(5) Partnership with Universities and Educational Institutions
The Government of Japan strives to widely collaborate with universities from an intellectual perspective on the broader aspects of development cooperation, ranging from organizing development cooperation experiences into theories, putting them into further practice, and feeding back the lessons learned to the Japanese community in the form of teaching, taking into account their roles in contributing to the development of developing countries, nurturing human resources in the field of international cooperation, and formulating and disseminating Japanese philosophies and theories of development cooperation. Japan indeed promotes projects including technical cooperation, yen loans, and the JICA Partnership Program (JPP) in collaboration with various universities.
To give an example, the Government of Japan accepts junior government officers of developing countries as international students at Japanese universities through the Project for Human Resource Development Scholarship (JDS) with the aim of nurturing advanced human resources who will be the drivers of socio-economic development in their home countries. To date, the number of universities accepting students has reached a cumulative total of 41, and the number of JDS fellows admitted to the master’s or doctoral programs in Japan has exceeded 5,000. Moreover, Japan provides support to Thailand to establish and operate “Kosen schools (Colleges of Technology),” which are unique to the Japanese education system, and cooperates in the provision of Kosen education that meets the same standards as those in Japan in order to develop industrial human resources in Thailand. Furthermore, Japan implements the ASEAN University Network/Southeast Asia Engineering Education Development Network (AUN/SEED-Net) Project, Glossary as a JICA technical cooperation project to strengthen the network among the universities in Japan and ASEAN, promote collaboration with the industrial sector, and conduct joint research with neighboring countries (see also “Stories from the Field 3”).
In addition, MOFA and JICA implement the “Science and Technology Research Partnership for Sustainable Development (SATREPS) program,” Note 16 in collaboration with the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT), Japan Science and Technology Agency (JST), and Japan Agency for Medical Research and Development (AMED). International joint studies between universities and research institutions of Japan and those of developing countries are being conducted through SATREPS program (see “Promoting Science, Technology and Innovation, and Research and Development” for the results, and “Master Techniques from Japan to the World 1” and “Master Techniques from Japan to the World 2” for cooperation in El Salvador and Mexico).
Above-mentioned partnerships with universities contribute to the advancement of the academic capabilities of developing countries for solving issues, as well as the globalization of Japanese universities where trainees from abroad receive training or conduct their research.
Glossary
- Japan Platform (JPF)
- An emergency humanitarian aid organization established in 2000 through a partnership among NGOs, the government, and the business community. JPF aims to support and coordinate rapid and effective emergency humanitarian aid activities by Japanese NGOs in the event of a large-scale natural disaster or conflict that results in a vast number of refugees or internally displaced persons, etc. JPF utilizes ODA funds provided by the Government of Japan, as well as donations from companies and citizens to carry out emergency humanitarian assistance, including through the distribution of food/non-food items and livelihood recovery support, in the event of a large-scale natural disaster or a vast number of refugees or internally displaced persons fleeing from conflicts.
- NGO-Ministry of Foreign Affairs Regular Consultation Meetings
- In order to promote a stronger partnership and dialogue between NGOs and MOFA, the NGO-Ministry of Foreign Affairs Regular Consultation Meeting was launched in FY1996 for sharing information on ODA and regularly exchanging opinions on measures for improving partnerships with NGOs. It comprises the General Meeting as well as two subcommittees, the “ODA Policy Council” and the “Partnership Promotion Committee.”
- ASEAN University Network/Southeast Asia Engineering Education Development Network (AUN/SEED-Net)
- Established in 2001 as a university network comprising 26 top-ranking engineering universities in 10 ASEAN member countries and 14 partner universities from Japan. AUN/SEED-Net implements various research and education activities to produce advanced human resources in the engineering sector, with the aim of realizing sustainable development in Southeast Asia and Japan. This initiative is supported mainly by the Government of Japan through JICA, with the cooperation of the governments and universities of Southeast Asia and Japanese universities.
- Note 16: See the glossary.