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Bhutan
Lessons Learned & Best Practices
Year: 2021Income Group: Lower middle incomeSource: VNR
Finding: The King of Bhutan instituted the De-Suung (Guardian of Peace) Program over a decade ago as a value-based personal development program to encourage citizen engagement in nation-building. Built on the spirit of volunteerism, it advocates for a sense of community, harmony, and cooperation. Since its inception, the De-Suups have been engaged in voluntary initiatives, especially post-disaster relief operations.
With the COVID-19 pandemic onset, De-Suups have been providing voluntary services as frontline workers, from assisting security forces in patrolling border areas to supporting coordination efforts for public services, delivering essential items during lockdowns, facilitating the enforcement of COVID-19 protocols in public places, among others.
Given the critical role played by these volunteers as part of the national efforts to deal with the pandemic, an accelerated and specialized training program for Desuups was launched, focusing on engaging unemployed youth, and today there are more than 22,000 De-Suups in the country.
Year: 2021Income Group: Lower middle incomeSource: VNR
Finding: The VNR of Bhutan indicates that the country started to adopt measures to build back better after the pandemic, connecting the process with the SDGs acceleration. At the same time, the report links efforts to build back better with national steps towards Least Development Country graduation and the achievement of higher levels of Gross National Happiness.
