On 18th and 19th September, 2020, Dr. Cherdsak Virapat Director General, CIRDAP attended the 53rd Annual Planning Conference of Bangladesh Academy for Rural Development (BARD) in BARD Campus, Cumilla. In the conference, the chief guest was Mr. Md. Tazul Islam, Honorable Minister of Local Government, Rural Development and Cooperatives, Bangladesh. The formal ceremony was started with placing floral wreath at the mural of Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman. In the conference, Research session was conducted by Director Research of CIRDAP Prof. Dr. Md. Helal Uddin. Later, the DG CIRDAP planted saplings of A Rambutan Tree on the premises of BARD. Beside the Program, Dr. Virapat along with a research team of BARD and CIRDAP team members visited a nearby village for observing drinking water supply system and usage of Tube well. In the conference, DG Dr. Virapat made a speech as a Guest of Honor. At first Dr. Virapat expressed his sincere thanks to BARD for the invitation of the 53rd Annual Conference of BARD and also its commitment to strong cooperation and partnership and for the steadfast support to CIRDAP. He said, “The CIRDAP vision is to be a Centre of Excellence and Multi-level platform for cooperation in knowledge transfer and capacity building for developing countries in integrated rural affairs for sustainable development in Asia and the Pacific Region and mission is to provide technical support and promote innovative best practices on sustainable Integrated Rural Development amongst member countries in Asia-Pacific”. DG CIRDAP also said as an autonomous institution, BARD strives for research and training of local people as well as practitioners on rural development and it is also the Link Institute of CIRDAP in Bangladesh. The collaboration on research and development between CIRDAP and BARD has been established since the last four decades. In his speech, Dr. Virapat focused on some current major challenges for rural development such as impacts of Covid-19 pandemic, population growth, land degradation, water resource shortage, food insecurity and contamination, access to clean drinking water, increase frequency and magnitudes of natural hazards, climate change vulnerability etc. He urged all the attendees that everyone should be prepared for their impacts and to know how to response and to mitigate them.Lastly, with fruitful collaborations of CIRDAP with BARD and other partner organizations in the region and in the world, Dr. Virapat hoped that CIRDAP and BARD will continue to explore opportunities and implement regional training and projects to strengthen collaboration and coordination for integrated rural development. In the afternoon session of the conference, Director Research of CIRDAP, Dr. Helal chaired business session 2 of APC – Working Paper Presentation of Research – where Mr. Milon Kanti Bhattacharjee, Director (Research), BARD, presented the research activities of BARD. Mr. Md. Shahjahan, Director General of BARD and Dr. Md. Shafiqul Islam, APC Convener and Director (Administration) BARD joined the session. Many participants from different Government and Non-government organizations took part in the session with their valuable comments on the research activities of the Research Division of BARD.

The Centre on Integrated Rural Development for Asia and the Pacific (CIRDAP) now has a new Director General (DG). He is Dr. Cherdsak Virapat a Thai national replacing Mr. Tevita Taginavalau a Fiji national who has completed his four year term (2016-2020). Dr. Virapat has worked in various Ministries within Thailand Public Service in a span of 28 years. He has served as the Executive Director of International Institute for Trade and Development, Ministry of Commerce; Director General of Network of Aquaculture Centres in Asia-Pacific (NACA) in Bangkok, Thailand and Executive Director of International Ocean Institute Headquarters in Malta. These Ministries include the Ministry of Agriculture & Cooperatives, Ministry of Natural Resources & Environment, Ministry of Commerce, etc. He also worked as Chief of International Coordination and Assistant Executive Director of Thailand’s National Disaster Warning Center, Office of the Prime Minister and the Ministry of Information & Communication Technology. He holds a B.Sc. in Fishery Management from Kasetsart University, Bangkok, Thailand; an M.Sc. in Fishery Science from the University of Helsinki, Finland; and a Ph.D. in Fisheries Management from Dalhousie University, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. He is an Advisory Board Member of International Ocean Institute, Thai Association of Malta, Thai Association of Canada, and Association of Faculty of Fisheries Kasetsart University, Thailand. He has published books and book chapters on fisheries and agriculture. Dr. Virapat was awarded the Elisabeth Mann Borgese Medal in 2014 in recognition of his leadership at the International Ocean Institute (IOI) and Gold medals in 2016 and in 2019 from the Asian Fisheries Society in recognition of his support and dedication to the work of the Society. Dr. Virapat said that he looks forward to leading the Secretariat by continuing on the work his predecessors have done blending with his experiences to take CIRDAP further into the future. He also added that, he will make the Organization ready for new challenges and strengthened the role for Integrated Rural Development in Asia and the Pacific region. Dr. Virapat will serve CIRDAP from 2020 to 2024.

