Failure of OVOP Program in Nepal

Ganesh Shakya

 The term “OVOP” or One Village One Product is a community centered and demand driven rural economic development approach originated in Oita Prefecture in 1979. Credit goes to Dr. Morihiko Hiramatsu, the former Governor of Oita Prefecture who named and promoted OVOP as a campaign with a vision of revitalizing remote villages at a time when Oita Prefecture have been facing the problem of depopulation owing to the migration of village youngsters to big cities for seeking employment. There is no official record how many countries have had adopted OVOP model for rural development but, however, it is believed that more than 80 countries within Africa, Latin America, and Asia including Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia, Armenia, Malawi have been following OVOP in their respective country except Nepal.

Since OVOP had been officially launched in 1979 but the concept of OVOP has already been developed in 1961 in Oyama Machi (already converted to Oyama town) another small village of Japan.

Mr. Yahara, the former mayor of the Oyama village launched a New Plum Chest Nut (NPC) strategy aiming at transforming the local agricultural production from rice to more promising local product plum and chestnut to improve the local livelihood.

The challenging attempt of Oyama whose motto was “Let’s plant plums and chestnuts to go to Hawaii!” proved successful in 1967 when the local people really visited Hawaii with their increased income through plums and chestnuts farming.

Plum farming and Processed Plum in Oyama Machi

Principles of OVOP, Japan

The OVOP movement as defined by Oita OVOP International Exchange Promotion Committee (OIEPC) is based on the following three principles:

1. Local yet global (Think globally, Act locally)
2. Self reliance and creativity
3. Human resource development

The first principle “Local yet Global” stands for the creation of globally acceptable products and/or services based on local resources. Local residents are expected to create globally marketable products and/or services which represent local pride in material and cultural richness of their home villages/towns. The story behind any product or its development helps attract consumers’ attention such as local flavor will help add values to local products while the use of local human and material resources will help make economic activities sustainable.

The second one is “Self-reliance and Creativity”. These two factors help encourage the local people to be more independent as well as creative, So this principle is crucial since local knowledge and instinct can aid the discovery of ‘buried treasures’ in each village/town.

The last one is “Human Resource Development” which aims at fostering local people with challenging and creative spirit. In other words, it is an entrepreneurship development among community members. For example, the regional development policy of Japan has traditionally focused on construction of infrastructure like roads and bridges. The OVOP movement, in contrast, emphasizes visionary local leadership with challenging and creative spirits.

OVOP in Nepal

At a time when community development through OVOP approach is gaining popularity in different Asian and African countries, Nepal also could not stay behind the new development. As a result, OVOP was launched in Nepal in the year 2006 effective from the very first day of the fiscal year 2006/07.

OVOP in Nepal was a Public Private Partnership Program (PPP) based program which was officially launched in July 17, 2006 for five years as a pilot project. The Ministry of Agriculture Development (MoAD) and the Federation of Nepalese Chamber of Commerce and Industry (FNCCI) are the key partners of the program. The MoAD – from the Government sector provides annual budget for the program while the the FNCCI implements the program through its related District Chamber of Commerce and Industry in the field level. Agro Enterprise Centre – the technical wing of FNCCI works as Secretariat of The OVOP Program.

The program in its first year has launched the program in seven districts with 4 products. Within the period of 11 years, the program has been extended in almost all districts of Nepal.

Termination of OVOP in Nepal   

Most unfortunately, OVOP program has been no more exists now in Nepal. It was terminated in fiscal year 2017/18. This is a big unexpected and unpleasant incident for Nepal. There are many reasons behind termination or failure of OVOP in Nepal which are as follows:

The crucial cause of failure is lack of understanding the three fundamental principles of Oita movement as already mentioned above. The core implementing agencies involved in the program failed to understand the principles. The core actors were not serious in product selection for the program. Most of the products selected were not subsatantited with the principle “Think globally, act locally”. Of course, at the very beginning, the products like Lapsi and Junar (sweet orange) are prudently selected which have local essence. But, later they started to choose the products randomly without considering marketing value of the products. More than 50 different products have been choose for OVOP program which is beyond capacity to promote as desired by OVOP norms.

One of the objectives of the program is to promote OVOP products in national and international market with brand. International market development is far away; even national market also could not be developed by the program. One can find OTOP (One Tambon, One Product) sales counter everywhere in Thailand but in Nepal there is no even single sales counter for OVOP products. Can we find any OVOV shop in Nedpal? No, not at all. If we talk about OVOP Japan, there are many antenna shops in local road side area. Of course, we really missed the opportunity in this aspect too. Branding is almost nil.

Today, people are very much concerned about health. They want quality and hygienic food but the most important thing as such has never been considered. Besides that the implementing agencies were found more concentration only on area extension without adequate budget allocation. The limited budget allocated for the program was spent mostly on production promotion side and local entrepreneurship development; marketing and the branding aspects were ignored.

Publicity is most important factor to promote any products. But, in Nepal, the effort made for OVOP products publicity was very limited. Within a period of 11 years, no special OVOP trade fair has been organized either in local level or in national level. So, 80 percent of Nepalese people without knowing what OVOP is, the program has been terminated.

Principally, OVOP program is a bottom-up approached program whereas it is proved as top-down approach in Nepal. So, the local participation in the program is countable in fingers. Without local interest and participation, this type of program could not be sustained; and finally, the result came out accordingly.

Lack of leadership is another draw back of the program. There is no leader having perfect knowledge on OVOP who can direct the program.  Those who have got training from Japan were also remain inactive because they after having training can not stay in the same organization for long time because of official transfer or the retirement. So, the whole program has got negative impact.

Lengthy process in budget and program approval, limited budget is the major constraint in program implementation. Program and budget approve after 3 months of fiscal year commencement and the first trimester budget release 6 months later. One can easily think that how can a program run for six months without budget. Similarly, the budget allocated for single unit program is very small. The allocated budget is sure not enough to output oriented result. In a situation like this the program became just for the sake of program and result is zero. And, finally the program has been killed in the crawling stage.

Concluding remarks

There is no doubt that OVOP is very good community development approach suitable specifically for the country like Nepal.  However, past is past. So, now OVOP program should be   revitalized with new dimension.

Now, the OVOP program should be run by the local government because it is solely local development program. Village or town or even a metropolitan city, they should launch at least one OVOP program. Because they know better than the central government about potential product and the skill of local people. So, they should run the program with full authority to enhance local economy.

They should not select the product (tangible or intangible) randomly likewise in the past. Before identification of the product, they should consult widely with the local people. The selected product should have local pride and as much as potential to compete in national and international market.

After identification of potential product, special attention should be given to grading and packaging aspect. Hygienic matter should not be ignored. Finally, the product should be branded with local identity.  The product should be sold in local and national market through sales counter in the local level and through antenna shop in national market.

Finally, if OVOP program is run by the local government, it would sure generate employment in the local level as well as help reducing regional unbalanced development problem of the country to great extent. Furthermore, it will help uplifting the local economy directly and contribute to increase national GDP indirectly.