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Poverty, Inclusive Development, and Human
Resource Cultivation in Africa Revisited:
A Critique of Japanese Assistance for Self-Reliance

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TAKAHASHI Motoki ＊ 1
MATSUBARA Kana ＊ 2
Abstract
Japan provides aid to African countries through Official Development Assistanceand NGOs’ activities by promoting recipient countries’ self-reliance, especially in skill
development, and a move away from dependence. This study examines discourses andpractices related to self-reliance and dependence conducted by Japanese aid officials
and academics to determine whether they are appropriate for the situations of Africancountries and people, from the viewpoint of“inclusive development from within.”We critically trace aid practitioners’ discourses, conduct a brief literature review on
resource transfers, and examine cases of informal and formal manufacturing. We also
consider Japanese Kaizen projects’ implementation and applicability. We find that many
aid activities involve vocational training to improve African peoples’ ability to workand earn in the labor market. On the other hand, it is important to consider transfersof resources and knowledge apart from market transactions to better understand
African people’s efforts for survival and livelihoods. This is exemplified through casestudies on the informal sofa manufacturing industry in Kenya and the formal leathershoe manufacturing industry in Ethiopia. These cases indicate that workers at different
levels perform self-learning, voluntary teaching, and mutual communication for skill
development. Some pay for vocational courses, while others share their knowledge for
free, thus combining self-reliance and interdependence. Finally, the Japanese Kaizen—＊1＊2

 rofessor Emeritus of Kobe University, Visiting Professor of Graduate School of InternationalP
Cooperation Studies, Kobe University and Professor of Graduate School of Asian and African Area
Studies, Kyoto University
PhD. Candidate（ABD）, Graduate School of Asian and African Area Studies, Kyoto University

Journal of International Cooperation Studies, Vol.29, No.1（2021.7）

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according to its proponents’ words, a bottom-up, on-site participatory method for
improving collective skills—has not penetrated the informal sector and only partly
penetrated upper strata of people in the formal sector in Africa. These results canguide future projects attempting to provide aid promoting“inclusive development fromwithin”in Africa.
【Key words】manufacturing, formal/informal sectors, interdependence, self-help efforts,
KaizenPoverty, Inclusive Development, and Human Resource Cultivation in Africa Revisited: A Critique of Japanese Assistance for Self-Reliance

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Ⅰ．Introduction“Boosting the transition from dependence to self-reliance（jiritsu in Japanese）”and“supporting self-reliance”are often set forth as objectives for the countries and peopleof Africa. This is done by many people conducting the practical work of“international
development cooperation”or“Official Development Assistance”（ODA, hereinafter,
collectively referred to as“aid”）2 as well as liberalist academics3. Further, these words
are often heard from aid officials affiliated with not only the Japanese government but
also non-governmental organizations（NGOs）.
However, what“self-reliance”means as an ideal objective, and what self-reliancereally is, are rarely discussed. First, let us assume that Africa and its people, especiallythose in poverty, are currently not self-reliant. Even so, there is little discussion
about who is reliant upon what based on personal circumstances. When we can morecorrectly understand African people’s livelihoods, can we implement appropriate aid forthem?  In Africa, the 21st century saw relatively high growth across the region. Thishas been a factor attracting global interest, including that of Japan. However, Africa’s
growth has not been as high as emerging economies such as China for the same period,and major inter-regional differences in growth performance exist within a country. In
addition, high growth during this period mostly became possible due to the boom inresources and primary products in international markets. Incoming foreign exchange
revenues from the export of mineral resources and other primary products tend to bevery unstable and thus unreliable and benefit certain social classes and groups, andsuch revenue becomes both a financial resource for the governments and a source ofcorruption. Nevertheless, there has been a ripple effect of high growth, and combinedwith the spread of information and communication technology, emerging social strata
have improved their income without direct dependence on resources and primary
products. An increasing number of people in Africa now enjoy middle-class consumption
largely in excess of their subsistence levels. Although the absolute numbers andpercentages of these people are still limited, it should be noted that they continue toexpand.
Notwithstanding the positive aspects, overall, Africa’s recent high growth is not

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being shared equally, as indicated by the simultaneous increase in the absolute numberof people in poverty. Furthermore, as the boom in resources and primary products
collapsed in the latter 2010s, many African countries’ growth rate flattened. In otherwords, Africa’s early 21st century growth cannot be described as being the result ofdesirable“inclusive development from within.”Then, what is required for inclusive development from within? Clearly, it requires
the participation of a wide range of people, as well as drastic restructuring of industrial
frameworks into ones led by local production activities, such as manufacturing. To that
end, there may be a need to build and improve manufacturing skills among people.
Does Japanese aid serve a useful role in assisting the development of skills among those
involved in manufacturing? Is this aid adapted to the actual thinking and circumstancesof African people? If not, what should be done?
In this study, we examine the discourses and practices related to self-relianceand dependence of practitioners, including aid officials and academics, while focusing
on their works. We then explore them from the viewpoint of whether discourses andpractices appropriately fit the circumstances of African people and their livelihoods.
It is argued that we should understand them by overcoming the dichotomy between
self-reliance and dependence. Furthermore, it is possible that individual motivations toparticipate in skill learning projects differ, depending on the status and power of eachworker in specific workplace situations. This, we argue, is a major hindrance to Japan’s
efforts toward skill improvement and poverty reduction, and thus new approaches are
required to move forward.
The remainder of this article is organized as follows. In section II, we focus on
critically tracing arguments of aid practitioners on self-reliance in the two dimensions ofnational and government-affiliated organizations, and of people. In section III, we explore
the state of dependency in African societies by reconsidering the past literature on
market transactions and other resource transfers. In section IV, we examine examplesof the informal sofa manufacturing in Kenya and the formal leather-shoe manufacturingin Ethiopia. We also discuss people’s interdependence in the sharing of manufacturing
skills as well as people’s thinking regarding work. In section V, we focus on arguments
about Japanese Kaizen projects that have been expected to be useful for skill formation
and acquisition in work settings and their actual implementation. Kaizen aims toward

