About — Saptari Next

About the Campaign

Launched on 18 February 2023 · Rajbiraj, Saptari · #SaptariNext

🧭Advisory CouncilMeet the advisors 🤝Partner OrganisationsTJB Sewa Trust, Setubandh & more 🌍Friends of Saptari NextGlobal supporters, mapped 🎬Media & SocialLaunch, talks & shows

Saptari Next is a citizens' campaign that envisions the Saptari district of 2030, 2040 and 2050. It partners with individuals and organisations, at home and in the diaspora, to create a positive, conducive environment for the overall development of the district.

Saptari Next is not a political movement, an NGO project, or a one-off event. It is a long-horizon platform: a shared space where the people of Saptari can imagine the district's future together, and then organise the projects, programs, opinion research and publications needed to get there.

Our Approach: Partnership

Individuals

Professionals, students, farmers, entrepreneurs, artists and elders who contribute time, knowledge, networks and resources.

Organisations

Community groups, cooperatives, businesses, schools and colleges, local governments, NGOs and diaspora associations that adopt or co-create initiatives.

The Four Pillars

1

Project

Concrete, time-bound interventions with defined outcomes, handed over to local owners when complete.

2

Program

Continuing streams of work across years, giving continuity between projects and building local capacity.

3

Poll

The listening pillar — surveys and consultations that keep the campaign accountable to the district.

4

Publication

The knowledge pillar — manuals, reports and studies from a shared, credible base of facts. The Manual is the first publication.

The P Lifecycle

The four pillars are the campaign's operating core, the Action phase of a larger lifecycle. A Creation phase comes before them, and a Preservation phase carries their results beyond the campaign. Twelve P's, three phases, one cycle renewed at each horizon: 2030 → 2040 → 2050.

1 · Creation — the mind

Purpose is why: the 2030·40·50 vision. Problem is what stands in the way: evidence and the District Profile. Planning is how: strategy and village development models. Partnership is who: individuals, organisations, diaspora. Provision is with what: the endowment fund, gathered before intervention and built to outlive any single project.

2 · Action — the hands

The four pillars, unchanged: Project, Program, Poll, Publication. Everything the campaign does in the district runs through them.

3 · Preservation — the legacy

Policy institutionalises what works into ward plans, budgets and frameworks. Practice roots it in community habit as ownership is handed over. Prosperity is the self-sustaining "Heart of Mithila" of 2050, which no longer needs the campaign at all.

Campaign Convener

Sanjog Dev

Convener, Saptari Next

Sanjog Dev convenes the Saptari Next campaign from Rajbiraj. He has spent nearly a decade travelling across Saptari district, from the Koshi Barrage and the Sapta Koshi basin to the Chure (Churiya) hills, documenting its challenges and opportunities and building the networks the campaign now draws on.

He has collaborated with Maithili Wikimedians, MWUG and JCI on initiatives spanning photo exhibitions, leadership conferences and civic dialogues across the district. Through Saptari Next he works to connect individuals, organisations and the diaspora behind a shared, evidence-based vision of Saptari in 2030, 2040 and 2050.

His civic record runs well before the campaign's launch: General Secretary of JCI Rajbiraj in its 50th year (and Executive Vice President in its 49th), Secretary of the Buddha Harmony Foundation, and a board member of the Nepal Red Cross Society, Saptari, serving as the district's Covid-19 coordinator, visiting holding and isolation centres and coordinating ambulances through the pandemic before contracting Covid-19 himself. In 2019 he was a project coordinator for the Nepali Emerging Leaders Program (Leadership Academy Nepal, with the Kroc Institute at the University of San Diego), working with cohorts from Bardia to Dolkha. He represented Nepal at the first Nepal–Bangladesh Youth Conclave, and has taken part in election monitoring and survey work in the district. The fuller record, with sources, is in the Civic Society Record below.

This profile draws on the convener's public record; it will keep expanding as the campaign office organises the fuller archive.

Poems by Sanjog Dev — poetry & field videos →

Civic Society Record

Show the record — JCI Rajbiraj, Red Cross, NELP, Cricket Bikash Pratisthan & more →

Before Saptari Next, and alongside it, the convener's approach to civic organisations has been Tan Man Dhan Sewa, service of body, mind and wealth, strengthening institutions that already exist in the district rather than starting over. "A city is dead without civic society and citizen-driven organisations moving forward"; this record is his attempt, in whatever capacity and limited time available, to keep a few of them moving.

JCI Rajbiraj

General Secretary in JCI Rajbiraj's 50th year and Executive Vice President in its 49th, an all-season supporter helping rejuvenate the chapter's goodwill and team-building. With JCI, he organised road-safety outreach with the district traffic office as accidents rose on the newly built Hulaki Rajmarg, and represented Rajbiraj at JCI Bhaktapur, in Sauraha, and at an event in Charali.

Cricket Bikash Pratisthan, Saptari

Helped rejuvenate the Pratisthan under the Tan Man Dhan Sewa approach; it went on to host a women's cricket development event with the acting mayor and ward representatives.

Bageshwori Sewa Samiti

Helped rejuvenate the Samiti in his personal capacity, one of several local organisations reactivated through direct, hands-on involvement rather than formal office.

Nepal Red Cross Society, Saptari

Board member and the district's Covid-19 coordinator, visiting holding centres, isolation centres and coordinating ambulances across municipalities during the pandemic, often without basic protective gear, before being struck by Covid-19 himself for 19 days. Also active in the Society's annual convention and coordination meetings with the district president and higher authorities.

Nepali Emerging Leaders Program (NELP)

Project coordinator in 2019 (Leadership Academy Nepal, with the Kroc Institute at the University of San Diego), working with cohorts in Bardia, Kaski, Janakpur, Kathmandu and Dolkha, and with fellow team members at the UN House, Lalitpur. NELP 2018 in Saptari is where he first spoke publicly about the district's vision, the seed of what became Saptari Next.

Campaign Origins

Before the 18 February 2023 launch: a planning phase, a logo (credit to Roshan Thapa), and a launch-day presentation that set out the vision publicly for the first time.

Also on record: the first Nepal–Bangladesh Youth Conclave, election monitoring and survey work in the district, and Patanjali Yoga Day events organised across several municipalities with Pankaj Deo and Team Patanjali. Sources for all of the above are in the Resources section below.

Travelling the district

Almost a decade of walking Saptari's ground: Shambhunath Temple, Gobargadha, Musahari Bishariya and the Koshi banks at Lalapatti among the many stops. Photos are archived in the Resources section below.

The People & Organisations Around the Campaign

Advisory Council

Honorary and domain advisors, legal, media, business, engineering, diplomacy and more, guiding the campaign from every section of society.

Meet the advisors →

Partner Organisations

TJB Sewa Trust, Setubandh, Tshirt Nepal and allied initiatives working with Saptari Next for the betterment of the district.

See the partners →

Friends of Saptari Next

Well-wishers and supporters across the world, mapped by country and growing as the diaspora network grows.

See the map →

Roadmap

Now — Publication first

Publish the Campaign Manual (first edition, EN/NE) and the District Profile module series compiled by the campaign office.

Next — Baseline & fund

Run the first district-wide poll on citizens' priorities and design the endowment fund's governance framework.

Then — Flagship projects

Launch the first flagship projects in energy, business incubation and conservation with partner organisations.