4. Dispatch of Experts

Significance of the Program

    Like the Acceptance of Trainees scheme described earlier in this booklet, the Dispatch of Experts program is one of the three mainstays of Japan's technical cooperation towards developing countries. Under this program, experts in a diverse range of fields are dispatched to developing countries where they provide technical guidance and instruction to staff in governmental and other institutions.
    As will be described in more detail later, the dispatch of experts is also a component of the project-type technical cooperation program. Usually, however, the one-off style of dispatch of experts is distinguished from that related to project-type technical cooperation under the appellation "individual expert dispatch".

Procedures for Dispatch of Experts

Procedures

    The process commences with the submission of a request by a developing country, via the local Japanese embassy, seeking the dispatch of experts in the particular field required by that country.
    The request is made by means of Form A1. Information to be filled in by a requesting country in this Form A1 includes the background to the request, details of the duties of the expert, the national institution in which the expert will be stationed, the post which the expert will hold, the required years of experience, the number of experts required, the term of the dispatch program, concessions to be granted to the expert (normally known as privileges and exemptions, these may include housing, provision of vehicular transport, disbursement of locally-incurred expenses, medical expenses, exemption from civil liability in the case of accident, and exemption from taxes).
    When the correctly completed Form A1 reaches JICA either through the Japanese embassy concerned or its local office, JICA normally approaches the relevant Ministry or Agency, in accordance with the policy guidelines of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, to select an expert suited to the requirements of Form A1. The Ministry or Agency approached will then consult with interested parties or within the ranks of its own staff to obtain the name of a candidate to recommend to JICA.
    If the candidate is deemed to be appropriate, JICA proposes this candidate as the expert to be dispatched to the requesting country via a document, Form B1, on which such details as name, age, affiliation, and personal history of the candidate are listed. After the counterpart country has confirmed that it will accept the expert, he or she is then dispatched to the destination.
    Under normal circumstances, JICA liaises with responsible ministries and agencies on personnel selection in specific areas upon receiving a request from a developing country, but when necessary, it may conduct its own independent selection process.
    This independent personnel selection process encompasses three component parts: a registration system (experts are pre-registered, and if deemed suitable for a certain request, are available to be dispatched), public recruitment (experts are recruited via newspapers and other media), and contract system (experts are retained under contract with JICA).
    Requests for the dispatch of experts may also come to JICA from the United Nations and other multilateral agencies. The procedures involved, however, are practically the same as the case in which a request is made by a developing country.

Geographic Scope of the Program

    Since Japan initiated its technical cooperation programs after the end of World War II, it has dispatched experts primarily to countries in the Asian region, from the standpoint that it places more importance upon neighboring countries. In FY1996, the Asian region accounted for 56.0% of the total number of experts, the Middle East and Africa 14.8%, and Latin America 19.4%, with the balance of 9.8% dispatched to international organizations and Oceania.

Experts' Fields and Qualifications

(1) Fields of Expertise
    Experts dispatched as part of technical cooperation programs come from a diverse range of backgrounds and areas of specialization. Examples of such specialist fields from past experience are enumerated below:
    Public Works and Utilities: Water supply and sewerage, urban hygiene, roads, railways, ports and shipping, airlines and airports, meteorology, seismic engineering, urban planning, residential construction, surveying, postal services, telecommunications (e.g., telephone, microwave services), radio, and television broadcasting.
    Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries: Irrigation, rice cultivation, soybean cultivation, food processing, afforestation, timber industry, animal husbandry, animal hygiene, plant pathology, fishing boat operations, fisheries industry, and aquaculture (e.g., salmon, trout, prawns).
    Mining and Industry: Mine development, mining, coal, metals processing, railway rolling stock, automobiles, shipping vessels, industrial machinery, petrochemicals, fibers, and pulp.
    Planning and Administration: Development planning, finance and fiscal management, and information science. Human Resources: Education, vocational training, science, and culture.
    The five areas noted above account for the majority of experts' backgrounds, but others that warrant mention include energy (electricity and gas), commerce and tourism, public health and medical care, and social welfare.
    More recently, some innovative forms of expert dispatch programs have been devised. For instance, experts may be dispatched to enhance the synergistic effects achieved through the linkage of funding assistance and technical cooperation (cooperation experts), or to support important policy-formulation activities of counterpart governments (support for key parts of counterpart governments which formulate key policies).
    A further important JICA activity is its collaboration in the Silver Dispatch Program, which is a program to send older aged experts age to developing countries implemented by a Japanese NGO, Japan Silver Volunteers.

(2) Qualifications
    Above all else, experts taking part in technical cooperation dispatch programs are required to have the following four qualifications: specialized technical knowledge, leadership ability, foreign language ability, and good health. In general, there are certain restrictions on age, experience, or academic background. In some cases, recipient countries impose conditions on age and post-tertiary experience.
    Nevertheless, the most important factors are the applicant's history and accomplishments in his or her field of specialization, and language ability. In relation to the latter, Japanese experts tend to be less proficient than experts from other developed countries. More Japanese experts who are proficient in not only English, but also such languages as French and Spanish, are thus needed. The level of language ability required by recipient countries is such that the expert can prepare reports and participate in meetings, as well as engage in daily conversation and provide instruction. In a bid to retain and make full use of development specialists (life work experts) and make the required education and training opportunities available to prospective participants in the technical cooperation experts' program, JICA established the Institute for International Cooperation in October 1983.

Duties

    An expert is assigned to a relevant organization in the recipient country, and is responsible for providing guidance and instruction in his or her specialist field to counterparts.
    The national characteristics and living conditions of developing countries are diverse, and, in almost all cases, they are considerably different from those in Japan. It is naturally anticipated that experts will face many challenges. Overcoming these challenges which ensures the success of the technical cooperation program, requires not only the support of the host organization and Japanese affiliates, but more importantly the endeavors of the experts themselves.
    When an expert is dispatched to a developing country, it is vital that he or she first wins the confidence of local colleagues, the counterparts who will receive instruction. It is also essential to train the counterparts to such a standard as to develop them into home-grown experts who will be able to contribute to improving technological levels and thereby to economic and social development of the recipient country. One case which proves a useful example of the benefits of this approach is where advice offered to the government of the recipient country by a Japanese expert enabled a certain development project to move ahead. As a result of this, a request to Japan for technical cooperation on a larger scale, which was then broadened into project-type technical cooperation and eventually combined with a funding assistance program.

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