meeting and so on, 4) Organize different promotional activities, 5) support to improve physical, environmental and educational aspects of schools, 6) Strengthen coordination and

collaboration with government line agencies (DEO, RC, mother schools) and other like minded organizations. As there is a provision of having quarterly joint monitoring and review meeting, we have been visiting field and exchanging experiences, impressions, feedback for further improvement and strengthening of the program activities. Based on the observation, meeting and interactions with the stakeholders at community and district level, we found that concerned NGO staff and also key representatives of beneficiaries were confident in retention of children at school. With the retention, they also wanted to have a concrete and prompt action by government for providing required trained teachers in all schools, training materials and other policy level support to ensure retention of students. The district level stakeholders expressed that the government has done substantial work in developing policy and strategy but implementation is not found as expected. At the same time, same policies and strategies for the country as a whole, could not be addressed due to diversities and needs of the country. If we can utilize the best practices, experiences, expertise of NGOs and community level groups with the policy and strategy development, it would be really helpful. Because, the results have been achieved so far are encouraging and replicable in other areas of the country. So, JICA-NGO partnership Project could be an important and crucial model project for Education For All in Nepal.

A quarterly newsletter of JICA Nepal Office

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Experiences in the Natural History Museum…

Mr. T MATSUMURA, Ph. D SV at Natural History Museum, TU

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Nepal has rich biodiversity, owing to diverse climatic change by the altitudinal difference from Terai lowland to the Great Himalayan highland and bio-geographical bordering between Oriental and Palaearctic regions. The Natural History Museum (NHM) was established in 1975, affiliated with Tribhuvan University. It is located in southern hillside of famous Swayambhunath Temple. More than 55,000 specimens or 9,000 species of animals, plants, fossils and rocks are deposited in the display hall remodeled from an old dormitory and serving as a storeroom. There is not enough space to arrange collections in order and to deposit newly added specimens. When Nepalese young or old visitors and foreign tourists find diverse and important animals and plants living in the country there, they must notice the

importance of natural environment conservation. It is easy to ruin living from the earth, however, difficult to recover it on the earth. I worked for something to improve and manage for two years. The library building, which had been in halfconstruction and was completed by donation of a Japanese group and my friends, is expected to activate function of NHM. My counterpart practiced entomological training at national institutes in Tsukuba. She is expected to makes use of her experience for the work. In the near future, I hope to build new NHM possessing efficient facilities and human power to manage it as the research center for Himalayan biodiversity and a new sight spot in Kathmandu.

Expansion of Food Production

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Japanese government started to provide the chemical fertilizer to Nepal since late 1970s under the 2 KR scheme of JICA. At the beginning, there was less motivation for farmers of its application but now that situation have changed and the demand is higher then its supply in some parts of the country. In providing chemical fertilizer JICA head quarter sent a Basic Study Team under grant Aid for the expansion of food production to Nepal from July 15 to 27 2004. Three mission members came to examine the use of fertilizers supplied under the 2 KR, to collect necessary information and to review the role of 2 KR scheme. The mission members made wide level of consultation and discussion with the government officials, private sector

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people (fertilizer traders and dealers) and farmers who are the end users. They also visited Janakpur to know the real situation on use of fertilizer in Nepal. There have been significant changes in the situation of fertilizer at present. The changed context could be seen from policy level, trading and supplier, quality control and growing demand at the farmers' side. Though the chemical fertilizer supplied under the 2 KR comes around 20 percent of the total uses in Nepal but it has significant position because of its standard quality. It is also used as the buffer stock managements. Besides, this fertilizer is also supplied to the most remote areas of Nepal where subsidies have to be considered.

Still a Long Way to Go… Mr. Jhabindra Bhandari PO

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It has been already one and half year after I joined JICA Nepal Office. Having worked in other national, international and bilateral project environments for almost ten years in the past, my new life at JICA has been milestone in my professional development. As soon as I completed my university degree in social science, my first job was in Nepal Red Cross Society's community development program in rural villages of Nepal. More importantly, this was supported by Japanese Red Cross Society; and I had an important opportunity to work with a Japanese expert in field program. In my first ever professional development career, I was able to learn many good experiences from the expert regarding participatory community health and development programs. Again, it is my great opportunity with an enriching experience to work for JICA after several years of my development experiences in other multi-cultural

environments at all levels- primarily in health sector. I am gradually learning about Japan's technical cooperation in various development sectors particularly planning, implementation, monitoring and evaluation process. I am really impressed with Japanese Volunteers' keen interest, enthusiasm and commitment to contribute and learn in various fields of development both in urban and rural areas. Moreover, Japan's technical cooperation to Nepal has long been well recognized and appreciated by all Nepalese people. In addition to this, the motivating environment and cooperation from both Japanese and national colleagues in the office has greatly inspired me to continue my work with commitment and vision. Hard work, sincerity, honesty, and team spirit have been key motivational factors to all of us in the office. However, I have to learn more from the colleagues in JICA; and of course, we all know it is learning by doing process. And, I believe, there is still a long way to go.

