The Country Office as Part of the JICA Volunteer Program: Background and Implementation in Bhutan

JICAJapan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) Volunteer Program is one of the most important instruments for JICA to promote the citizens’ cooperation. While the individual activities of the volunteers have always been highlighted, we should not forget about the role JICAJapan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) has played in program management. They are functioning to identify volunteer opportunities, process the documents for recruitmentRecruitment, coordinate with the host agencies before volunteers’ arrival, and provide in-country immersion program for new arrivals. After posting, JICA country officesCountry office/Overseas office monitor the life and activities of each volunteer, and extend additional consultation and support when necessary. This chapter emphasizes that with the volunteers and the country offices combined, the program could be implemented, and this has been backed by the conceptual framework of capacity developmentCapacity Development (CD) as well as the findings of the opinion survey we conducted for the volunteers around the world. In addition to this Whole-of-the-Office approachWhole-of-the-Office Approach, this chapter argues that the country officesCountry office/Overseas office should work more in many aspects. These arguments are presented together with the experience of the JICAJapan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) country office in BhutanBhutan. Finally, even after these efforts, the chapter reiterates that the country officesCountry office/Overseas office still need to minimize the risk of expectation gap between the host agency and the volunteer.