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Japan’s changing official development assistance: How institutional reforms affected the role of Japan’s private sector in ODA delivery

Pitzen, Likki-Lee (2016) In Working papers in contemporary Asian studies 2016(52).
Abstract
Despite its OECD membership and transformation from aid recipient into a major donor of official development assistance (ODA), Japan has long been

criticized for pursuing commercial interests through its infrastructure-focused ODA, which has heavily relied on its own corporate private sector for implementation. Throughout the last two decades, institutional reforms have altered the structure and principles of Japan’s foreign aid; yet not much knowledge has been produced on how these reforms have changed the prominent role of Japan’s private sector in its aid implementation. This thesis undertook this question and applied the theoretical model of the iron triangle, native to political and development studies, to first establish the... (More)
Despite its OECD membership and transformation from aid recipient into a major donor of official development assistance (ODA), Japan has long been

criticized for pursuing commercial interests through its infrastructure-focused ODA, which has heavily relied on its own corporate private sector for implementation. Throughout the last two decades, institutional reforms have altered the structure and principles of Japan’s foreign aid; yet not much knowledge has been produced on how these reforms have changed the prominent role of Japan’s private sector in its aid implementation. This thesis undertook this question and applied the theoretical model of the iron triangle, native to political and development studies, to first establish the internal power relations between the involved corporations, bureaucracy and government prior to the reforms. Triangulation of quantitative data from MOFA and OECD statistics with qualitative data from interviews with non-commercial and business professionals in ODA was then conducted to determine how the role of the private sector has changed within the triangle. Further, changes within the private sector were

explored. While the ODA-affiliated firms comprising the corporate part of Japan’s private sector have become less influential as a consequence of the reforms, the civilian non-commercial part has gained more weight in aid implementation. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
author
publishing date
type
Working paper/Preprint
publication status
published
subject
keywords
Asian studies, Official Development Assistance, Foreign aid, Japanese ODA, Bilateral aid, Aid implementation, Private sector, Reforms.
in
Working papers in contemporary Asian studies
volume
2016
issue
52
pages
56 pages
publisher
Centre for East and South-East Asian Studies, Lund University
ISSN
1652-4128
ISBN
978-91-981692-2-5
language
English
LU publication?
no
id
e82f69b5-6dde-4bc6-8e86-fc9a6cd0a626 (old id 8857228)
date added to LUP
2016-04-01 13:49:03
date last changed
2018-11-21 20:20:12
@misc{e82f69b5-6dde-4bc6-8e86-fc9a6cd0a626,
  abstract     = {{Despite its OECD membership and transformation from aid recipient into a major donor of official development assistance (ODA), Japan has long been<br/><br>
criticized for pursuing commercial interests through its infrastructure-focused ODA, which has heavily relied on its own corporate private sector for implementation. Throughout the last two decades, institutional reforms have altered the structure and principles of Japan’s foreign aid; yet not much knowledge has been produced on how these reforms have changed the prominent role of Japan’s private sector in its aid implementation. This thesis undertook this question and applied the theoretical model of the iron triangle, native to political and development studies, to first establish the internal power relations between the involved corporations, bureaucracy and government prior to the reforms. Triangulation of quantitative data from MOFA and OECD statistics with qualitative data from interviews with non-commercial and business professionals in ODA was then conducted to determine how the role of the private sector has changed within the triangle. Further, changes within the private sector were<br/><br>
explored. While the ODA-affiliated firms comprising the corporate part of Japan’s private sector have become less influential as a consequence of the reforms, the civilian non-commercial part has gained more weight in aid implementation.}},
  author       = {{Pitzen, Likki-Lee}},
  isbn         = {{978-91-981692-2-5}},
  issn         = {{1652-4128}},
  keywords     = {{Asian studies; Official Development Assistance; Foreign aid; Japanese ODA; Bilateral aid; Aid implementation; Private sector; Reforms.}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  note         = {{Working Paper}},
  number       = {{52}},
  publisher    = {{Centre for East and South-East Asian Studies, Lund University}},
  series       = {{Working papers in contemporary Asian studies}},
  title        = {{Japan’s changing official development assistance: How institutional reforms affected the role of Japan’s private sector in ODA delivery}},
  url          = {{https://lup.lub.lu.se/search/files/3609115/8857229.pdf}},
  volume       = {{2016}},
  year         = {{2016}},
}