African Arguments

Top Menu

  • About Us
    • Our philosophy
  • Write for us
  • Contact us
  • Advertise
  • Newsletter
  • RSS feed
  • Donate
  • Fellowship

Main Menu

  • Home
  • Country
    • Central
      • Cameroon
      • Central African Republic
      • Chad
      • Congo-Brazzaville
      • Congo-Kinshasa
      • Equatorial Guinea
      • Gabon
    • East
      • Burundi
      • Comoros
      • Dijbouti
      • Eritrea
      • Ethiopia
      • Kenya
      • Rwanda
      • Seychelles
      • Somalia
      • Somaliland
      • South Sudan
      • Sudan
      • Tanzania
      • Uganda
      • Red Sea
    • North
      • Algeria
      • Egypt
      • Libya
      • Morocco
      • Tunisia
      • Western Sahara
    • Southern
      • Angola
      • Botswana
      • eSwatini
      • Lesotho
      • Madagascar
      • Malawi
      • Mauritius
      • Mozambique
      • Namibia
      • South Africa
      • Zambia
      • Zimbabwe
    • West
      • Benin
      • Burkina Faso
      • Cape Verde
      • Côte d’Ivoire
      • The Gambia
      • Ghana
      • Guinea
      • Guinea Bissau
      • Liberia
      • Mali
      • Mauritania
      • Niger
      • Nigeria
      • São Tomé and Príncipe
      • Senegal
      • Sierra Leone
      • Togo
  • Politics
    • Elections Map
  • Economy
  • Society
    • Climate crisis
  • Culture
  • Specials
    • From the fellows
    • Radical Activism in Africa
    • On Food Security & COVID19
    • #EndSARS
    • Covid-19
    • Travelling While African
    • From the wit-hole countries…
    • Living in Translation
    • Red Sea
    • Beautiful Game
  • Podcast
    • Into Africa Podcast
    • Africa Science Focus Podcast
    • Think African Podcast
  • Debating Ideas
  • About Us
    • Our philosophy
  • Write for us
  • Contact us
  • Advertise
  • Newsletter
  • RSS feed
  • Donate
  • Fellowship

logo

African Arguments

  • Home
  • Country
    • Central
      • Cameroon
      • Central African Republic
      • Chad
      • Congo-Brazzaville
      • Congo-Kinshasa
      • Equatorial Guinea
      • Gabon
    • East
      • Burundi
      • Comoros
      • Dijbouti
      • Eritrea
      • Ethiopia
      • Kenya
      • Rwanda
      • Seychelles
      • Somalia
      • Somaliland
      • South Sudan
      • Sudan
      • Tanzania
      • Uganda
      • Red Sea
    • North
      • Algeria
      • Egypt
      • Libya
      • Morocco
      • Tunisia
      • Western Sahara
    • Southern
      • Angola
      • Botswana
      • eSwatini
      • Lesotho
      • Madagascar
      • Malawi
      • Mauritius
      • Mozambique
      • Namibia
      • South Africa
      • Zambia
      • Zimbabwe
    • West
      • Benin
      • Burkina Faso
      • Cape Verde
      • Côte d’Ivoire
      • The Gambia
      • Ghana
      • Guinea
      • Guinea Bissau
      • Liberia
      • Mali
      • Mauritania
      • Niger
      • Nigeria
      • São Tomé and Príncipe
      • Senegal
      • Sierra Leone
      • Togo
  • Politics
    • Elections Map
  • Economy
  • Society
    • Climate crisis
  • Culture
  • Specials
    • From the fellows
    • Radical Activism in Africa
    • On Food Security & COVID19
    • #EndSARS
    • Covid-19
    • Travelling While African
    • From the wit-hole countries…
    • Living in Translation
    • Red Sea
    • Beautiful Game
  • Podcast
    • Into Africa Podcast
    • Africa Science Focus Podcast
    • Think African Podcast
  • Debating Ideas
Politics
Home›African Arguments›Politics›Japanese international development: human rights and democracy still the elephant in the room – By Magnus Taylor

Japanese international development: human rights and democracy still the elephant in the room – By Magnus Taylor

By Uncategorised
May 17, 2012
1731
0

JICA representatives in South Sudan

The Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) is clearly an organisation with a positive PR agenda. The lunch laid out after the briefing with their Vice President, Mr Kiyoshi Kodera, told you that alone. With good reason too, because JICA is not well-known in the UK despite having existed in one form or other since the 1970s.

It is however, quite quietly, doing some interesting work across the world, and clearly reaping a degree of international good will. Mr Kiyoshi himself comes from a long and successful career at the World Bank and IMF where he became Executive Secretary of the Development Committee.

