JICA beckons capacity building

MALAWI: Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) Chief Representative Kazuhiro Tambara has said that JICA is committed to building capacity among people including youth in the country through its volunteers working under Japan Overseas Cooperation Volunteers (JOCV) Program.

He made the remarks on Friday in Lilongwe during the opening of 5 days photo exhibition to be conducted at Game Complex in Lilongwe from November 12-15, 2021 as part of the 50th-anniversary celebration of the JOCV Program in Malawi.

Tambara said that through JOCV Program, JICA is on a mission to support Malawi Government in building up capacities among people in the country in various areas.

“Our mission is to do technical and financial cooperation and this is part of our development agenda which involves the volunteers' program.

“With the volunteers’ program young Japanese volunteers with various specialties in fields such as education, health, environmental management, water development, and sports work with government institutions in beefing up technical capacities among the public,” Tambara said.

He added that JOCV Program has been in operation since 1965 across the 92 developing countries worldwide and volunteers of Japanese nationals under the program are deployed to serve in the countries where the program was introduced for a maximum period of two years.

Tambara said that In Malawi the JOCV Program was introduced in 1971 and at least 1, 897 volunteers have been dispatched in the country from the time when the program was inaugurated in the country.

He, therefore, commended the relationship between the general public rendered and the volunteers under the JOCV Program saying that it has helped in the success of the Program in the country.

“Many Malawians interact with Japanese volunteers and many times we have heard Malawians saying that their teacher was Japanese and they learnt something from him or her, such interaction has led to the success of JOCV Program in Malawi,” he said.

Deputy Director of Human Resource Management (Planning) under the Department of Human Resource Management and Development (Malawi Government), Rose Maleta applauded JICA for its commitment to building capacity among people in the country.

“Japanese volunteers work in remotest areas in Malawi and they are beefing capacities in secondary schools and hospitals just to mention few areas where they work and in within 50 years as a country we have benefited a lot from these volunteers especially in education and health sector,” Maleta said.