UNV programme in Bhutan

Looking back…

The first UNV specialists arrived in Bhutan in 1980 – a mechanic and an English teacher. Due to the acute manpower shortage in Bhutan in those early years, the UNV programme provided welcome expertise in government posts, filling gaps in technical skills and know-how in a wide range of specialist areas.

The peak was reached in 1992 with 72 UNV Specialists serving in the country, deployed in the Royal Government’s priority sectors: health, education, agriculture, animal husbandry, and public works, helping address the needs identified in Bhutan’s Sixth Five Year Plan.

As local capacity increased, the numbers of UNVs recruited came down from those giddy heights. The focus continued to be on the strengthening of technical manpower capabilities, while shifting the emphasis from direct operational support, to on-the-job training of the national staff. Assistance was keenly sought in those sectors where national capacity was still insufficient, for example in the health sector: UNVs were recruited to work in paediatrics, anaesthesiology, gynaecology and obstetrics, ENT, radiology, and surgery, as well as health education, pharmacy, health equipment engineering and others. Meanwhile, in the education field, UNV specialists served at the tertiary level in such disciplines as computer science, geography, economics and statistics.

Since the late 1990s, UNV has provided concentrated support in response to the Royal Government’s needs, and as per the Five-Year-Plans: UNV specialists served in a range of sectors, most notably health, public works, human settlements and education, focusing on on-the-job training and transfer of know-how and skills to the national staff. Meanwhile, a handful of Bhutanese nationals were themselves enabled to serve as UNVs overseas, developing their own skills and experience, while providing welcome assistance mainly in post-conflict countries.

Support has continued to date, with UNV responding to the changing needs of the country, providing expertise in new and exciting areas in Bhutan’s development endeavour, such as in Information and Communications Technology (ICT), or Early Childhood Care and Development. And although numbers of international UNVs serving in Bhutan were by now comparatively low, renewed emphasis was given to the quality of the assignments, both in terms of the post design and in the calibre of the UNVs recruited. Meanwhile, the number of Bhutanese serving overseas increased markedly, and for the last two years, the number of Bhutanese serving abroad as UNVs has exceeded the number of foreigners serving in Bhutan as UNVs.