Session 1: Development Strategy and Human Security

The concept of human security is in the process of dynamic formation. By combining “freedom from fear” and “freedom from want,” the human security approach will help us to understand the essential requirements of conflict prevention and development cooperation in an integrative way. The new policy framework of international cooperation should be firmly based on an attentive understanding of insecurities experienced by the poorest and the most vulnerable. Although sustained growth must be instrumental in alleviating poverty and bringing about political stability, it is essential in the age of globalization to rethink the quality of growth itself, work out the institutions of social protection tailored to individual societies, and devise practical development strategies based on the linkage of agriculture and industry, so that various dimensions of people’s security, including political security, social security, job security, food security, and environmental security, are simultaneously addressed. Our challenge is to form an arena of global dialogue to design the shape of a future society in which sustainable security and development are assured for all communities in North and South alike.

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Session 2: Science and Technology for International Development

Life on our planet Earth has evolved as a result of long-term interaction processes with the diastrophism and the natural climate change. However, recent explosive human activities have generated unadjusted changes in our global environment so rapidly. Therefore the Earth system is under the tremendous stress just as our life and society are endangered by its reaction. It is urgent to critically analyze the changes in nature using the advanced science and technology and to seek for ways to realize a new sustainable world through international cooperation on science and technology.

In this session of Science and Technology for International Development, we will discuss on the recent changes in nature that threaten our societies and health and on science and technology as human wisdom to face such threats. We will have lectures on the earthquake disasters, the global climate change and extreme events, and recent trends in infectious diseases that would certainly be affected by the climate change, and will discuss the strategies to challenge these natural disasters. The climate change is accelerated by human industrial activities, and the next topic is the coal industry in China and its impact on environment. Occupational health would be industries’ responsibility, which sometimes must be expanded to citizens outside the industry. In the last, we will learn global attempts for occupational health.

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Session 3: Capacity Building and Governance

Since early 1990s, capacity building and governance issues have gained in salience in discussions on international cooperation for development. The governance reforms in strengthening local institutions and establishing rules of the game provide a framework in which incentives and getting prices right can lead to accelerated pro-poor growth. The shifting emphasis on building sustainable capacity is an innovative departure from the past practice. This new approach puts emphasis on development to be locally owned by the governments as well as the people, involving them as equal partners. Capacity development in public, private, and civil society sectors is also needed to enable the respective actors to understand, choose, adapt, and use scientific and technological knowledge in support of rapid development. Good governance and developing capacity in the rapidly globalizing world have thus emerged as an essential ingredient of effective and sustainable international cooperation.

We believe there are a number of successful and innovative researches and experiments in areas of both governance reforms and capacity building in the South as well as in the North. The wide array of these experiences provides a clue as to what works and what does not in the field of international cooperation. This session is an attempt to draw on this cumulative evidence and highlight implications for further research and policy innovations.

In the session, we begin with a discussion on the role of decentralization and local governments in economic development, covering the cases of Pakistan (Sarfraz K. QURESHI) and China (Gangming YUAN). These presentations clarify the nature of existing gaps in the capability of the state, markets, institutions, and communities. The remaining four presentations discuss how we can narrow the capacity gaps. Approaches to capacity development and governance reforms are investigated first by taking the JICA's experience as an example (Kyoko KUWAJIMA), followed by presentations on the Social Investment Fund Plan in Thailand where non-government groups in community development play the key role (Shinichi SHIGETOMI). We next turn to the issue of improving the government monitoring role and constructing good corporate governance under Thai financial reforms (Kanit SANGSUBHAN). Policy assistance of Japan for Asia, particularly relating to setting-up legal institutions, in support of economic development concludes the discussion (Yuzuru SHIMADA).

* The co-chairs of this session deeply thank Dr. Sarfraz K. QURESHI for his productive comments to an earlier draft of the session outline.

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