International ExpertiseHelps
Government to Decentralize in Bhutan
By K. E. S. Kirby Dorji, Bhutan
Gasa, Bhutan
When Daso Chencho Tshering started the steep
two-day walk up an often leech-infested mule track to his new office last April, he knew
he was in for a challenge.
Last spring he was taking over as governor of
Gasa, Bhutan’s largest and least populated district, and the only one of the 20
districts in the country that has no motor roads. It’s a place so remote, even by
Himalayan standards, that every item brought in has to be carried up on the backs of
horses or people—which is why Chencho Tshering’s office has no huge, bulky
photocopier, although it has solar-powered laptop computers.
"Every one in Bhutan believes Gasa is
such a backward district," says the 40-year old Australian-educated governor, a
former government auditor. "I’d heard the people weren’t forthcoming and
often didn’t pay much attention to government’s matters."
One reasons people in Gasa and elsewhere
didn’t talk to their officials in the past was that, up until recently, district
governors were perceived as almost medieval lords, whose word was law and who could not be
questioned.
Yet Chencho Tshering was in for a surprise
when he went on his first tour of the four local "blocks" that make up the
district. The Yak herders and others who live in Gasa, which sprawls along the Tibetan
border, had opinions about what development they wanted—lots of them.
They weren’t afraid to express them. And
they weren’t afraid to act on them.
"We could discuss things easily",
recalls Chencho, sounding not all-unhappy that he missed the medieval –lord period.
"I sensed that I could really work with the people". As a result, new plans
approved by the people are in place for income-generation cultivation of high altitude
vegetables such as radish, turnips, cabbage and beet-root, as well training of yaks as
exotic riding animals for tourists.
Governance is a two-way street:
All across Bhutan, this new brand of
people’s participation represents a huge change from just a few years ago, when many
Bhutanese still looked development as "one-way traffic" driven by national
Ministries. One official in the capital of Thimpu observed, "People tended to just
sit there waiting for something to fall into their laps".
Now, the days of waiting are over. As the
government’s decentralization policy takes hold in Bhutan, a quiet revolution is
underway, all contributing to King Jigme Singye Wangchuk’s progressive vision of
Gross National Happiness—an idea that looks beyond indicators of wealth that
incorporates other aspects of well being—as well as to the Millennium Development
Goals, a series of internationally agreed upon targets to reduce poverty.
In the last year, overall responsibility for
local development planning and implementation has been devolved to local level. Gasa
district represents a microcosm of the changes taking place across the nation.: Even in
far flung Lunana block, a 10-day walk over 5,200 meter passes, ordinary Bhutanese are
determining both the content and direction of the national development agenda.
Much hope is resting on assistance from the
newly initiated Decentralization Support Program, funded by the UNDP, the UNCDF and SNV,
the Dutch development organization. The program grew out of a pilot UNDP/UNCDF project
that began in 1999 to bring the people in the planning process at the block level, in
large part, through a system of political and financial decentralization that provided
budgets directly to local officials.
Designed now to support three levels of
governance—the center, the district and the block—the new program aims to create
a local environment for effective decentralization; to increase public participation in
development through provision of up to US$15,000 annually to some 36 blocks; and to build
the capacity of the Ministry of Home Affairs to provide management support to the
localities.
Although people’s participation actually
began as early as 1991 with the establishment of block development committees, this
"new era represents the determination of His Majesty the King to further empower the
grassroots level in terms of decision making," according to Lynpo Jigmi Y. Thinley,
Minister for Home Affairs.
Going to the polls:
In a watershed event last year, the nation,
for the first time voted in local elections for the leadership of local blocks. IN Gasa,
1,459 voters were eligible. Remotest-of-the remote Lunana was among the first blocks in
the country to elect a candidate who had not been previously appointed to office before.
Then last May, Gasa held similar elections
for representatives to the National Assembly. "People walked for hours and some for
days to cast their secret ballot in a clearing in a forest," says UNDP Bhutan Deputy
Resident Representative Deirdre Boyd, who witnessed the elections on the border of Khatoe
and Khame blocks in Gasa. "They had set up a traditional Bhutanese tent with Buddhist
symbols on it, and people had to exit away from where their neighbors were standing so
they couldn’t be asked who they voted for. Impressive precautions had been
taken."
