Panch Dev Bhatta is serving as an Information and Communications Technology (ICT) Expert, based in Surkhet, Nepal, at the Provincial Support Unit of Local Governance and Community Development Programme (LGCDP). The LGCDP Programme aims to improve local governance for effective delivery and citizen empowerment, which contributes towards poverty reduction through better local governance and community development.
Following Nepal's recent constitutional transition to a federal structure and many new provincial offices being established to foster Nepal’s process to E-Governance and transparency, the United Nations Volunteers (UNV) programme supported the LGCDP II project under the Ministry of Federal Affairs and General Administration by deploying national UN Volunteer ICT Experts to the different provinces.
Panch Dev Bhatta is one of them who is contributing to institutional development and improving people’s access to information. His work in the ICT sector is undoubtedly becoming an integral part for institution development and improving access to information in Nepal. "I feel proud to be a volunteer," Panch says.
Volunteerism for me is compassion, unselfish caring, investing time for society, organization and nation and thinking out of the box for positive changes and impacts. --Panch Dev Bhatta, UN Volunteer ICT Expert, Nepal
Panch Dev provides backstopping, monitoring and mentoring support to IT Officers from 79 local government offices in Karnali province. The day-to-day support includes providing technical assistance on website management, technical problem-solving and realization of E-Governance at local level. He also coordinates with offices in ministries and provincial offices on issues regarding website designs and facilitation on ICT tools implementation.
After work, Panch Dev is also committed to the community development. He puts his passions of photography and travelling into making documentaries, introducing various tourist spots and local culture in Nepal to help promoting tourism.
"In the past few years, volunteerism for me has remained a passion to give something to society, organization and ultimately to the nation for its development and wellbeing," said Panch Dev.
With Panch Dev’s ongoing efforts to improve the mechanism of information and telecommunication between government entities, citizens and related stakeholders, he is creating positive impact to the overall governance efficiency at local as well as on provincial level in Nepal.