Poverty, Inclusive Development, and Human Resource Cultivation in Africa Revisited: A Critique of Japanese Assistance for Self-Reliance55

collective self-help efforts and may represent the forefront of Japan’s aid activities.
Here, we critically examine whether Japan’s improvement assistance meets the actual
workplace situations, promotes skill improvement, and is useful for promotion ofinclusive development from within and poverty reduction. Finally, the authors conclude
in section VI by sharing their tentative thoughts on what is required to promote
inclusive development from within.
Ⅱ．Discourses over self-reliance in developing countries and Africa

1. “From dependence to self-reliance” in nations and organizations
Izumi Ohno, an academic with experience working in key posts of the Japan, is highly familiar with the circumstances andInternational Cooperation Agency（JICA）
implementation of ODA. Ohno［2011: 83］pointed out that Japanese ODA emphasizes
self-reliance（jiritsu）and self-help support（jijo doryoku no shien）. According to her, thisidea has been widely shared by other Asian countries in pursuing catch-up development.
She also claims that, on the contrary, it is different from the approach of the West,which rather demands compliance with uniform political and economic conditionality
based upon their own ideas in exchange for providing aid and do not emphasize respect
for recipients’ self-reliance. Ohno specifically argues that governments of recipient
countries and government-affiliated implementing agencies directly benefitting fromaid are the main entities that must work toward self-reliance. Self-reliance here means
the functioning of recipient governments technically（and often financially）without
excessively relying upon foreign aid, as well as government-affiliated agencies notdepending overly upon the government. In many cases, the self-reliance described by
ODA practitioners fits this pattern.

2. Agenda to bring people “from dependence to self-reliance” and the problematics thereof
Another pattern occurs when local people’s associations manage the use of facilities
that could not have been built without aid. For example, the title of an ODA project by
JICA to provide water supply system assistance is the“Project for Sustainable Rural
Development.”This title is apparently shared with the host country（Senegal）, and
its French title is“Projet du Développement Rural Durable.”Although the Japanese

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language has words such as jizoku kanou na, corresponding to“sustainable”or“durable.”
The term jiritsu, meaning self-reliance, has been chosen for the Japanese version of the
project’s title. From reading the project summary,“self-reliance”here seems to referto smooth management, operation and utilization of a water supply facility introduced
via aid by an association organized by villagers. This presumes that members of theassociation must acquire knowledge and build the mechanisms required to not only use
but also manage and operate the facility technically and financially.
The selection of jiritsu in Japanese may indicate attachment to the idea of jijo

doryoku no shien, which is considered the traditional spirit of Japanese ODA.
Furthermore, a third pattern occurs when the word“self-reliance”is used in postconflict societies in the vocational training of victims of conflicts who apparently lackthe skills to earn a cash income or, more broadly, of women with low income. In otherwords, in discussions on aid, the term“self-reliance”is also used to refer to individual
persons and not just host governments and agencies as well as associations.
For example, an article in ODA White Paper by Japan’s Ministry of Foreign
Affairs［MOFA 2015: 48］, titled“Strictly Cultivating the Mindset and Skills Neededfor Independence,”introduces the aid project“Dressmaking Training for Women andYouth in Rwanda.”Here, it appears that self-reliance（independence）is considered asenabling individual women to master the methods of Western dressmaking and achieve
economic“self-reliance.”

3. Deficiencies in the notion of “from dependence to self-reliance”
The expression “Strictly Cultivating the Mindset and Skills Needed forIndependence” mentioned above may turn a few heads, even among those notsuspecting that the ODA was provided with arrogance4. Therefore, it is interesting
to clarify which Japanese aid stakeholders think about self-reliance in general and theabove-mentioned expression in particular and how.
With regard to aid for individual persons, not only the government but also NGOs
are proactively engaged in it and the tendency to emphasize people’s self-reliance andmindset is not limited to ODA advocates. Rather, some NGOs are more likely to stressself-reliance; for example, one NGO stated the following on its website:Poverty, Inclusive Development, and Human Resource Cultivation in Africa Revisited: A Critique of Japanese Assistance for Self-Reliance

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There has been long-term, continuous, and large-scale economic aid for developing
countries. Nevertheless, why is the economic disparity between the North andthe South not yet narrowing? Therefore, what do people in poorer regions needfor true self-reliance? The key ingredient required for poor people to rise frompoverty-stricken environments and become self-reliant is fully mastering how tothink and live on their own5.
The above statement appears to indicate that although large-scale aid is provided
to individual developing countries, it is wasted as people remain mired in poverty anddependency. Achieving self-reliance is regarded as people pulling themselves out ofpoverty. If we critically examine simple sentences found in an NGO’s public relations
material quoted above, we find a simplistic link between dependence on aid at thenational level and people’s poverty and dependence.
Another point to be discussed of the above statement is that a simplistic linkis drawn between people who are poor and those not self-reliant. The basis of this
discourse is that“learning how to think and live on their own”means the self-relianceof poor people. This indicates an underlying perception that poor people do not havethe skill to live. Naturally, academics must inquire whether this is truly a correct
observation on Africa.
As most African villages face harsh natural conditions, they largely differ fromdeveloped and some of East Asian countries that are mostly located in temperatezones with sufficient rainfall. Several African countries also experience human rights
violations according to international standards, wherein people are victims of repression
and violence. African populace, however, has managed to survive and has increased
the number of families. Does it not, therefore, mean that Africa knows how to survive,even though it is different from developed countries and East Asian nations socioeconomically? If we look at the livelihoods Africans have created for themselves and try
to understand them, how would we describe them? Self-reliant, dependent, or somethingelse?
Moreover, the organization implementing the project mentioned in the ODA White
Paper［MOFA 2015］is an NGO that is different from the NGO that posted the public
relations material on the website. The project was financially supported by the Ministry

