FASID-IUJ International Development Assistance

International University of Japan, Niigata, December 4, 2008

 

 

A joint special seminar between Foundation for Advanced Studies on International Development (FASID ) and International University of Japan (IUJ ) on International Development Assistance was held at International University of Japan, Niigata on December 4, 2008, under the presence of IUJ students, IUJ faculty, and FASID special guest. The seminar was sponsored by FASID as a part of Project Cycle Management Course (PCM). The PCM has started with a financial support of FASID in 1996, one year after the establishment of International Development Program in IUJ.  In this course more than 250 students have attended over the last 12 years.

Prof. Takahiro Akita, Dean of Graduate School of International Relations of IUJ, acknowledging the support of FASID on behalf of IUJ, highlighted about the PCM course and seminar objectives. He pointed out that the FASID course on PCM has been one of the most popular courses at Graduate School of International Relations especially for International Development Program students since 1996. Furthermore, he mentioned the main objective of the seminar as to explore the role of foreign assistance in international development with particular attention to Japan, one of the largest donor countries. 

Mr. Naonobu Minato, Acting Director, International Development Research Institute, FASID presented the Evolution of Ideas on Development and Development Assistance which included not only Japanese development assistance but also the development assistance behaviors of World Bank (WB), International Monetary Fund (IMF) and United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), indicating some global trends in the past. He viewed that socioeconomic condition, foreign policy, domestic issues of donor countries, development theories and international events might have strongly influenced the strategy and approach of development assistance. During his presentation, he focused on development theories, events and actions by dividing the parts of evolution in four periods after Second World War till now.

In the first period, World War-II to mid 1970s, he emphasized the role of capital or fund as a guiding theory for the development. In this period, WB had provided loan for post war reconstruction of the countries like France, Germany, United Kingdom and Japan. He stressed that Japan efficiently utilized, adopting industrial policy, the WB loan of 860 millions US dollars (1953-1966) for the development project such as power generation, ship building, steel mills, railways and highways. However, this approach was not successful in many developing countries. He mentioned that the major role of development was shifted from government to market in the second period (mid 1970s-1980s) with open trade policy. In this period, WB and IMF came up with innovative structural adjustment loan to address the financial problems that arose from severe debt due to oil price hike and bad macroeconomic management especially in Africa and Latin America. He argued that a new instrument designated to encourage client's governments to change their policy in conformity with neoclassical thinking was not always successful due many conditionalites of WB and IMF that had to be accepted by client’s government. He explained that the third period (late 1980s-late 2000s) had the policy of increasing human capital rather than the physical capital and he further suggested that the government should commit for sustainability of the project. He also indicated some of the criticisms of Millennium Development Goal (MDG), formulated in 2000, for excluding the economic growth and role of private enterprises, mentioning the recent phenomenon of a high growth of emerging countries such as China, India, Brazil, Turkey, and Vietnam which might have a strong impact by private sector development. The fourth ongoing period (late 2000s-), as he mentioned, may be characterized by the role of private sector for poverty reduction and development, informing that Japanese ODA has announced to encourage the collaboration with private agencies. Finally, he remarked that the philosophical ideas for development priorities are swinging between social equity or income redistribution and economic growth. (Presentation slides pdf.)

Dr. Nawalage.S. Cooray, Associate Professor, Director of IPSP, IUJ, presented a summary of his findings, citing three major events that are happening in the world which are current account deficient of US trade balance (global imbalance), present financial crisis and present Clinton Global Initiatives (CGI), on Japan's ODA and its patterns and determinants using two decades panel data (1981-2001). He explained ODA has re-emerged as an important issue after long due to appearance of United Nations MDG which wants to contribute to many developed countries for achieving this goal by 2015. He emphasized that Japan is important for ODA issues,   has notable record for using foreign aid: for successful post-war reconstruction and development, for repayment in full of the debts taken from the WB and other creditors within a couple of generation; and for itself becoming a major donor country. He stressed that the learning of Japan could be very much important for the countries which have been affected by the war. He also highlighted that Japan had provided a peak of $15.3 billion of ODA in 1999 (0.35% of GNI), which is above the average of 0.29% for all industrial countries and the highest amount among all the industrial countries though it is well below the internationally agreed  United Nations target of 0.7%.

He mentioned the two groups of thought i.e. recipient's need and donor's interest for finding the Japanese ODA's determinants and stressed that the recent criticism of approach, mentioning that mixing up of both demand side and supply side variables, is worthwhile to use for econometric analysis. He showed that econometric analysis variables which represent Japan own interests for ODA such as democracy, distance, country size and income level are all statistically significant with the expected sign.  Finally, he suggested that if Japan wants to reach UN target, Japanese government has to increase its ODA to 31 billion US dollars. In order to do so, it should increase tax by 0.5%, arguing that, it is difficult for Japan to reach the UN target due to economic slow down. (Presentation slides pdf.)

Dr. Keiko Watanabe, Program Officer, International Development Research Institute, FASID, drew upon her extensive peace building experiences in Sudan to summarize peace building process and development by Japanese government assistance, measures, learning and constraint in post-conflict country. She pointed out that seamless transition from emergency/humanitarian assistance to development is crucial for post-conflict country like Sudan. However, there is a real challenge in bridging �gthe gap�h between these two assistance periods due to huge resources, organizational and coordination gaps in this transitional recovery or reconstruction period. She stressed that it is very important to show the people peace dividend after the conflict so that the great expectation of the grass root people after a prolong war can be minimized by quick and tangible benefit. She also emphasized that Japan's assistance strategy for Sudan has to consolidate the peace by emergency and humanitarian assistance with early development in health, education, water, vocational training and livelihood.

She suggested that, drawing upon her field experiences, regional disparity between North and South Sudan should be mitigated to prevent future conflict and should focus on assistance to returnees by avoiding friction between returnees and existing residents. She further focused that assistance to post-conflict country needs to mitigate fragility, understand the root causes, know the political and economical condition of country and show quick impact with tangible results. (Presentation slides pdf.)

After the presentations, Prof. Takahiro Akita opened the floor for questions and answers. (Questions and Answers pdf.)

Mr. Yasuma Sugihara, IUJ President and Dean, Graduate School of International Management, gave final tribute to seminar organizer and speakers with special thanks to FASID for supporting such forum on behalf of IUJ.  Prof. Takahiro Akita concluded the seminar with a vote of thanks to all the speakers and participants.