THE 17TH REGIONAL SEMINAR FOR LABOUR BASED PRACTITIONERSIMPACT OF TRAININGS TO YOUTH GROUPS
ON DO-NOU TECHNOLOGY IN KENYAFOR THEIR SUSTAINABLE EMPLOYMENTYoshinori FUKUBAYASHI, Community Road Empowerment (CORE)
Yuka IWAMURA , Community Road Empowerment (CORE)
Makoto KIMURA, KYOTO UNIVERSITY

1

Japan’s Diplomacy towards Africa:
Strengthening Each Individual, One by One.
http://www.mofa.go.jp/mofaj/afr/af2/et/page24_000188.html

Speech by H.E. Mr. Shinzo Abe, Prime Minister of JapanOn 14th of January, 2014
At African Union Headquarter(Bringing a bright future to youth)“A Japanese NGO called“Community Road Empowerment,”or “CORE,” provides
An excellent illustration of this....

TABLE OF CONTENTS
1. INTRODUCTION
Why & How
We, CORE, INGO work in infrastructure(Road) sector
To be development partner with stakeholders
2. DO-NOU TECHNOLOGY
Do-nou is “Soilbag” in Japanese and defined as oneof Locally available geotextile.
As local resource based approach (LRBA)
3. TRAININGS OF YOUTH ON DO-NOU TECHNOLOGYTo promote resilience and sustainable livelihood forthe poor and vulnerable people

Rural access roads areLifeline, Low volume, Not Maintainable

Kenya, Kericho

Tanzania, Mtwala

What can we, civil engineers, do to provide rural people accessto hospitals, schools and markets?
We would like to contribute to enable African people to solve
African problem by themselves.

4Michibushin (Japanese) =Community initiative to improve feeder roadwith locally available material
About 55 years ago

5Several Solutions

Rehabilitation withEquipment by Contractor

Rehabilitation with
LBT by Contractor

Spot improvement withLRBT (LIT):Do-nou technology
by Community(in partnership with Local authority)
CORE’s role: Mobilization, Design,Training, Supervision

6

Spot improvement at the problematic section
12Before3

After

Problematic section have been improved and the network
become accessible.
However, skills obtained are not much utilized. Sustainability?
Rural access improvement =>Rural access improvement + Youth employment promotion
Do-nou technology (LRBT) is to be utilized in LBT project.

7

Characteristics of Do-nou technology: 1
Do-nou bag (Polypropylene strand woven bag) specification
UnitmmSpecification
600mm

450Weightgrams

45 - 48

Number of woven strands per inch

No.

9-10

Dimensions

Parameter
LengthWidthMaterial
Parameter
Bag
Minimum tensile strength (kN/m)
Maximum elongation (%)

Specification
615

Locally
availablematerial
8Characteristics of Do-nou technology: 2CLCL

 Base course material=  Material put inside bags
 Thickness of Base course =  Thickness(No.) of layers
 Thickness/Material for surface layer (Wearing course)

Do-nou enable to compact soil sufficiently without roller=> Labour intensive

9Characteristics of Do-nou technology: 3150 (Unit:mm)
500 250

50Gravel-100After 10 passes

010020001500

3000

Distance from the measuring point（mm)Clay
Cross section（without Do-nou）
Case-B
Depth of the rut (mm)Clay
Cross section（with Do-nou）
Case-A

Settlement (mm)Gravel500 250

Do-nou05033%: with Do-nou: without Do-nou

100150200050 100 150 200
The number of the passes by the car

Do-nou enable to reduce the settlement under traffic load=> Fair road surface condition may last longer
10Applications of Do-nou technology
Backfilling, Inlet & Outlet wall of culvert

BeforeBeforeBags torn due to UV
No constraint effect=>Soilcement filled

After

Retaining wall

After11

Trainings tothe Youth in rural area of Kenya on
spot improvement using Do-nou technology

2012: Youth Employment for Sustainable Development (YESD), ILO
122013 - : Grant assistance for Japanese NGO, Japanese Gov.

AGPO Initiatives in Kenya
The Access to Government Procurement Opportunities (AGPO)
initiatives is to enable youth, women and people with disability
access 30% of Government Tenders through the process ofregistering and pre-qualifying Youths, Women and Persons withDisabilities owned enterprises.
Model: Series of Trainings on
local resource based and labour
intensive method to improve ruralaccess roads to youth

Unemploymentyouth

Beneficiaries ofAGPO Initiatives

What is a model?
How effective?
13Youth Employment Promotion Model($ 300By youth)

KTC (Kisii Training Center) is training institute of the government.
Training course for Routine maintenance and basic business skill:Duration: 6 weeks, Cost: $ 1,750 (ILO in 2012, GOK in 2015) 14

Success stories of the trainings
I was jobless for 3 years and was hopelessto get job. During the Do-nou training, I was
keen in learning the road skills. Now,
awarded the tender from national and localgovernment.
( Mike Kosgei , Director, Race-shine Co. Ltd)
Director: Simon Juguna”Do-nou technologycompany”.
.
Now he is expanding his
business by widening thecapacity and experience
as contractor.
15

Follow up the trainings to the Youth
In 2015, with the funds from GOK, 123 people participated in thetraining course at KTC. Out 123, 41 were selected from theyouth groups CORE had trained on Do-nou technology.
As of July, 2017
Progress of the trained youth after the trainings

27Y2015
Y2012201416

Lessoned learned to sustainable employment
a. The selection of the youth groups need to be done based on
the criteria, such as;
1. the groups are cohesive and willing of livelihood
improvement,
2. majority of the members are committed to the sustainablebusiness as groups,
3. members with literacy and numeracy are involved, etc.
b. Time gap between Do-nou training (A. by NGO) and KTC
training (C. by GOK) should be minimized to keep the youth
motivated and interested in the civil work.
c. Operation system of the company, such as tax, and tendering
process such as prequalification, could be modified to be
more favoured to the starting companies by the youth whodon’t have much experience and cannot gain initial capital. 17

Conclusion
The youth employment promotion model was proposed throughextension of local resource based and labour intensive method,
Do-nou technology, in order to provide the youth who aredependent, less skill, knowledge and capital with opportunities
to be involved in government procurement initiatives.

Wayforward
1. Standardization of Do-nou technology
developing standard scope of works forbidding.
“Manual, Specification, Guideline”
2. Trainings to the youth
3. Monitoring & following up of the trainedyouth
4. Modifying the youth employment promotion
model
5. Expanding the model to other countries

18THE 17TH REGIONAL SEMINAR FOR LABOUR BASED PRACTITIONERS

Acknowledgment
The authors acknowledge that this study was conducted on theprojects administered by ILO, financed by Japanese and Kenyan
government and through data collection in cooperation withCORE Kenya staff and the youth members participated in theproject.
We also would like to express special thanks to Mr. Kiyoshi KITA,
the president of CORE Kenya, for his contributions to theprojects in Kenya and Africa.

19