JICA Kyrgyz Channel – October-November, 2008 1

Newsletter № 39 (October - November, 2008)

1. Our events Birth of New JICA: The World’s Largest Bilateral Aid Agency In October 2008 after several years of major restructuring Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) reborn as an aid donor agency providing technical cooperation, concessionary loans, and grant aid in more integrated fashion. As part of this realignment, the Overseas Economic Cooperation Operations of the Japan Bank for International Cooperation (JBIC) and part of the grant aid provided by Japan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs integrated with the technical cooperation offered by JICA.

“New JICA” will be the world’s largest bilateral development agency with financial resources of $10,280 million, a staff of more then 1600 operat-ing in around 150 countries. JICA President Sadako Ogata, who has been headed the expanded organization, said, “This decision marks a major historical turning point, not only for JICA, but also for Japan’s ODA”. New JICA will work on the principle of the three SSSs- speed up, scale up and spread out: speed-ing up projects by closer coordination of technical assistance, loans and grant aid, ‘scaling up’ suc-cessful pilot projects to larger programs and ‘spreading out’ by enlarging community based

activities and combining grass-roots cooperation with NGOs, volunteers, experts and private or-ganizations. New JICA will thus provide comprehensive assistance for developing countries by making the most of a broader range of aid instruments in an effective and efficient manner and a network of 100 overseas offices around the world.

From Japanese People – to the People of Nura Village A little more than one month has passed from the destructive earthquake occurred on October 5, 2008 in the South of Kyrgyzstan. This was the earthquake that resulted in numerous victims among habitants of Nura village of Alai district. It was the most “murderous” earthquake in the his-tory of independent Kyrgyzstan. Over half of 75 victims were children up to 14 years of age. Remi-niscence of this tragedy will for a long time remain in the souls of Nura villagers and of all Kyr-gyzstani people…

Back in September this year when we visited Sary-Tash ayil okmotu to get familiar with the living conditions of local population, we were catching ourselves at thinking about difficulties faced by

For a better tomorrow for all Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) Kyrgyz Republic Office

JICA representatives at the press-conference in AKIpress

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people living in such remote areas, under severe cli-mate conditions, without utilities and infrastructure, conveniences that we have got used to. Nura village is located 70 km from Sary-Tash village along Sary-Tash – Irkeshtam highway at 3 thous. m. above the sea level within the Kyrgyz-Chinese border area. The nearest Sary-Tash village is 3-4 hours drive on the road covered with huge hollow spots, which could hardly be named “a road”. It was this village that was directly stricken by the natural disaster, which de-stroyed the scarce existing infrastructure of the village, thus turning local people into even more vulnerable. Having learned about the scale of the earthquake and human victims and upon receipt of the official request from the Ministry of Emergency Situations of the Kyr-gyz Republic (MES KR) to provide first of all genera-tors for the village, on October 7, 2008 the Japanese Government made an urgent decision to allocate hu-manitarian aid to the victims of the earthquake. Through JICA Japan Disaster Relief Program – JDR)1 45 generators of 2.5 kWt and 45 cord reels have been sent from JICA’s warehouse located in Frankfurt. The total amount of humanitarian aid equaled 100 thous. US dollars. Official cere-mony of humanitarian aid transfer was held in Manas airport. Ambassador Plenipotentiary and Ex-traordinary of Japan in the Kyrgyz Republic, Mr. Shigeo Natsui, Resident Representative of JICA Kyrgyz Republic Office, Mr. Hideaki Maruyama and Deputy Minister of Emergency Situations of the Kyrgyz Republic, Mr. Turatbek Junushaliev took part in the ceremony.

Representatives of the Ministry of Emergency Situations of the Kyrgyz Republic and JICA in the Kyrgyz Republic delivered the generators and cables to Nura village for transfer to the victims. The humanitarian aid has been distributed based on participatory method. Members of the local commission on humanitarian aid distribution, representatives of Sary-Tash ayil okmotu, Ministry of Emergency Situations and JICA have distributed the generators pursuant to the following scheme: each of the following organizations have been allocated one generator: FAP, school, telephone sub-station, duty sta-tion (tent) of the Ministry of Emergency Situations; the remaining generators have been distributed to the ex-

tended families list. These generators were manufactured in UK; they have good technical specifications, work on fuel, are noise-free and very simple to use. Despite the fact that electricity supply has been restored in the village within the short period of time, there are still power outages in the village. Therefore, the generators are of great value for the villag-ers. They are also important for the telephone sub-station, the only connection of the village with the world. JICA in the Kyrgyz Republic expresses its gratitude to the Ministry of Emergency Situations of the Kyrgyz Republic for efficient and effective cooperation.

