Chaipattana Foundation

AAfter more than 30 years of the development work that would define his life, King Bhumibol founded the Chaipattana (Victory of Development) Foundation in 1988 in order to accelerate the development of rural areas by circumventing the institutional constraints of bureaucracy and budgets that he felt were delaying the implementation of projects in the country.

Chaipattana would fast become his most important foundation. Among the foundation’s achievements to date are the establishment of an agricultural development centre, a type of think tank for irrigation where farmers and officials meet to plan, discuss and envision better ways of meeting the region’s irrigation needs. The centre was one of the foundation’s first endeavours, and was built near a temple in Saraburi province – a location that King Bhumibol felt would favour the centre’s development as monks have traditionally been educators and local community leaders in Thailand. Foundation funds were also made available to Khon Kaen University for technical experiments on combating water pollution.

The foundation’s emphasis on education is also evident in the interest-free loans it provides for occupational development and rural education, while its focus on innovation helped raised the monthly income of local farmers in Sakon Nakhon Province Dairy Farm Project by six times within four years of the project’s launch. In addition, an aerator invented by the king (which was patented in 1993, and which has allowed communities to clean their waterways and ensure a livable habitat for fish) is now being used in Bangkok’s Dusit Zoo, Phra Mongkutklao Hospital, Wat Bovornives, Marble Temple, and within the grounds of Chitralada Villa, Dusit Palace.

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Chaipattana believes that changing times also call for flexible responses. Aware that farming cannot provide all a village family needs in today’s world, the foundation has worked to partially incorporate these villages into the industrial world while attempting to prevent rural depopulation. Under one Foundation project, clothing manufacturers have supplied village women with sewing machines and piecemeal work so they are able to earn an income without moving to urban areas.

King Bhumibol has summed up the foundation’s approach with: “Development must take account of the physical environment, the sociological environment, and the cultural environment. By the local sociological environment, we mean certain characteristics and ways of thinking which we cannot force people to change. We can only suggest. If we go in and find out what the people really want and then fully explain how they can best achieve their aims, the principles of development can be fully applied.”