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of Foreign Affairs through the“Japanese NGO Grant Aid Project”scheme. According
to interviews with the Japanese former staff member in charge of leading the project
implementation at the time, what actually happened in Rwanda was as follows. During
vocational training, trainees received their training-related transportation allowances
paid to them based on a prior trilateral agreement between main stakeholders. Whilesome trainees came to the training on time despite distant commuting routes, others
frequently arrived late despite living nearby. The local staff members were concerned
about this situation and started strongly urging everyone to try to be on time. The
Japanese leader, as the leader of the training course, thought that punctuality would
be essential for trainees to gain the trust of their future customers. Therefore, after
much agonizing, the Japanese staff decided to adopt the rule under which trainees
who could not come by the start time of the training would not receive their regulartransportation allowances for that day. However, this was not an easy choice.
This is what MOFA［2015］meant by“Strictly Cultivating the Mindset and Skills
Needed for Independence.”This was successful in largely reducing tardiness, and sometrainees told the former Japanese leader afterwards that the training had changed theirwork mindset. Unlike what was written in the White Paper, however, not all trainees
found jobs after completing the training. After return to Japan, the former leader said
to remember the pain of imposing strict time requirements upon the trainees who camefrom a society with a completely different sense of time and failures to help trainees
obtain job they had envisioned6. Her words indicate the sincere thoughts and anguishof an aid practitioner facing the complex and difficult realities of aid implementation in
the field that cannot be put in simplistic terms. Such thoughts and anguish from people
in charge of field activities are not addressed in discussions of“from dependence toself-reliance,”and they are not being conveyed to readers of the article such as that in
the White Paper. A problem with the discussions of the government and some NGOsis that they tend to tie together two different things: aid dependency at the national
level and apparent dependency or poverty at the individual people’s level. On theother hand, there is a tendency to think that poverty is caused by a lack of working
ethics to maintain kiritsu（discipline）regarding time and others, and that self-reliancemeans overcoming this ethical lack. Then, any academic interested in the societies ofdeveloping countries and international development cooperation should examine suchPoverty, Inclusive Development, and Human Resource Cultivation in Africa Revisited: A Critique of Japanese Assistance for Self-Reliance59

practitioners’perceptive tendencies.

4. Conceptual relationship between national self-reliance and people’s self-reliance
We mentioned the phrase“self-reliance support”in relation to Izumi Ohno’s
arguments［Ohno 2011］.“Support for self-reliance”is fundamentally connected to the7idea of“support for self-help”
mentioned in Japan’s three ODA Charters8. We havealready touched upon the connections between the two. Some doubts may arise whenlooking at these phrases. If partner countries or persons have the capabilities andconditions for self-reliance, then what does it mean to support them? If we consider selfreliance as important, then why do we lend a hand? Does not support or aid itself harm
self-reliance?
These questions concerning“support for self-help”and“support for self-reliance,”
as described by Izumi Ohno［Ohno 2011］, can be understood by placing Japanese
aid and related thoughts and acts of those providing it in the context of comparison
with the so-called Western aid. As Ohno points out, Western aid is often provided
on the condition that the recipient country accept particular political and economic
demands. These conditions are referred to as policy conditions or conditionality. Policy
conditionality may also include environmental conditions related to environmental
issues. Political conditionality include democratization（or introduction of multi-party
systems）and respect for human rights, while economic conditionality include marketoriented policy demands, such as deregulation, trade liberalization, and privatization9.
Market-oriented policy conditionality is often laid out by the International MonetaryFund（IMF）and the World Bank. On the other hand, in case of aid from emerging
countries such as China, economic benefits to the donor（e.g., securing resources andgetting favorable treatments to exports）are set forth as the economic conditionality［cf.
Brautigam, 2011］.
Requests for policy conditionality have been eagerly sought by not only the IMF
and World Bank but also Western bilateral donors since the structural adjustment
programs of the 1980s. After the Cold War ended in 1989, there has been particulardemand for political conditionality, paving the way for democratization. Such demands
for policy conditionality apparently involve interference in the domestic affairs of thehost country. This can be described as an arrogant action, and there has been growing

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criticism that it is not actually effective or has numerous negative consequences.
Economists on the African side have also strongly criticized the donors’shallow
understanding of African economies and stated that dogmatic policy conditionality isconstricting the options of recipient governments.10
In contrast with Western donors and international organizations, Japanese aid isthought to represent the nation’s ethical debt for state crimes committed before andduring World War II. Moreover, Japan rarely imposes policy conditionality on recipient
countries. Eventually often having forgotten past crimes and the corresponding ethicaldebt, this was interpreted as providing aid not through arrogant instruction like theWest but as an equal dialogue that respects the self-help efforts and independence ofrecipient governments and agencies or staff members in charge. This so-called selfhelp support approach was subsequently thought to have been successful in East Asian
countries, as evident from the remarkable economic development in these countries
during the 1980s to the 1990s［Watanabe 1991］. During the course, it was forgottenthat Japan’s relatively modest attitude was originated from ethical reflection over the
past state crimes.
Ohno［2011］, as mentioned above, claims that ideas and approaches to selfhelp support are shared by emerging nations in Asia and have succeeded in catch-up
development, a common viewpoint among other influential academics［Shimomura et al.
2013］.
Notwithstanding Japan’s cautious stance toward policy conditionality, as demanded
by Western donors and international organizations, the country has neither officially
opposed them nor has it been free from the responsibility for them. In fact, Japan has
cooperated in applying and enforcing political and economic conditionality in step withother donors［Shimomura et al. 1999］. For example, if Japan aggressively expanded
aid to recipient governments that refuse the calls for democratization from abroadand suppress such calls at home, we would expect Japan to garner strong criticism
from the international community, including the West. Since the beginning of the 21st
century, China has been criticized as a“rogue aid”donor because it was perceived
that the country, by aggressively providing aid to many developing countries without
considering their domestic affairs, undermined policy conditionality effects. If Japancame under attack for“rogue aid”11, that is, if it was accused of acting like China, itPoverty, Inclusive Development, and Human Resource Cultivation in Africa Revisited: A Critique of Japanese Assistance for Self-Reliance61