1Under the framework of this Program and upon request of the countries suffered from large-scale natural disasters or international organizations JICA mobilizes Disaster Relief Group consisting of groups of rescuers, medical doctors and experts) and provides neces-sary material resources for mitigation of natural disaster consequences.

Official ceremony of handing-over the generators (left to right: Mr. H. Maruyama, Mr. Sh. Natsui,

Mr. T. Junushaliev)

Recipients of the humanitarian aid backed by ruins and tents

Lieutenant Colonel T. Akkozov (MoES of the KR) and villagers of Nura during launch testing of generators

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Network and information exchange of organizations of persons with disabilities in Central Asia to be enhanced for the creation of an inclusive, barrier free and rights based society –Bishkek Statement Adopted

A four-day international workshop entitled ‘Capacity Development of Self Help Organizations of Persons with Disabilities (CDSHOD): Rights-based Approach to Disability in Central Asia’ ended on 24th October at Ak-Keme Hotel in Bishkek with the adoption of the Bishkek Statement (see Attachment 1). It was jointly organized by the Ministry of Labor and Social Development (MLSD), the Government of Kyrgyz Republic, the Asia-Pacific Development Center on Disability (APCD), the Japan International Coopera-tion Agency (JICA) and the United Nations Eco-nomic and Social Commission of Asia and the Pa-cific (UNESCAP). CDSHOD had been conducted in other sub-regions

such as the South-east Asia, South Asia and Pacific Islands. This was the first time for CDSHOD to be held in the Central Asian region. It was organized with an aim of developing a network and collaboration among the Central Asian countries, particularly self help organizations of person with disabilities as well as the Government policy makers and the UN organizations and agencies. An-other important objective of the workshop was to mainstream disability perspectives in develop-ment processes and to promote collaboration with the UNESCAP, which has been promoting the Asian and Pacific Decade of Disabled Persons and Biwako Millennium Framework for Action (BMF) as well as the UN “Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities”. 34 representatives of persons with disabilities, 12 government officials and UN representatives, and over 30 resource persons and observers from Kyrgyz Republic, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Taji-kistan, Turkmenistan, Pakistan, Thailand, Philippines and Japan participated in the event. Lively discussions went on throughout the seminar. At the closing ceremony on 24th, H.E. Ms. Uktomkhan Abdullaeva, the Minister of Labor and Social Development, congratulated the participants for coming to an agreement to establish a network and strengthening information exchange among organizations of persons with disabilities in Cen-tral Asia. “I am happy to learn that Bishkek is designated as the core of the regional network of disabled peoples’ organizations. The information and resource centre for persons with disabilities is going to be opened by the Ministry of Labor and Social Development with the support of JICA. The centre will contribute to its development” said Ms. Abdullaeva. Mr. Kalyk Mambetakunov, the President of the Asso-ciation of Disabled Persons in Kyrgyzstan stated that it was difficult for all Central Asian participants to come to an agreement on the Bishkek statement due to differ-ence in social, political and economical status of each country. “in spite of the difference, we all could come back to stand on our common ground as persons with disabilities.” he said. On the final day, the participants adopted the Bishkek statement with recommendations to concerned stake-holders. According to the Statement, the participants will establish a network and strengthen exchange of information on disability in Central Asia. The Associa-tion of Disabled Persons in Kyrgyzstan, in collaboration with the MLSD and JICA, will play the coordination function of the network.

Participants of the Conference during Opening Ceremony

Participants discuss sore problems

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2. Volunteers from Japan Volunteers on the Agenda This November was highlighted by an important event – visit of Mission on Volunteer Program from Headquarter and JICA Uzbekistan Office to our Office. Main aim of the Mission was to dis-cuss further development of volunteers movement activities in Central Asia in the view of transition of JICA into the New JICA, as well as to get familiarized with the volunteer program in the Kyrgyz Republic.

Certainly, our guests will remember these five days spent by the Mission in Kyrgyzstan for a long time, since a lot of work has been accom-plished for this period: they discussed problems of volunteers working in Central Asia, share ex-perience and achievements, visit remote and cold Naryn, and many other activities. Agenda of the Mission also included visits to working places of volunteers in Kyrgyzstan. With this aim the Mission visited the Kyrgyz National Univer-sity named after Balasagyn, Rehabilitation Cen-ter for disabled children, “Saori” Jaamat and school named after Sheraliev in Naryn Region, Belovodskii asylum for disabled children and Jaiyl psychoneurological asylum for women.

