International Development Journal
Vol.612, November 2007

Mae Fah Luang Foundation , Thailand, under the Thai royal patronage made good success in drug eradication.

M.R.Disnadda  Diskul, Secretary General of the Foundation,
visiting Japan, told successful story on its activities.

Mae Fah Luang Foundation was established by her Royal Highness the Princess Mother of reigning King Bhumibol Adulyadej. The foundation has internationally very good reputation not only in the activity of the Doi Tung Development Project for drug eradication but also in preservation of environment and poverty reduction. Also, the foundation is expanding its activity to Myanmar and Afghanistan.

Activity in Myanmar

Since 2002, livelihood alternative development project has been implemented in Wa village with 6,000 inhabitants. The first step of the process of implementation is to maintain the medical care services for villagers. The second step is to secure food and to supply water, and the third step is education. By introducing the systems of “Seed bank project” and “Pig bank project”  , income of villagers is improving. As a result, the funding cost, seventy million yen, was collected in three years successfully. This approach is spreading over other villages.

Project of Afghanistan

In 2002, M.R. Diskul was invited to participate in international conference on anti drug abuse in Afghanistan. After that, crop substitution program started in  Afghanistan . He recommended military cliques to change the way of business from illegal to legal. For example, he taught them that working in highway construction paid them much more than in drug business .“Sheep bank project” is another good example. He instructed for their self – independence to use local resources as possible and to make local people participate in activity of their own small manufacturing firm in order to establish the system which can produce benefits continuously. He told proudly that we are the first organization which brought such business model to Afghanistan.

Stance of the foundation

He emphasized that the project for success must be initiated by market oriented one. Other supporting projects think how to make products, but they don’t think about how to bring them to the market. His foundation supports local people in order that they can manage business by their own hand. With such vision and skill, the foundation makes money without any contribution from others.

Purpose of visiting Japan

He visited Japan to have a talk with Mrs. Sadako Ogata, President of the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA)  and to request to cooperate with JICA in the project in Afghanistan as JICA and the foundation have a common goal. Also, he added “Japan is already at the high level. There is a gap between developing countries and Japan. Thailand can build a bridge on the gap, because Thailand is located between Japan and developing countries. I am looking forward to making relationship among Japan, Thailand and developing countries in order to promote the projects”.