would be completely unacceptable to the country’s leadership and general populace.
Rather, excluding exceptional cases that we discuss later, like China, Japan does
not hold national political and economic ideals about what societies in developing
countries should realize, as the West and international aid organizations do. This is acommon feature of aid from late-industrializing countries pursuing catch-up that areattempting to facilitate their own growth and industrial development while expanding
international cooperation.
As mentioned, Izumi Ohno［2011］pointed out these same features. However, shedoes not inquire why it is common for aid from late-industrializing Asian countries tolack ideals. One answer is that they may prioritize their own industrial development
during catch-up, rather than realizing an ideal developing country or world. It should
be recalled that Japanese aid during the earlier high-growth period received the same
criticism that China does in recent years12.
Nevertheless, regarding Japanese aid, it must be stated that it is overall reactive
and tends to follow the actions of other developed countries and international aid
organizations in terms of democratization/human rights issues, as well as promotionof market economies. In that sense, it conforms to what Calder［1988］describes.
However, as a donor country, Japan does not always behave in a manner characterized
as“a reactive state”as Calder argues. For example, Japan, on its own, applied sanctions
against India, Pakistan, and China for their nuclear tests by withholding aid. In addition,
the“Guidelines for Environmental and Social Considerations”have been adopted by
JICA, and, in principle, proper environmental and social conditions are requested foreach project13.
Moreover, the following reference to human rights is included in the“Guidelines
for Environmental and Social Considerations”:
JICA respects the principles of internationally established human rights standards
such as the International Convention on Human Rights, and gives special attention
to the human rights of vulnerable social groups including women, indigenous
peoples, persons with disabilities, and minorities when implementing cooperation
projects. JICA obtains country reports and information widely about humanrights that are issued by related institutions, and seeks to understand local human

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rights situations by disclosing information about cooperation projects. Thus, JICA
integrates local human rights situations into decision-making processes that relate
to environmental and social considerations14.
The ODA Charters also refer to respect for human rights, which was maintainedby the Shinzo Abe administration under the Cabinet Decision on the Development
Cooperation Charter. The human rights problems most relevant to self-reliance arerepression, domination, and subordination. These points are discussed in the following
subsection.

5. Self-reliance, dependence, and subordination
The word dependence refers to both reliance and subordination. This implies thatthe phenomena of reliance and subordination are related to each other.
When considering the human rights situations in developing countries（and more
broadly, developed countries）, subordination is seen widely. Subordination is not justa matter of repression by governments and/or political powers but is also observed
among groups of people, such as families, neighbors, majority and minority groups,
employers, and the employed. As indicated by JICA［2010］,vulnerable populations suchas“women, indigenous people, people with disabilities, and minorities”are likely to be
driven by subordination, which is indivisible from reliance. Furthermore, depending on
their circumstances,“vulnerable populations”may also include people who lack enougheducation, job, or land.
Perhaps the escape of vulnerable populations from repression ought to be
described as“kaihou”（“liberation”or“emancipation”）from subordination, rather
than an advancement from dependence to self-reliance. Then, why do Japanese aid
practitioners not use the word liberation or kaihou instead of self-reliance or jiritu? One
reason is that the term“liberation”is accompanied by images of violent struggles,
while Japanese people tend to keep away from armed resolution, due to constitutional
pacifism, in relation to aid for developing countries. Thus, the implementation of aid
is solely through non-military measures. Another reason is the Japanese lack of ideals
mentioned above. Moreover, the“apolitical”nature of Japanese diplomacy—whichseeks to avoid as much as possible the costs incurred from intervening in developingPoverty, Inclusive Development, and Human Resource Cultivation in Africa Revisited: A Critique of Japanese Assistance for Self-Reliance63

countries’ domestic affairs through sanctions—may be involved15.
Here, the West’s strong concern about democratization and human rights
problems, which have often invited resistance by leaders of developing countries, has
led to a divide that China apparently attempts to exploit by supporting repressive stateswith the justification of respect for mutual sovereignty and non-interference. If weconsider the seriousness of political and human rights situations in several developing
and African countries, the West’s attitude cannot be simply dismissed as arrogant. Thisis all the more so when we consider global development, in which the central concept isthe liberation of all human beings from repression and subordination and the gaining of
freedom16.
Another problem to be addressed is whether the livelihoods of poor people indeveloping economies, including vulnerable populations, ought to be described only innegative terms such as dependency and/or subordination, as seen in discussions by
Japanese aid practitioners. In the next section, we consider the livelihoods of the poor,
while specifically touching upon theories discussing Africa and several examples in thereality.
Ⅲ．Dependence as a way of life

1. Resource transfer between the people in Africa
African people’s reliance or dependence on others has often been discussed interms of reciprocity, redistribution, and/or the patron-client relationship in disciplines
such as anthropology, economics, and political science. It is said that African people
consider their interpersonal relationships to be assets, and it is well known that they
put a lot of energy into building and maintaining networks. Moreover, by developing
networks, people secure reciprocity and redistribution, which are useful in building theirlivelihoods themselves［Shimada 1999］.
Reciprocity, redistribution, and mutual support, especially in rural and nonurban societies, have been repeatedly explored and discussed in the field of cultural
anthropology. Readers of this article are requested to refer to the wealth of cultural
anthropological findings. Here, we discuss points important for the urban society mainlyin economics and political science.

