UNA-Canada JPC Scott Bohachyk

Bohachyk-back left.

Scott Bohachyk got back recently from a 15 day field visit to eastern Bhutan where his team was consulting with local weaving groups to explore the possibility of establishing raw material banks in their towns. He also met with local metal workers and wood workers.

The main purpose of the trip was to consult weavers in pre-selected areas of the country, usually where there was a significant cluster, and propose a few things to them. The Agency for Promotion of Indigenous Crafts (APIC) wanted to determine if the weavers were willing to form a cooperative. The main benefit of forming a cooperative is that it is much easier to receive future support from donors (i.e. training, materials, equipment, infrastructure or funding) as a group, rather than as individuals. Strength in numbers.

Secondly, if the weavers were willing to form a group, APIC wanted to see if they were interested in creating a raw material bank. The raw silk, yarn and natural dying products they use would be bought by APIC at, or below, the market price and stored in the weaving building. One of the weavers, voted by the group, would keep the record book. This involves weighing the material each month, collecting payments from the weavers, and depositing the money in the bank, etc. The raw material bank saves the weaver’s time from traveling to India to purchase their yarn wholesale, or, they aren’t forced to pay the higher prices in town. And finally, if they wanted to form a group and establish the bank, APIC wanted to know if the weavers would like to take part in producing specific products such as: table runners, cushion covers and scarves, made from high quality raw silk, and naturally dyed, to be exported to Japan. For this final proposal, a consistent quality of yarn/silk/dye is required, so having all the weavers use the bank would eliminate some future complications.

The UNDP’s role is that they provide the funds to APIC for the creation of the raw material banks, and are in talks with a Japanese marketing agency to find markets for these textiles in Japan. He was sent primarily to meet the weavers, listen to their concerns, see the exact processes of how everything is dyed, weaved and finished. Also, to get an idea of what they could produce, how much of it they could produce, and how reliably they could produce a certain number of each product. The Japanese partnership will fail if the weavers produce 500 hundred cushion covers one month, and then 250 the next because of planting season or other activities. They will have to commit to a certain quota. 

Scott describes, “the whole experience was great, not sure how else to put it. I met five Bhutanese governors in separate meetings. Didn't think that would happen. The itinerary was full, and travelling is not easy here as you would expect. Every day consisted of either some travel or several meetings, and the accommodation wasn't five star, so when I got back to Thimphu, I was exhausted. One bonus was that I was able to throw my bicycle in the back of the truck and got to ride a few hundred kms in spectacular scenery.” 

Now he is holding content creation workshops for a gaming project and will likely be traveling to Phuntsholing again to assist with those. Much of his work involves communications work such as writing for the UNDP blog, writing articles for the national newspaper (for example Kuensel), and helping edit speeches in addition to other tasks. He is also working very hard to create a list of youth organizations that UNDP can meet with in person to start building a strong relationship with in order to have some focal people which can put in the necessary efforts to ensure as many youth participate as possible. He will also be following up with a field visit decide where the raw material banks will be located, when UNDP can bring a Japanese expert to conduct trainings on natural dyes, and when they can finalize a partnership with a Japanese marketing agency to create the market linkages. 

  

On the side Scott does a lot of cycling because he’s training for the tour of the dragon on Sept 6th. 268km in one day. You can find his blog here for more http://sbohachyk.org/