Theoretical Discussion on Partnership in International Development Cooperation

Abstract The transformation of urban basic service sectors towards more sustainability is one of the ‘grand challenges’ for public policy, globally. A particular urgent problem is the provision of sanitation in cities in low-income countries. The globally dominant centralised sewerage approach has proven incapable to reach many of the urban poor. Recently, an increasing number of actors in international development cooperation has started to develop alternative safely managed non-grid approaches. We approach their efforts as an emerging ‘global innovation system’ and investigate how its development can be supported by systemic intermediaries. We analyse the activities of the ‘Sustainable Sanitation Alliance’, an international network that coordinates activities in the sanitation sector and thereby supports this innovation system. The findings show how demand ing it is to fulfil an intermediary role in a global innovation system, because of the need to consider system processes at different scales, in each phase of system building.

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Sustainable Consumption and Production in Asia — Aligning Human Development and Environmental Protection in International Development Cooperation

Sustainable Asia ◽

10.1142/9789814730914_0002 ◽

2017 ◽

pp. 17-43

Author(s):

L. Akenji ◽

M. Bengtsson ◽

P. Schroeder

Keyword(s):

Environmental Protection ◽

Human Development ◽

International Development ◽

Sustainable Consumption ◽

Development Cooperation ◽

Sustainable Consumption And Production ◽

International Development Cooperation

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Japan’s development cooperation: from making amends to agenda–setting

Revista de Fomento Social ◽

10.32418/rfs.2021.300.5032 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 351-373

Author(s):

Nikolay Murashkin

Keyword(s):

World War Ii ◽

International Development ◽

Relative Weight ◽

Development Cooperation ◽

Infrastructure Development ◽

World War ◽

Japan International Cooperation Agency ◽

Key Drivers ◽

International Development Cooperation

This article revisits the post–World War II evolution of Japan’s Official Development Assistance (ODA) over the past 75 years, with a particular focus on the period starting from the 1980s and subsequent changes in Japan’s international development cooperation policies. I address cornerstones such as human security and quality growth, while examining the role of Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), shifts and continuities in regional visions and sectoral priorities, such as infrastructure development. I argue that the threefold mix of key drivers behind Japan’s development cooperation has remained consistent, involving developmentalism stemming from Japan’s own experience of successful modernisation from a non–Western background, neo–mercantilism, as well as strategic and geopolitical considerations. The relative weight and interplay of these factors, however, fluctuated in different periods.

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