Belovodskii asylum for disabled children was one of the places visited by the Mission. JICA volun-teer Ms. Yuka Takanami has been working here from last November with the most problematic children, who are not able to move. The guests from Japan could see the work of Takanami-san on practice and received positive feedback on the volunteer’s work from the asylum personnel. Naryn Region met our guests with cold weather, snow and warm smiles of the counterparts, who work with our volunteers. Ms. Fukuda Kayoko, a volunteer working in Alysh village united local women into “Saori” jaamat and trained them to make handicrafts, which have high demand among urban population. Now you can see vari-ous scarves, bags, purses and many other items at the exhibitions in Bishkek. In Jaiyl district the Mission visited working place of our volunteer Ms. Imai Madoka – Jaiyl psychoneu-rological asylum. Patients of the asylum with great pleasure performed their vocal skills by singing several songs in Japanese and Russian. Guests and patients were happy with the brief concert, which was organized by Imai-san. We hope that short-term visit of this Mission in Kyrgyzstan was fruitful enough and will contribute into increase in number of volunteers in our country. Volunteers’ Initiative Last year we already wrote about “The smile for all in the world”. This program was first initiated by the Japanese people to meet demands of the little residents of our planet, and is aimed at giving a smile to children. Every year the campaign on collecting books, video and audio, sports equipment, wheelchairs for children and many other items, which can bring some joy to children.

Visiting the Rehabilitation Center

Representatives of “Saori” Jaamat at work

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This year the Japanese volunteers working in our country sent request to Japan to provide chil-dren’s wheelchairs and sports equipment. Necessary items were collected and long-awaited pre-sents had arrived to Kyrgyzstan in October.

10 children’s wheelchairs have quickly found new owners: some were sent to Issyk-Kul, some re-mained in Chui valley. Unfortunately, children with disabilities in Kyrgyzstan, especially in rural areas, often don’t have wheelchairs. Definitely, this small present – wheelchairs – will help children with dis-abilities to see the world in wider extent and to move independently. As for school pupils in At-Bashi village in Naryn Region and Ak-Terek village in Issyk-Kul Region – they have received basketball, football and volley-ball balls. From now on, every time the physical culture lessons start these pupils will remember the Japanese schoolchildren of the same age and

thank volunteers from the Country Of A Rising Sun. There is a hope that such kind of campaign will have a follow-up, and in the near future we will be busy with distribution of presents from Japan amongst children living in rural remote area.

3. E-Alumni Association Column

Gaining Experience in Japan Within the framework of Community Empowerment Project (J-CEP) the study tour to Oita Prefecture in Japan to introduce One Village – One Product Movement2 (OVOP) was organized in September. The following persons participated in this study tour: Deputy Head of the Issyk-Kul Region State Admini-stration, Ms. S.A. Mamadova, Head of Sector on Support to Entrepreneurship and Tourism of the Region Administration, Mr. B. Zh. Ibraev, Deputy Head of Jeti-Oguz District State Administration, Ms. V.M. Beishenbaeva and Head of Regional Devel-opment Division of the Ministry of Economic Devel-opment and Trade, Mr. N.Sh. Shamshiev. When the Japanese think of Oita Prefecture, they imagine first of all resort and recreation place. Beppu town, which is annually visited by a number of the Japanese tourists, is famous for its favourable and elegant mountainous nature, generosity of soil, which splashes out spas and natural therapeutic muds and plenty of cultural programs spe-cially designed for tourists. First of all the group form Kyrgyzstan had met with the former governor of Oita Prefecture, Mr.

2 J-CEP Project is being implemented in Issyk-Kul Region from 2007 and aimed at achieving regional development through community empowerment using One Village – One Product (OVOP) Movement. OVOP Movement is a strategic movement, particularly founded for regional development. It was first initiated in 1979 by the former governor of Oita Prefecture in Japan. Within the framework of this movement local population should offer a product or sector of economy typical for their region and promote it at national and even wider level.