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2. Economic studies on resource transfer
The first academic to discuss reciprocity from an economic viewpoint was Karl
Polanyi, who was one of the founders of economic anthropology and researchingvarious societies including Africa through a discussion of reciprocity and redistribution.
Polanyi emphasized that there are transfers of goods and services different frommarket transactions, and we should be conscious that there are economic mechanisms
other than market systems. Additionally, he stated that human life and society cannot
exist without non-market resource transfers, and that reciprocity, redistribution, andmarket exchanges are embedded within all societies. Based on this, Polanyi［1944; 1977］
indicated that it is abnormal for the market economy to reign supreme as the modern
society. The universal importance of Polanyi’s economic view may be better understood
if we consider that without non-market economic income redistribution by the state andmutual support, the lives of people in developed countries would not be possible. After
Polanyi, massive academic literature has been accumulated on reciprocity and mutual
support in Africa and redistribution by the state, particularly European welfare states.
Resource transfers between individual people in African countries and redistribution
by the state in developed countries are equivalent, and both have great significance forpeople’s livelihoods. Moreover, many people and businesses working in African nations
ruled by exogenous and young governments are not paying them income or corporate
taxes, and they are also not receiving any benefits except basic education, simple
health services, and low-grade infrastructure. As seen in section IV, this is significant
in the informal sector, which provides most opportunities for work and employment.
This means that government redistribution, as imagined in advanced countries, is very
limited. If we consider this weak relationship between the state and people, it is clearthat the self-reliance of the two cannot be described as being very closely linked.
In addition, we refer to some modern mainstream economists’ idea of reciprocity:
they found strategic characteristics in not only market transactions but also gifts andreciprocity, which indicates that strategic characteristics can be found at the individuallevel. The idea is that unilaterally providing another party with goods and services is by
no means purely for the recipient’s own good but is a type of insurance for the provider（or distribution of risk over time）so that the recipient can be relied upon when goods
or services are required in return［Tanaka 2007; Xie 2006］.

Poverty, Inclusive Development, and Human Resource Cultivation in Africa Revisited: A Critique of Japanese Assistance for Self-Reliance65This understanding of reciprocity in modern mainstream economics may not beappropriate, as it presupposes that the daily actions of individuals are always madethrough conscious choices. As Polanyi［1977］points out, people do not always choosewith consciousness to follow what their parents’ generation had done through theirown volition, and a major part of their choices and behaviors is unconscious. However,interpreting reciprocity as a necessary strategic means for foreseeing future needs for
dependence in individuals’ lives might itself be a viewpoint worth considering.

3. Patron-client relationship and political science
Although dependence is also mentioned in political science, it takes a different
form. This is the patron-client relationship that is found in many forms in the African
society. Clients expect and depend upon patrons to distribute a broad range ofresources, including money, goods, and employment. In return, patrons expect clientsto provide loyalty or services, though not necessarily proportional to the individual
resources given. Explaining the patrimonial state of post-independence African nations,Takeuchi［2009］states that the patron-client relationship is an important concept, andAfrican nations have rapidly become the so-called Post-Colonial Patrimonial States（PCPS）only a short time after gaining independence.
According to Takeuchi［2009］, power holders in PCPS are connected to general
populace through the patron-client relationship. On the other hand, he says that thepossibility of violence is an inherent element of this relationship, and if patrons andclients do not meet each other’s expectations, their relationship may be destabilized,
leading to conflicts involving many people.
National power holders’ connections with general populace through informal
personal relationships have also been asserted by notable Africanist academics such as
Hyden［1983; 1987］, Bayart［1993］, and Chabal and Daloz［1999］, among other leading
academics.
On the other hand, one author of this study（Takahashi）knows of a case inwhich a national-level influencer in an African country（executive at a major financial
institution）was approached by ordinary people including those strange to him; heprovided them with large sums of money but expected nothing in return. He said thatsuch cases are not limited to him and widely spread［Kitagawa and Takahashi eds.

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2016］. If we believe him, African societies may not merely involve the development ofreciprocal patron-client relationships between acquaintance. We might have to broaden
sense of ethical obligation toward redistribution among the political and economic eliteand other powerful in resource distribution.

4. Beyond the study of non-market resource transfers: Acquiring “working skills”
The past literature indicates that African people connect the mutual support andreciprocal relationships in rural villages as well as the redistribution by states andpower holders to market transactions to fabricate their livelihoods. When we consider
the situation in Africa, where market economy is on the way of penetration into cornersof society, there should be little argument against the present ODA and NGO aid
promoting skill training for people to earn cash through employment in markets.
If we try to get close to African people and approaching their lives throughpractice and research, however, it may be indispensable to directly observe and discuss
their own practices in“learning how to work by themselves.”The reason is that there
is an overwhelming number of working people who already know“how to work,”
whether or not received the skill training through foreign assistance or government
policy measures.
Ⅳ．Learning how to work in Africa

1. Acquiring skills at worksites in Africa
In this section, we consider what self-reliance and dependence are in the reality
through an exploration of the process by which people acquire skills to work in
manufacturing worksites in African cities.
We focus on urban manufacturing because of the lack of specific research on
the interdependence and skill acquisition of people working in cities. This has been
particularly few in Japan in recent years. Yamada［2017］and Yamada and Otchia［2018］, among others, have actively studied the effects of vocational training on auto
mechanics and garment workers. However, overall, studies on skill learning in theurban manufacturing sector in Africa have been extremely limited.
In this section, we consider interdependence and self-reliance related to masteringPoverty, Inclusive Development, and Human Resource Cultivation in Africa Revisited: A Critique of Japanese Assistance for Self-Reliance67“how to work”through an introduction of skill acquisition for people working in theinformal sofa manufacturing industry in Nairobi, Kenya, and the formal leather-shoe
manufacturing industry in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. In this study, craft and knowledge
are assumed to be the two elements of working skills, that is, knowing“how to work.”
In general, methods of learning craft and knowledge to work are divided intoclassroom and practical learning in vocational education and training, and into on-thejob training（OJT）and off-the-job training（Off-JT; training done outside of working
hours）at worksites. More concretely, the methods to acquire skills at worksites include
self-learning, copying, and repetitive practice on own accord. Most ODA to Africa hasgone to vocational education and training. On the other hand, regarding foreign direct
investment, corporations often conduct their own internal Off-JT and OJT.
In the following, we focus on the two elements of craft and knowledge and discuss
the specific methods to acquire them.
2. Skill acquisition in Kenya’s informal sofa manufacturing industry