Diversity, therefore Nepal

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It has been 3 years since I came to Nepal as a Volunteer Coordinator. During my 3 years assignment, I have visited a lot of places all over Nepal, from eastern to far western. Every time I visited field, I discovered different aspects of its diversity, in natural environment, ethnicity, language and so on. Nepal is very famous for the highest mountain of the world, Mt. Everest and other Himalayan mountains. However, it is only one of many aspects of Nepal. Terai region is also part of Nepal. Actually, I visited more often to Terai region than hill and mountain. When I went to Nepalgunj on business trip in summer, I was so surprised that I could not breathe properly because of heat wave; the temperature was over 40 degree

Mr Hideki MADA VC

Celsius. It was a strong impression for me that Nepal is tropical country rather than Himalayan country. The other diversity of Nepal that I would like to emphasize is its ethnicity and language. In Japan, we have almost single ethnic group and language, of course there are some regional dialects though. But in Nepal, I am amazed that there are 102 ethnic groups and 92 languages (Census 2001). Even in local village suburb of Kathmandu, you can see the people with European face and Mongoloid face, the same time, you can hear many different languages, Nepali Newari, Hindi, and some others. "Country of Diversity", this is my understanding of Nepal. A quarterly newsletter of JICA Nepal Office

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News in brief "Project Formulation Study on Feasibility Study for Upper Seti Storage Hydroelectric Project " visited Nepal from July 19, 2004 to July 28, 2004. The purpose of the Team was to formulate the "Study for Upper Seti Storage Hydroelectric Project. According to Ministry of Health, Nepal Health Sector Programme Implementation Plan (2004 - 2009) has been recently approved by His Majesty's Government of Nepal. This is a joint commitment of the Government of Nepal and External Development Partners. So, it is increasingly considered as a major landmark in health sector reform efforts in Nepal.

DISPATCH OF VOLUNTEERS

Incoming

DISPATCH OF EXPERTS

Incoming

On the request of HMG/Nepal, the following new JOCV members have arrived in Nepal on the 13th July 2004: Name Ms. Miko IWAKIRI Ms. Chika OHDATE Ms. Miki OKADA Ms. Ryoko OGASAWARA Ms. Kanako KOTANI Ms. Tomoko FUJITA Ms. Kazuyo HESAKA Mr. Hiraku OKUMA Ms. Fumi KIDO Ms. Ikuyo KOHKETSU

Nippon (or Japanese) NGO Network for Nepal (4N) organized its 3rd Kathmandu Conference from 25 - 27 August with support from JICA. Main objectives of the conference are capacity building of Japanese and its counterpart NGOs, understanding thoughts of Japanese government and HMG towards NGO activities, and promotion of local networking. More than a hundred people from 16 Japanese NGOs and 32 Nepalese NGOs have participated to the conference. Mr. Ganesh Gurung, Vice-chairperson of Social Welfare Council HMG, Mr. Kenichi Ohashi, Representative of World Bank Nepal office, Mr. Mitsuhiro Saotome, Ambassador for Civil Society, Mr. Zenji Kaminaga, Ambassador to Nepal and Mr. Shinji Yoshiura, Resident Representative of JICA Nepal office made speech for the opening.

Field Fruit Growing Nurse Com. Dev. Advisor Public Health Nurse Vegetable Growing Nutrition Sci/Math Teacher Sci/Math Teacher Sci/Math Teacher Sci/Math Teacher

Name Mr. Hideo ONO

Field Sr. Foreign Aid Coordination Advisor for Ministry of Finance Mr. Koji TERAKAWA CDFWCP, Pokhara Ms. Tomoko NISHIGAKI CDFWCP, Pokhara

Outgoing Name Mr. Masaki HIRUMA Mr. Sakae YAMADA Ms. Azusa SUGIYAMA Ms. Yasuko YOSHIZAWA Mr. Takeshi NABETA

Field Disaster Mitigation Support Program (DMSP) Disaster Mitigation Support Program (DMSP) CDFWCP CDFWCP CDFWCP

Outgoing After completion of their assignment, the following volunteers returned to Japan during the quarter. Name Ms. Masako SADANAO Ms. Harue KITAJIMA Ms. Emina MAEGAWA Mr. Akira AKICHIKA Mr. Takashi YARA Mr. Takashi OTANI Ms. Aki KOWADA Mr. Tomoya SHIMOMURA Ms. Chiaki UEDA Ms. Mitsuko MAMEYA

Field Fruit Growing Vegetable Growing Nurse Vegetable Growing Animal Husbandry Animal Husbandry Physical Education Automobile Maintenance Nurse Veterinery

JICA NEPAL OFFICE STAFFS

Incoming Name Ms. Satoko SUGIMOTO Mr. Mitsuhiro HAYASHI

Field Volunteer Coordinator Volunteer Coordinator

Outgoing Name Ms. Haruko KAMEI Mr. Hisayuki YONEYAMA Mr. Hideki MADA

Field Asst. Resident Representative Volunteer Coordinator Volunteer Coordinator