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JICA Volunteers in Palau

◆Alii from Palau!

Kenichi Tezuka
JICA Senior Volunteer
Ministry of Justice

　　　It has already been one year and nine months since I arrived in Palau. Every three months, we make our farewells to those volunteers that have fulfilled their two years term, but before I knew it, next is my turn to be seen off. Time flies so quickly, two years in Palau has past in a flash.

(My two counterparts; Kenri is the ‘Master’ of the 3rd floor of the Ministry of Justice, and Jennifer, the multi-talented cheerful lady who has so many faces like PNCC Chairperson, high official of the Palau Judo Association, and my Palauan sensei!)

　　　My task as a JICA Senior Volunteer is to manage and maintain the database and support the overall Information Technology (IT) system at the Ministry of Justice. The Ministry of Justice does not have a synthetic IT Division. In the Ministry of Justice, there are several divisions (Administration Section, Division of Patrol, Division of Criminal Investigation & Drug Enforcement, Division of Fire & Rescue, Division of Fish & Wildlife, etc.) and almost every division has its own database. My task is to answer the requests from each division to improve their system and troubleshooting. With my counterpart suddenly resigning from his position two months after my arrival, I have been running around the Ministry to fix these issues and answer to my colleagues.

　　　Along with my work at the Ministry, I have been considering the overall improvement of the IT system in Palau. There are two main fields of necessary improvements:

Structural reformation of the IT infrastructure system and institutions
Training Palauan IT Professionals

　　　Firstly, I am suggesting the appropriate institutional structure for Palau. Currently, the Government of Palau imitates the government structure of the U.S.; however, the population of 20,000 is so much smaller and not all aspects are the optimum for Palau. It seems to be more practical to have an ‘All Ministries IT team’ instead of having IT staff for each and every ministry apart.

　　　Secondly, I wish to raise the importance of training Palauan IT professionals. To realize this goal, JICA volunteers in Palau have started an IT lecture course at PCC from May, 2011. To date, JICA has been sending volunteers to different Ministries’ IT section, which may improve the individual Ministry but not the overall IT situation of Palau. The lectures at PCC aim to create a new process of training and producing local IT Professionals who can improve the overall IT situation of Palau in the future.

　　Palau is a country that doesn’t simply fit into the normal ‘developing country’ phase. The challenge of Palau lies in the question, ‘What is most necessary to operate and administer this small island country?’ After spending nearly two years in Palau, I find that it is crucial to always keep in mind that this country still lacks basic infrastructure for operating and administrating the country; therefore we must look for what we can do best in that situation to contribute to the improvement of Palau.

　(Learning ‘Itabori’ at Tebang on the weekend.)

(I practice my carving technique following the picture drawn by my Itabori Master, Mr. Ling. Everyone teach me so kindly but I still have a lot to learn…)