The informal sector comprises a set of economic agents working without capture,assistance, or regulation by the government. Therefore, overall, they may be consideredrelatively independent of the government. Nevertheless, the informal sector plays amajor role in the economies of low-income African countries. For example, in Kenya, it
provides more than 80% of employment and income-earning opportunities for workers［Institute of Economic Affairs 2016］.
This study partly focuses on informal sofa manufacturing in Kenya. Sofas are close
to a necessity for African families, who enjoy chatting with their neighbors. They arethus manufactured and used widely. Nairobi, Kenya has four main clusters or industrial
agglomeration areas, in which a number of sofa manufacturers are concentrated in
specific districts. One of these is Cluster X, where sofas meant for low-income families
are manufactured.
The following description is based on four field surveys conducted by the authors
in Cluster X17. In X, there is a gradual stratification with a limited number of masters（who also work as sofa dealers or showroom owners; although one-third of the showroom
owners are women, none of them are masters）. These masters employ workers
for piecework to manufacture sofas. Masters also work on their own and were all

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previously ordinary workers.
The specifications and methods of manufacturing each sofa are determined bymasters in consultation with customers, which are then followed by workers who
work within the scope of their individual roles. This means, as explained later, that
manufacturing ideas and concepts are guided by the masters, and workers carry out
physical work according to the instructions given. Since the masters seem to enjoy the
rewards and fun of manufacturing, workers yearn to become masters themselves.
However, masters and ordinary workers are somewhat different in their vocational
training experience. Approximately 16% of the masters in Cluster X had experienced
learning in formal vocational schools. The oldest master told one of the authors（Takahashi）that the standards for sofas that he learned and applied in a vocational
school are now shared throughout X. If that is true, then vocational training has
contributed to the introduction of fundamental knowledge of sofa manufacturing in X.
On the other hand, workers do not study in vocational schools by themselves. This may
be a part of the reason why, not workers but masters determine sofa specifications andproduction methods. While most workers hope to become masters, a few do not want
it because they do not want the various burdens of thinking and ordering required ofmasters.
On the other hand, both masters and workers have graduated from primaryschools, and some have completed secondary education or higher. On average, masters
have higher education levels than workers. In addition, having a general school
education appears to be essentially important in learning the minimum mathematicalknowledge needed to acquire sofa manufacturing skills［Takahashi and Matsubara 2021:
243］18.
Most masters and workers in Cluster X have learned their sofa manufacturing
skills for free from their own masters or senior workers. This is close to what iscommonly called an apprenticeship. However, apprentices in X have no obligation
to work for the masters from whom they learned like an indentured servant. Whenmasters do not provide any opportunities for work, former apprentices are free to work
for another master.
Under apprenticeships in Cluster X, workers acquire skills through OJT and onsite Off-JT, and it is rare for masters to bother to teach. Workers learn in the field by

Poverty, Inclusive Development, and Human Resource Cultivation in Africa Revisited: A Critique of Japanese Assistance for Self-Reliance69

imitating their masters, self-learning, and repetitive practice. In X, manufacturing work
is done outdoors, which allows apprentices to imitate not only their own masters andsenior workers but also other workers, and they sometimes ask for brief instructions
from fellows.
In Cluster X, there is competition among masters and showroom owners, alongwith conscious and unconscious cooperation. It is important for sofa manufacturing andsales to update and increase the sofa models（form designs）. There are currently atleast 13 different models in X. Manufacturing occurs outdoors and the stores are small,so other masters and showroom owners always know immediately when someone
introduces new models. Furthermore, sharing of knowledge on different models is
accelerated by workers working for multiple masters.
The oldest master said that even if he taught his knowledge of sofa-making toothers for free, he would be satisfied with only gratitude and respect in return. In
addition, female showroom owners in other clusters told the authors that even if othershowroom owners imitated the models they were selling, they would welcome it
because of their friendship with them.
In Cluster X, workers who have completed their apprenticeships have the basic
skills to make a sofa; therefore, masters can hire other workers while feeling assured of
their skills even during sudden absences of their apprentices due to sickness or otherreasons. Thus, masters can flexibly meet the changes in demand.

3. Skill acquisition in Ethiopia’s formal leather-shoe manufacturing industry
In this subsection, we discuss skill acquisition in the leather-shoe industry in
Ethiopia. The following data come from on-site factory research in the capital city ofAddis Ababa, which were collected over 15 months in total between 2016 and 2019conducted by one of the authors（Matsubara）herself. Ethiopia boasts the largest
number of African livestock, and the government has designated manufacturing ofproducts using leather and the promotion of their exports one of the key sectors of its
industrial policy.
Feet-covering shoes were introduced at the start of the 20th century into thecountry, and leather-shoe manufacturing is believed to have started thereafter［Merab
1929: 408-409］. Matsubara surveyed skill formation at the manufacturing sites of six

