This Southern-led project aims at advancement of research-based evidence on the effectiveness of Japanese aid on the Global South, engaging Southern CSO actors on the desirable future structure, instruments and major processes of its aid system, as it fits the 2008 international agenda window, in which the Japan will have a high profile as sponsor of G8.

The development strategy of Japan towards the global South has been little analysed, though in most of the southern countries Japan remains the largest bilateral donor. Besides Japan’s global presence as the second largest economy, it also exercises huge influence on international financial institutions (IFIs) and regional development financial institutions such as Asian Development Bank (ADB).

The Japanese strategy of development assistance requires a careful evaluation for its scale of intervention and involvement in the South. The upcoming G8 Summit in Japan in 2008 also has contextualised the issue with ever greater importance. A southern-led research and communication strategy targeting the upcoming G8 Summit have the utmost potential to make a positive connotation in development debate. In this backdrop CSPP partners of the South have been showing the real interest and motivation for coming up with a evidence-based global project on effectiveness of Japanese aid in the South.

As for bringing synergy to the core focus of the global projects, it is important to come up with an agenda for research and strategy of communication in order to examine whether Japanese aid system pursues an evidenced-based strategy. A thorough analysis of Japanese aid, reflecting issues like modes of aid disbursements; approaches of conditionality; grants versus loans and their implications on socio-economic aspects in the country context, will be conducted. And through appropriate communication strategy it will be put forward to the wider audience in the global level to bring about desired policy changes.

Objectives

1. Gathering and synthesising research-based evidence on Japanese assistance, with a view to influencing pro-poor development assistance strategies for global south.
2. Formulation and dissemination of debate on aid architecture globally through effective communication strategy.
3. Consolidating a Southern-led global policy network on international aid architecture issues.

Project Phases

These goals will be realised in a four-stage process:

• Phase 1: Designing the research agenda
• Phase 2: Country-level research
• Phase 3: Synthesising country lessons into a global report
• Phase 4: Dissemination of the global report

See the Evidence-based Policy in Development Network: Japan G8 Global Project Workshops event page for more information on the events held during Phase 1.

Further Information

Related projects include:

• The G8, Africa and Japan's Aid to Africa: This project from 2005 brings together three initiatives focusing on the views of Japan and the UK on African development and how they can work together more effectively.
• Building Japan-UK Research Links: An initiative to increase the interaction between researchers from Japan and the United Kingdom to address development issues of pressing global concern.

The project is funded by ODI's Civil Society Partnerships Programme, which is funded by ODI's Partnership Programme Agreement with DFID.

For more information on this project contact: Fletcher Tembo.

Additional information on the G8 Summit in Japan 2008 can be found on the official website.

Photo Credit: Flickr/rastafabi