Support for the continuing evolution of
people’s participation remains high at UNDP. "people’s participation does
not take place overnight. It has to be learned and promoted, and is taking time,
resources, and perseverance," says Renata Lok Dessallien, UNDP Res. Rep in Bhutan.
"It may involve making mistakes from learning-by-doing, but in the long run we think
the country will benefit.
Bhutan is doing very well in bringing this
change about".
Throughout, Chencho Tshering and the people
of Gasa are hoping for a road to be built in their district during the current five-year
development plan so that delivering development activities gets easier. Chencho Tshering
knows that if road comes, livelihoods will improve. "People have told me that if
there’s a road, they can get rid of most of their horses. This is actually a benefit
to the environment, because there is a serious scarcity of grazing land, with yaks and
horses competing. This is what the people want," he says. "And the people are
usually quite sensible.
K.E.S Kirby Dorji is a freelance writer
and communication consultant based in Thimpu, Bhutan. Text courtesy: UNDP ChoicesVol. 12
N3, September. Text Source, UNDP, Nepal Office.
Road Safety: the French change
direction
Florence Raynal, French Journalist
The violence on our roads which strikes the
French so cruelly is unworthy of a great modern country", said French President,
Jacques Chirac, in September 2002, on the eve of the First Road Safety Conference. Despite
an almost constant fall in the number of those killed on French roads over the last twenty
years—16,617 people died on them in 1972 compared to 7,242 in 2002—France in
fact trails in the tail-end group of European countries. The causes blamed include speed,
a factor in 50% of fatal or serious accidents—almost 60% of cars, 66% of heavy good
vehicles and 76% of motorbikes are thought to exceed the speed limit—and alcohol,
implicated in more than one in three fatal accidents. Failure to wear a seat-belt,
moreover, is said to be responsible for 10% of deaths.
Refusing to let things go this way, on 14
July the Head of the State showed his determination to make the fight against road
violence a "national project for the five year term". This was followed in the
autumn by a range of measures, whose effects, combined with a general rallying, have
already begun to be felt. The number of road deaths fell by 6.2% in 2002 compared to 2001,
according to the Inter-ministerial Road Safety Monitoring Service, and accidents involving
injury by 9.7%. Furthermore, progress, which was very marked in the last three months of
2002, has continued well beyond this, to such a point that the Road Safety Unit, which
comes under the ministry of Infrastructure and Transport, has stated that, if the trend
continues, the total for 2003 could approach a threshold never previously reached, of
5,500 deaths.
Cracking down-the priority:
Confirmed at the Inter-ministerial Road
Safety Committee meeting of 18 December, 2002 and then incorporated into a draft law to
combat death and injury on the roads, a range of measures are to be introduced throughout
2003. Among them are harsher punishments for causing involuntary death and injury as well
as making checks and penalties automatic. The installation of new speed cameras will make
it possible to spot offences without human intervention, then immediately issue a fine to
the owner of the vehicle, who will only be able to appeal after the fine has been paid.
Another measure adopted is the creation of a
probationary license for new drivers and consequently, for the young. As an indication of
the need, fifteen to twenty-four year olds represent 26.9% of deaths on the road although
they make up only 13% of the population. Alongside this, the number of roadside checks,
for drunk driving and speeding in particular, has increased; a decree has been issued in
order to increase the penalties for not wearing a seatbelt or helmet, and it is now an
offence to use a mobile phone while driving. Lastly, between now and 2004, an annual
medical examination may be imposed on drivers over seventy-five years of age.
Overall, the measures have been well received
by the representatives of road users and by voluntary organizations, particularly
victims’ organizations, such as the Ligue Contre la Violence Routiere, Leafue against
road violence.
Prevention Routerie, which has 250,000
members, is equally delighted and now expects "a package of preventive measures to be
developed. In particular it hopes that real road safety education will be developed
throughout schooling in partnership with the Ministry of National Education.
Courtesy: Label France, Embassy of France
in Kathmandu. |