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leather-shoe manufacturing enterprises（two each of small, middle and large-sizedcompanies respectively）located in Addis Ababa. The surveyed firms were all formal
corporations. The larger the firm, the more machinery had been introduced, whichapparently resulted in more precise division of labor between processes and skill
specialization.
Only the largest of these firms with the longest history had its own facilities set
up for Off-JT. It also has seconded workers for vocational training. In addition, middleand large-sized companies had invited external experts to conduct OJT. For example,
some workers received OJT guided by foreign experts from overseas firms that had
been hired with assistance from the Ministry of Trade and Industry. In addition, otherfirms implemented occasional training led by skilled workers or external experts. The
workers trained include those who could operate sewing machines.
The Ethiopian leather-shoe industry expanded greatly due to high economic
growth following the end of the Ethiopian Civil War in 1991. Exports, however, havebeen sluggish, enterprises do not perform as expected, and workers’ wages in leathershoe manufacturing are lowest in leather industries, including tanning and finishingother leather products such as bags and jackets［UNIDO 2012］. Consequently, in
addition to low wages, the work environments and work itself have been harsh,
resulting in frequent turnover.
The high degree of instability in exports and industrial performance, coupledwith high turnover, has led to the situation where firms generally do not invest muchin workers’ training. These make it very difficult to raise wages. Thus, a vicious cycle
appears to have formed.
In a randomized controlled trial（RCT）, Blattman and Dercon［2018］find thatthe wages of youths working in Ethiopian manufacturing factories were low comparedwith self-employed youths of the same age, and they had an annual turnover rate of
77%. Similarly, through participant observation by Matsubara, high turnover rates are
confirmed in the leather-shoe manufacturing as well. Therefore, it is reasonable to saythat many people have little expectation of promotion through the ranks in the firms’internal labor market.
Workers do not expect much from the firms that employ them, and they learn on
their own to acquire and improve their skills. What Matsubara heard is that there arePoverty, Inclusive Development, and Human Resource Cultivation in Africa Revisited: A Critique of Japanese Assistance for Self-Reliance71

a few cases of workers who received vocational training by paying tuition at public or
private vocational training schools by themselves. However, how much cash workers
spend on their own to acquire and improve skills differs from worker to worker. Here,it seems that their aspirations for promotion and better payment have a major impact.
A very few workers have experienced long-term vocational educations taking
several years. They are mostly working for managing or supervising production
processes at medium- and large-sized firms. On the other hand, most workers haveexperienced general education at primary or secondary schools. Basic literacy and/or
mathematical competency seem to be necessary and useful for ordinary works in the
Ethiopian leather-shoe manufacturing［Takahashi and Matsubara 2021: 251, 254-255］.  
A number of workers, to ensure better performance at the jobs they are assigned,
receive OJT from their owners at small-sized firms, or from on-site supervisors or
senior workers at middle- and large-sized firms. In addition, they imitate the work of
their colleagues and thereby repeat their training while working. Depending on theworker, sometimes they also learn by using machines left idle by senior workers, bothduring and outside normal working hours, to improve their own skills by attempting
tasks above the level at which they are working. Furthermore, there are cases whereinskill training is provided by senior workers to a few juniors during off-work hours.
Many small businesses, including the two researched, are assigned one room eachin buildings called“industrial clusters”as part of government promotion policies anduse it as the production site19. According to Matsubara’s surveys of clusters in Addis
Ababa, sharing of form design knowledge is not done for the manufacturing and saleof leather shoes. This is different from sharing of models and other knowledge in the
Nairobi sofa manufacturing cluster seen in the previous subsection. This difference
seems to be related to whether work is being done outdoors or indoors. On this point,
we find that sharing of knowledge between business operators and workers varies
depending on the circumstances.
Another difference from the Nairobi case in terms of knowledge development is
support from an international organization for small- and medium-sized leather-shoe
manufactures in Addis Ababa. The organization is UNIDO（UN Industrial Development
Organization）. While UNIDO’s support is noteworthy, we should note that it, first of all,aims at knowledge development of entrepreneurs and managers.

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4. Skill transfer and acquisition as “reciprocity”
As discussed above, in both Kenya’s informal sofa manufacturing and Ethiopia’s
formal leather-shoe manufacturing industries, a lot of craft and knowledge aretransferred between actors or acquired for free, regardless of whether they are informal or informal industries. This is likely because the logic here is different frommarket transactions. In African manufacturing places, not only goods and employment
but also skills are shared reciprocally.
Therefore, voluntary learning and interdependence on the part of workers are intandem with personal interconnections.
V．Kaizen and collective self-help in African manufacturing sites

1. What is Kaizen?
Kaizen is a Japanese term that means “improvement”. It is a series ofmethodologies formulated mainly by the leading Japanese automobile manufacturer
Toyota to improve product quality, and production efficiency at manufacturing
sites. Kaizen is defined as a“bottom-up, on-site participation-type continuous work.
improvement”by its proponents and engineers in charge［Imai 2010; Shimada 2018］
The Toyota Production System（TPS）of the Toyota Motor Corporation may
be considered one type of Kaizen and may be used as a typical model case to explain

Kaizen in more detail. According to Taiichi Ohno［1978］,a leading Toyota engineer who
systematized TPS, its required activities are as follows: 1. various wastes such as“sevenwastes”, i.e. overproduction, waiting, transportation, extra-processing, inventory, motion,and defects, are to be minimized; 2. wasted inventory stocks are eliminated by making
production-side response just-in-time; 3. processes with difficulties in response are to bevisualized; 4. inefficiencies and problems in production are to be shared with workers
on-site, thus improving on-site problem-solving capabilities. Kaizen is very well-knownwith 5S: seiri（sort）,seiton（set）,seiso（shine）,seiketsu（standardize）,and shitsuke（sustain）.
It tends to be emphasized to start Kaizen with shining and cleaning working sites andproducts in order to improve quality.
The above four points may be considered as the reasons why Kaizen is considereda bottom-up and on-site participation. However, further empirical studies are requiredPoverty, Inclusive Development, and Human Resource Cultivation in Africa Revisited: A Critique of Japanese Assistance for Self-Reliance73

to determine whether such ideals are truly and thoroughly realized.