Japanese international development seems to encounter many of the same problems as those pushing for it in Europe/US. In times of financial austerity, the voting public become more inward looking and naturally spendthrift. However, JICA has managed to stop the slide away from development assistance, re-orienting the focus towards the MDGs and Sub-Saharan Africa.

Another key focus is the “˜Yen loan’ programme – providing concessionary loans to developing countries at low interest rates (around 0.75 percent). This rate is further reduced if the loan is to be used for climate change mitigation projects. It was interesting to know that the Yen loan is not widely implemented in sub-Saharan Africa (North Africa is a different story) with only Nigeria on the books, and then in quite a limited fashion.

Major work south of the Sahara has focused on doubling ODA by the end of 2012 (on track) and continuing technical assistance in areas like school education in science. In South Sudan (a post-conflict country of particular focus) the Japanese “˜Self Defence Force’ ie the army, has participated in the maintenance of basic infrastructure, including the rehabilitation of Juba’s port.

So it seems JICA is running a number of high-quality, technical programmes quietly and efficiently. However, the elephant in the room was the Japanese view of democracy and human rights in relation to their professed interest in the pervasive “˜governance agenda’ of Western donors. Mr Kiyoshi clearly cares about this, and admits that “democracy and human rights have a lot do with governance.” The Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs is clearly less forthcoming in its views, and as Mr Kiyoshi said “doesn’t talk about it in an open manner.” Whilst JICA may contribute towards electoral observation missions, and training of officials in civil law, it doesn’t do what DFID or the FCO do and openly criticise the actions of other governments.

So, my main question is what exactly is JICA’s vision? Is the softly, softly approach ideological ie Japan has no place in the internal affairs of other sovereign states? Or is it a desire to avoid rubbing international partners/friends up the wrong way? But if, as Mr Kiyoshi acknowledges, human rights and democracy are central to the governance agenda, then why isn’t JICA talking more openly about human rights and democracy?

Magnus Taylor is Managing Editor, African Arguments Online

Previous Article

Zimbabwe Harare International Festival of the Arts ...

Next Article

Congo: The hunt for Bosco – Kabila ...

Uncategorised

Leave a reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

  • KenyaPolitics

    #147notjustanumber: Reclaiming the hearts of Kenya’s youth a year on from Garissa

  • Politics

    The golden leaf: boom time in Zimbabwe — by Ian Scoones

  • Russia. President Faustin-Archange Touadera of the Central Africa Republic officially won a second term in the December 2020 elections. Credit: Paul Kagame.
    Central African RepublicPolitics

    Russia in the Central African Republic: New allies, same challenges

Subscribe to our newsletter

Click here to subscribe to our free weekly newsletter and never miss a thing!

  • 81.7K+
    Followers

Find us on Facebook

Interactive Elections Map

Keep up to date with all the African elections.

Recent Posts

  • The unaccountability of Liberia’s polluting miners
  • Africa Elections 2023: All the upcoming votes
  • “Poking the Leopard’s Anus”: Legal Spectacle and Queer Feminist Politics
  • Introducing Parselelo and a new climate focus
  • The ‘Hustler’ Fund: Kenya’s Approach to National Transformation

Editor’s Picks

AngolaEditor's PicksRadical Activism in Africa

How the radical became normal in Angola

When everyone knows the emperor has no clothes but no one dares say it out loud, even the smallest acts of dissent become ones of radical defiance. This article is ...
  • diversity

    “Our African colleagues”: On the limits of diversity in development

    By Faten Aggad
    July 21, 2020
  • Malawi’s miracle island, where fish remain plentiful despite climate crisis

    By Charles Pensulo
    April 28, 2021
  • Ella Baker addressing a convention in 1964.

    Thinking radically in Africa must start with political education

    By Nanjala Nyabola
    October 12, 2021
  • Refugees from Ukraine at the Polish border on 27 February 2022. Credit: Alexander Somto (Nze) Orah.

    “Only Ukrainians, not Blacks”: Fleeing African students face racism

    By Ope Adetayo
    March 3, 2022

Brought to you by


Creative Commons

Creative Commons Licence
Articles on African Arguments are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
  • Cookies
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms & Conditions
  • en English
    am Amharicar Arabicny Chichewazh-CN Chinese (Simplified)en Englishfr Frenchde Germanha Hausait Italianpt Portuguesest Sesothosn Shonaes Spanishsw Swahilixh Xhosayo Yorubazu Zulu
© Copyright African Arguments 2020
By continuing to browse this site, you agree to our use of cookies.
en English
am Amharicar Arabicny Chichewazh-CN Chinese (Simplified)en Englishfr Frenchde Germanha Hausait Italianpt Portuguesest Sesothosn Shonaes Spanishsw Swahilixh Xhosayo Yorubazu Zulu