On September 8, 2020, the Webinar on “Assessing the COVID-19 Impact of Reverse Migration on Rural Communities in CIRDAP Member Countries” has been conducted in CIRDAP HQ. This webinar was moderated by Director Research of CIRDAP Professor Dr. Mohammed Helal Uddin. At 10 am the webinar started and it ended around 1 pm with a very fruitful and vibrant discussions from the participants from CIRDAP member countries. In his opening address, Prof. Helal stated that because of COVID-19 this reverse migration issue is creating a huge impact on the rural communities though country to country it may vary in terms of their stability and others factors. The keynote address on reverse migration impact was presented by programme officer, CIRDAP A.G.C.Babu. In his presentation, the recent issues causing the reverse migration was stated. A large number of international reverse migration (from overseas to own country) and internal reverse migration (from urban to rural) are currently happening around the world. And the main reasons behind it are COVID 19 pandemic situation, non-availability of jobs in destination countries, loosing oil revenues in many middle-eastern countries, shortened job opportunities in urban and shortage of wages etc. Mr. Abdulla Al Hussain of Bangladesh Academy for Rural Development (BARD) from Bangladesh; Prof. Rajendra Prasad Mamgain of NIRD&PR from India; Ms. Nazlinda Zamani of Ministry of Rural Development from Malaysia; Ms. Beh Afable from Philippine, Ms. R.M.M.H.K. Rambodagedara of HARTI from Sri Lanka; Dr. Vanida Khumnirdpetch from Thailand and Dr. Tran Cong Thang from Vietnam presented in the context of their respective countries on reverse migration. This was followed by a general discussion from academicians from different universities in Bangladesh. Later, Mr. Abdulla Al Hussain of BARD showed in his presentation that over 95 thousand of Bangladeshi workers returned home from 26 countries between April to August 30, 2020 mostly because there was no work due to the current COVID 19 pandemic situations. And some them were deported because of work permit expired. According to Prof. Rajendra Prasad Mamgain of India both internal and external reverse migration is very important for them. Nearly 40 million internal migrants in India has created a huge challenge for the rural areas due to overburden on rural labour market and the economic stability has become a question. Loss of produce during the initial stage of lock down, loss of sudden demand for rural produce are some of the concern. Ms. Nazlinda Zamani from Malaysia presented the policy of mitigating the impact of reverse migration on rural communities in Malaysia by the government of Malaysia. In Malaysia, the reverse has been happening way before the COVID 19 situation and the government has taken some actions to cushion the impact of COVID 19 in rural communities through stimulating the rural economy. Malaysia is facing problems due to migrants workers going back to their destinations. Dr. Vanida from Thailand said,” We don’t have the official numbers of the migrants because we don’t consider that the migrants are different from our citizens. Mostly we look at the labour force and the labour market. Our citizens that go out of the country and come back because of COVID 19, in this context, there are some statistics which stated that the labor force of the agricultural sector decreased at the second quarter of the year. And also in the service and industry sector, the number of labor are reduced.” DG CIRDAP Dr. Cherdsak Virapat also provide his views and comments in this issue. He said that to mitigate the impact of reserve migration, not only the member countries’ government but also multi-agencies collaborations and efforts are highly needed. Professor Dr. Hasneen Jahan, Professor Dr. Mohammad Mizanul Haque Kazal, Prof. Dr. Md. Saidur Rahman of Bangladesh Agricultural University and Prof. Romaza Khanum of Shylet Agricultural University also gave their opinion.  

First Virtual Meeting of CIRDAP Executive Committee Meeting was held on August 24, 2020. All the CIRDAP member countries except Afghanistan, Nepal, Laos and Philippines were attended virtually in this policy body meeting. It is a milestone of the digital era of CIRDAP and also it is an expression towards the new normal of COVID 19 pandemic. Incoming Director General (DG) of CIRDAP Dr. Cherdsak Virapat formally introduced himself to the dignitaries and representatives of all the member countries. He started the meeting by welcoming the guests and members of CIRDAP by saying this is the first virtual meeting of Executive Committee of CIRDAP. And then Dr. Virapat invited the Chairperson of EC from Srilanka to give opening address and chair the session. On behalf of Chairperson from Sri lanka, Major Gen. (Rtd) Sumedha Perera, Scretary, Ministry of Agriculture; Deputy Director (projects) – Mr. P.N.N. Jayaneththi from the Ministry of Agriculture chaired this EC Virtual meeting. Mr. Jayaneththi gave sincere appreciation to CIRDAP for giving the chairperson of EC position to Sri lanka; and cordially welcomed and invited to all the distinguished members to this first virtual meeting of EC. He further said recently a new government has been selected in Srilanka and this government is willing to further strengthening the cooperation with international organization like CIRDAP. He also believed that the assistance of CIRDAP can be utilized very efficiently and effectively in agriculture and rural development not only in Sri Lanka but also all the Asia and pacific region. Hon’ble Members of Executive Committee representing CIRDAP member countries discussed policy areas of mutual collaboration and cooperation. This key policy body of CIRDAP review the activities of the Centre, standards and guidelines for the management of the Centre, and approve its programme of work and budget.

CIRDAP’s 35th Virtual Technical Committee Meeting was held on August 26, 2020. Delegates from all the CIRDAP Member Countries (CMCs), partner organizations and integrated rural development (IRD) experts gracefully attended the Meeting. All the distinguished technical committee members were presented in this virtual meeting to discuss the progress and programme activities of CIRDAP. It’s a milestone of the digital era of the organization; and also CIRDAP is embracing the new normal of COVID 19 pandemic. The inaugural session was started with the speech of outgoing chairman from India. TC Chairman Ms. Smt Alka Upadhyaya, Director general, National Institute of Rural Development and Panchayati Raj (NIRD&PR) welcomed all the member countries and give sincere thanks for successfully conducting the 34th TC meeting last year 2019 which was hosted by India. She emphasized on having the mitigation strategy for combatting the COVID 19 pandemic in the CIRDAP member’s countries. And she also discussed about the climate change problem which is constantly being faced by CIRDAP member countries especially South Asia. Ms. upadhyaya focused on the partnership between the countries on the climate change situation with special focus on current pandemic situation. The Director General Designated of CIRDAP Dr. Cherdsak Virapat formally started and chaired this 35th virtual meeting. Dr. Virapat said “Excellences and the members of technical committee of the CIRDAP member countries, it’s my great honor that you kindly welcome me at this 35th virtual technical committee meeting. And I would like to my sincere thanks to the outgoing madam chair who kindly welcome and congratulate me as well as other members who welcome warmly me to this meeting.” Hon’ble Members of Technical Committee representing CIRDAP member countries discussed the various agenda’s regarding CIRDAP programme activities, operations and policy areas of mutual collaboration and cooperation.