Teachers and pupils of the school in Ak-Terek village, Issyk-Kul Region receiving presents

Participants of the training course with Mr. Hiromatsu, a founder of OVOP Movement

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Hiramatsu, who is also a founder of OVOP Movement. He worked as a governor for 24 years from 1979 to 2003. Then the group went for familiarization trip to OVOP villages, which were developed with the direct participation of Mr. Hiramatsu. These villages included: resort town Yufuin, Design Research Center “Toki Workshop”, Yufuin Tsukahara “Dairy Village”, Matsumoto villages and oth-ers. Resort town Yufuin. Its symbol is Shyuhoyufu Mountain, also known as Bungofuji. The height of the mountain is 1,584 meters, and at the bottom of it you will see Yufuin Plain famous for its morn-ing fogs. Numerous hot springs bubble all around the place; and the town is at the 2nd place in the country in having big number of hot spots. Yufuin used to be characterized as town in decay with hot springs. Beppu district with hot springs and numerous recreation places was located nearby; but the town-builders of Yufuin believed into the following slogan: “We will not become a small district offering hot spots and recreation places similar to Beppu”. Leaders of town-building set up a target to reconstruct the village based on the principle ‘Salubrious town-building with the focus on environmental conservation. Hot springs are for a rest and health improvement’. As of today, Yufuin town has been turned into resort area, which is visited by 3.8 mln tourists an-nually3, and is very popular, particularly among women. To compare, total number of tourists in 1979 was 1.9 mln.

Design Research Center ‘Toki Workshop’. “Toki Workshop” located in Yufuin town is surrounded by well-managed, beautiful mixed forest. Mr. Tokimatsu had cultivated this forest and jointly with the research center planted all trees, applying household waste as a fertilizer. About hundred types of wood are used in the work-shop. Task of Tokimatsu master is to give a shape to the wood using hundreds of methods and breathe life into it. A cup, which fits your hand comfortably; a wooden plate, enriching the view of meal on it; smoothly sliding butter knife; a statuette of bird, revi-talizing environment of the table – any of these works

are closely tied with nature and environment. The words of Mr. Tokimatsu - that handicraft is a household utilities having accumulated ‘practical use, beauty and recreation’ – can be heard in any of the works of handicraft master. Yufuin Tsukahara “Diary Village”. Masatoshi Ta-keuchi has seventy cows in Tsukahara area in Yufuin town of Yufu administrative district. While di-ary farms all over the country import the forage for animals, Takeuchi prefers to grow the forage, being a strong supporter of ‘self-reliance’ or ‘self-production’ principle. “For cows living in Tsukahara, the grass growing in Tsukahara is the best. Forage produced in the same climate and air has not only favourable impact on milk’s taste, but also on health condition of the cows”. When setting up diary production in his 20s with only five cows, and till now, when he reached today’s production volumes, Tekauchi has been always sure that ‘nowadays a customer demands un-

3Statistics of 2004 year

Visiting “Toki Workshop”

Popular ice-cream

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stained quality and safe product, which has a label who produced it’. Eleven years ago Takeuchi opened the shop “Diary Village” to have the possibility to offer his house milk to customers person-ally. Top sales belong to newly drawn milk, and ice-cream produced by his wife Mariko. However, re-cently new unusual product attracts a lot of attention – ‘Milk jam’, made of fresh milk. Milk and granulated sugar are used as ingredients, which need to be continuously cooked and stirred for about two hours. At the first glance it looks very easy to make a jam, but then Shyuma explains further on: “If you allow the mixture to reach boiling point, the milk will not have required taste. It is also important to change volume of ingredients according to the season and air temperature”. If you try ‘milk jam’, you will feel rich taste and scent, inherent only to fresh milk, and light sweetness. Only diary farmer is able to create such product. 4. Matsumoto village. Matsumoto village, also known as “Imori Valley”, is located in the moun-tains in the central part of Adzimu-machi district in Oita Prefecture. The village has 56 households.

Thanks to the subsidies provided by the district ad-ministration to change crop patterns and introduce direct payment system, the Association of farms “Ma-tsumoto Eino Kimuai” was founded in 2000. 80% of rice paddy fields were used to cultivate soy beans. The Farm Center was established in 2001 as well. Thus, activities on the village’s development were accelerated in both production terms and in popula-tion life. Signing a contract on supply of a whole soy beans yield with one of the tofu manufacturers, gave a start to development of marketing for home-made tofu – the village’s honor. It also stimulated to launch a pilot shops of agricultural and processed goods produced

in the village. Presently, there is on-going process to set up production of natto and rice vodka with participation of large companies. Elders of the village readily accept and support the way of thinking and behavior of young genera-tion and those, who have returned back to the village or moved here from other areas. The villag-ers gladly devote themselves to development and implementation of the projects in rural eco-tourism. Besides that, they designed web-site of the village as a universal instrument to tell about their wonderful area to as many people as possible. 16 households (30%) out of 56 households of the village belong to those who returned back or moved here from other areas.

