Kathmandu, Jan 13: The names of the five Integrity Icons selected for the 11th edition of the Integrity Icon Nepal, organized by Accountability Lab Nepal, have been made public. This year, Integrity Icon received 349 nominations from across the country. After rigorous selection processes, the judging committee finalised the top five Integrity Icons.
The judges included Suryanath Upadhyaya, Good Governance Expert; Kashiraj Dahal, Public Administration Expert ; Punya Prasad Neupane and Jiwan Prabha Lama, Former Secretaries of Nepal Government ; Dr. Sucheta Pyakuryal, Professor and Good Governance Expert; and Pradip Raj Kanel, Integrity Icon 2015. The Jury members Sub-Committee and the team Accountability Lab worked for a whole year to collect, manage and analyze the facts to make the selection process of the Jury Committee more effective and reliable.
An official award ceremony will be held on 21 January 2025, Tuesday to honor the five Integrity Icons. Here is a brief introduction of the Integrity Icons for 2024.
Sarmila Subedi, Public Health Inspector, Basic Health Services Center, Nepalgunj-11
Sarmila Subedi, who serves as a Public Health Inspector at the Basic Health Services Center in Nepalgunj, began her career in government service from Bardiya District Hospital, Gulariya in 2066 (2009). Over the years, she has also worked in Jaispur Health Center and Paraspur Health Center, Nepalgunj and Mandandeupur Health Post, Kavrepalanchowk. Her efforts have been key, especially in ensuring access of underserved communities to healthcare and building their trust in the healthcare system.
Some of Sarmila’s major contributions include creating accessible health institutions for marginalized women from Muslim communities, convincing locals to abandon practices of ‘dhami jhakri’ and even relocating the entire health services center closer to the communities for accessibility and effective service delivery. She is highly trusted by women in her community even for problems besides healthcare. Through her work and behaviour, she has been able to garner the trust of the service seekers in the health services center. As a result, those who were earlier skeptical about the health services center now visit it as their first point of care.
Bodha Raj Pathak, Education Officer, Benighat Rorang Rural Municipality, Dhading
Bodha Raj Pathak, Education Officer of Benighat Rorang Municipality, Dhading, is an example of how a single person’s vision and initiative elevated the quality of not one but all 59 schools within the municipality. He designed and implemented an 88-point roadmap, brought the concept of “Leadership School” to enable nearby schools to learn from each other’s experience and practices in 2077, and also introduced the “Teacher Bank” concept to tackle class disruptions by making available and assigning a teacher within 24 hours to any school facing a teacher shortage.
Moreover, to maintain effective governance in schools and evaluate their situation, Bodha Raj designed a self-assessment tool with 67 indicators for the schools. The municipality awards students, teachers and schools that achieve good results each year on the occasion of Education Day. He also introduced a “Teacher Exchange” program to encourage learning, teaching, and collaboration among teachers. Meanwhile, in designing and implementing all these initiatives, he ensured the participation of key stakeholders which has fostered a sense of ownership among them and made the execution much easier.
Manpuran Chaudhary, Section Officer, Elephant Breeding and Training Center, Office of Chitwan National Park, Chitwan
Manpuran Chaudhary is a Section Officer at Elephant Breeding and Training Center under Chitwan National Park. He leads a team of 155 staff and oversees 55 elephants. He is an exemplary public servant with expertise in caring and managing elephants, with exceptional humility towards his work and team, and demonstrates strong leadership.
Under his supervision, the elephants and their calves are receiving excellent care, while former tough training for calves is now simple and effective. He is also always at the frontline, providing protection to his colleagues during the time of unpredictable encounters with the wildlife and further providing skilled training to prevent dangers. As a result, the mortality rate of both the staff and the elephants during training has reduced to zero.
Training elephants is technical and challenging and limited resources make it difficult to train even two elephants in a year. However, Manpuran has provided training to up to 10 elephants annually. His expertise, dedication and willingness has made him a go-to person who is called whenever there is difficulty in training elephants outside his work region and across Nepal.
Meera Kumari Yadav, Public Health Nursing Officer, District Health Office, Parsa
Meera Kumari Yadav began her public service from Madhesh region. However, later when she was posted to the hilly area of Dolakha, the new geography and society did not become a barrier for her. Instead, she became an example of how excellent public service can be provided in any geographical or social environment, as long as there is genuine spirit for service. In Dolakha’s challenging geography, she not only organized mobile camps for women suffering from uterine prolapse, but also ensured arrangements for women who could not reach the health centres on their own. She also arranged free treatment for them.
What makes Meera different is not only her empathetic service, but also her sense of ownership and transparency in service. She goes beyond her regular working hours to attend the service seekers and there have been instances when she provided service even in the middle of the night. Additionally, she completes and maintains the accounts and reporting duties of her daily field work on the same day. Her efforts in ensuring mandatory presence of a Skilled Birth Attendant (SBA) across all birthing centers in Parsa, and her collaborative efforts with the health facilities across the district are equally praiseworthy.
Manahar Kadariya, Senior Agricultural Development Officer, Pokhara Metropolitan City
Manahar Kadariya’s arrival in Pokhara as Senior Agricultural Development Officer provided motivation to even those farmers who were about to leave the agricultural profession. He has taken bold actions to address the persistent challenges of the farmers in Pokhara. For instance, he fixed the price of 35 products of the region that resolved the issue of farmers not getting fair prices, and established agricultural markets in various locations to address marketing issues. Likewise, he prioritized branding to promote local products such as ‘Jetho Budho’ and ‘Khudo’ and started “Krishi Ambulance” to collect farmers’ products for free and assist with their marketing.
Kadariya also leveraged modern technology to address the challenges of farmers by developing a mobile application called “Pokhara Agriculture”. The app facilitates information dissemination, determining daily market prices and managing program requests for farmers. He has effectively implemented the “one ward, one product” initiative in 20 wards of the metropolitan city with the aim of promoting the commercial production of a unique product in each ward and creating employment opportunities. Along with these, he has led many other initiatives that have supported farmers in gaining significant profits, and have even attracted youth towards the agricultural sector.