At the end of the training course all participants had a feeling that we live in the country, which is rich in natural recourses, but unfortunately we cannot utilize treasures of nature in a right way. It is so important to identify a product that needs to be produced and that could lead to economic growth. Because our country has huge potential for development of OVOP products, we believe that the above-mentioned OVOP movement principles are applicable not only to Issyk-Kul Region, but to all other regions of the Kyrgyz Republic. (Group of the training course participants)

The goal of this Newsletter is to introduce activities of JICA to all interested persons, to place invitations for participation in programs, to promote friendly information exchange among graduates of JICA courses. The newsletter is dissemi-nated among persons interested in JICA’s activities in the Kyrgyz Republic. Regarding posting of the information in the Newsletter, as well as regarding general issues about JICA’s activities in the Kyrgyz Republic, please, refer to the follow-ing e-mail: jicakg-info@jica.go.jp

If you wish to subscribe for this Newsletter, please, send a message with the word “Subsrcibe” in the subject line to the following e-mail: jicakg-news@jica.go.jp. If you do not wish to receive this Newsletter any longer, please, send a mes-sage with the word “Unsubscribe” in the subject line to the same email. Many thanks!

The training participants attend lessons in Japan

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Attachment 1

Bishkek Statement on Rights-based Approach to Disability in Central Asia We, the representatives of disabled people's organizations, the Governments and the United Nations organizations and agencies from Kazakhstan, Kyrgyz Republic, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan met in Bishkek, Kyrgyz Republic, from 21st to 24th October 2008 at the the Re-gional Workshop on Capacity Development of Self-Help Organizations of Persons with Disabilities (CDSHOD): Rights-based Approach to Disability in Central Asia; Appreciate H.E. Mr. Kurmanbek Bakiev, the President of Kyrgyz Republic, and the Ministry of Labor and Social Development of the Government of Kyrgyz Republic for their hospitality and support for CDSHOD, which was jointly organized with the Asia-Pacific Development Center on Disability (APCD) under the supervision of the Royal Thai Government, the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) and the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) Kyrgyz Republic; Acknowledge the contribution of the Government of Kyrgyz Republic as well as the Association of Disabled Persons in Kyrgyzstan to the creation of an inclusive, barrier-free and rights-based soci-ety for persons with disabilities; Recognize the historical significance of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CPRD) and its complementarities and strengthening role in the implementation of the Biwako Millennium Framework for Action towards an Inclusive, Barrier-free and Rights-based Society for Persons with Disabilities in Asia and the Pacific (BMF), the Biwako Plus Five, and the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs); Reaffirm our conviction that persons with disabilities are agents of change and they must have equal rights and opportunities with everyone in the society; Recognize that stereotypes and barriers exist against persons with disabilities, including the seriousness of their economical vulnerability, the lack of accessibility in the built environment and to information and the insufficient practice of the social model of disability; Recognize the imperfection of legislative and regulatory framework, insufficient allocation of budget, limited involvement of persons with disabilities and limited inter-ministerial coordination on the issues of persons with disabilities; Recognize the importance of capacity development of self-help organizations of persons with disabilities in Central Asia at the community, provincial and national levels; Recognize the importance of developing and supporting the network of organizations of persons with disabilities in Central Asia with the participation of governmental bodies and international organizations for the promotion and implementation of the CRPD. To achieve the goal of creating an inclusive, barrier-free, and rights-based society in Central Asia; We recommend that: 1) Governments in Central Asia sign and ratify the CRPD and Optional Protocol; 2) Laws, policies, regulations and programs reflecting the social model of disability be developed and implemented with the allocation of necessary resources; 3) International, national and local organizations, with the involvement of persons with disabilities, implement and assure sustainability of the projects which promote mainstreaming of disability perspectives as well as empowering persons with disabilities; 4) All stakeholders apply the social model of disability in their activities;

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5) Governments of the Central Asian countries ensure that the CRPD, BMF, Biwako Plus Five and the MDGs be implemented with the meaningful participation of organizations of persons with disabilities; 6) Governments, jointly with organizations of persons with disabilities, develop strategies and regulations for the establishment of and support for organizations of persons with disabilities; 7) Governments and the organizations of persons with disabilities jointly develop measures on the promotion and maximum realization of potentials of women and their inclusion in all programs for persons with disabilities; 8) Organizations of persons with disabilities in Central Asia should establish a network and strengthen exchange of information on disability; 9) Governments, UN organizations and agencies and international organizations support the network and exchange of information on disability; 10) The coordination function of the network be delegated to the Resource Center in Bishkek, Kyrgyz Republic.