2. Significance of dissemination of Kaizen by JICA in Africa
Kaizen has become widely known overseas because of the spread of Japanesemanufacturing enterprises such as Toyota, transferring at least part of the Kaizen
activities and it has some positive ripple effects. Here, we focus on how JICA has been
actively developing technical cooperation in recent years to spread Kaizen to Africa,
especially Ethiopia. The attempts to disseminate Kaizen in Africa through JICA’s
technical cooperation may be characterized in two ways.
The first is change in long-term concentration of JICA’s technical cooperationin Africa in the agricultural sector. This had been ongoing since the 1980s. However,as of the 21st century, African countries have resumed high growth, and Japaneseenterprises have taken great interest in them. Especially in Ethiopia, despite problems
such as the already described weak export competitiveness and small relative andabsolute sizes, manufacturing has rapidly grown. This is believed to have influenced
JICA’s actions.
Second, while the actual objective in much of past technical cooperation has been
vocational training to raise the skill level of individual persons, the goals of disseminating

Kaizen are different. It is an attempt to improve collective on-site skills according to thefourth major activity mentioned above.
The dissemination of Kaizen has gained attention among aid officials and academics
involved in Japan’s international development cooperation. This may be because it has
been believed by Japanese decision-makers and aid officials that Japan has assisted
East Asian countries to catch up in industrialization, and through this experience,
as raising the skills of working people on the supply side lead to social development.
This may also be due in part to the launch of“Poverty Reduction through Economic
Growth,”which was upheld by the Japanese government as one of its approaches
to achieve the Millennium Development Goals（MDGs）around the year 2000. The
MDGs emphasized primary health and basic general education, as well as poverty
reduction through resource distribution by governments underpinned by aid and debt
forgiveness. Perception of the government of Japan, a major provider of development
loans aiming at industrial development, was not identical with this emphasis. Japanese

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perceive that their East Asian neighbors could reduce poverty because of growththrough industrialization and tend to think Japan’s support for skill improvement
through aid for public vocational education and training including Kaizen by private
channels are effective. They cannot be happy with focusing on basic general education.
Therefore, the spread of Kaizen was launched with the expectation that self-help among
African nations would lead to industrialization and economic growth, which could be
reproduction of East Asian experience.
At the same time, JICA launched participatory development from the 1990s
on. Thereafter, the Japanese government and JICA supported poverty reduction
using an approach that differed from the West. As of the 2010s, Japan emphasizes
inclusive development in the discussion on the Sustainable Development Goals. Thismeans that Kaizen has been understood as a bottom-up, on-site participatory, collective
skill improvement and self-help effort for the development of craft and knowledge.
Therefore, the dissemination of Kaizen was chosen as a flagship activity of JICA’s
technical cooperation.

3. Motivation to participate in Kaizen: Japan’s experience
This study also considers whether the Kaizen conducted in its starting place,
Japan, was really bottom-up and on-site participation type, whether it really achieved
participation from lowest-level workers, and whether it played a role in inclusive
development and poverty reduction?
The answers to these questions were surveyed by labor sociologists until the
1990s, focusing on Japanese automobile manufacturing sites as the main subjects. These
included a comprehensive review of Kaizen studies by Tsuchida［2005］who focus on
workers’ motivation to participate in Kaizen. Tsuchida and others first classify the laborof workers into the conception and execution processes, according to the definitions by
Braverman［1998］, a US researcher on labor affairs20.
According to Tsuchida［2005］, on-site supervisors and managers competing forsalary increases and promotions were motivated to participate in Kaizen because they
are partly entrusted with the authority of conception. General workers, however, aredeprived of opportunities to participate in conceptual processes and thus are in a stateof alienation wherein they do not feel worthwhile in working. Tsuchida［2005］finds that

Poverty, Inclusive Development, and Human Resource Cultivation in Africa Revisited: A Critique of Japanese Assistance for Self-Reliance75

it is appropriate to call general workers in Japanese automobile factories“low-leveled
multi-skilled workers,”while Braverman’s［1998］extremely simplified classification is21
not applicable［Tsuchida 2005］. Thus, there is a stratification between the conception

and execution roles, which leaves general workers with lack of motivation to participate
in Kaizen and other improvement activities. This suggests that what actually occurredon-site is not bottom-up, which contrasts with the ideals of Kaizen . Furthermore,
motivation for competition is low among workers who are not permanently employed
or work at small and medium-sized enterprises. Thus, they sometimes do not get very
involved in Kaizen［Tsuchida 2005］.
The findings of Tsuchida［2005］about general workers and workers in small
and medium-sized enterprises in Japan lacking motivation for Kaizen have empiricalfoundations on the basis of on-site researches. Then, considering the applicability of

Kaizen may require thorough exploration of the different circumstances of individual
workers. This includes exploring what sort of firm or workplace they work for, whatis their position or status, and what is their competitive environment or working
conditions. However, is the dissemination of Kaizen by JICA at African work sites
conducted based on understanding of the problems indicated in Japan discussed above?

4. Cases of the spread of Kaizen by JICA in Africa
1）Comparative position of workers in Africa and JICA’s support for Kaizen dissemination
How is Kaizen specifically disseminated in working places, how are the supports
provided in Africa, and how is it perceived and discussed?
First, one of the problems preceding Kaizen’s discussion is that identified by
Urwick and Brech［1957］: if workers in modern urban large-scale industrial systems
have no interest in the overall success of their company, how can managers get themto cooperate? If this is the case, it is definitely difficult to motivate general workers to
improve the quality of products or their productivity.
Urwick and Brech［1957］examined factory labor situations from the Industrial
Revolution in the 18th to the early 20th centuries, which mostly involved unskilled labor.
Therefore, their indications could not necessarily be applied to those of contemporary
developed countries, where general workers are not always unskilled and are rather
low-level multi-skilled. However, if we look at the low motivation of general workers

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at large companies to participate in Kaizen, as pointed out by Tsuchida［2005］, theirarguments appear more applicable. Nevertheless, African countries have adopted urban
factory labor recently. Hence, it is presumed that in many cases, workers are engaged
in unskilled or lower multi-skilled labor. Consequently, the arguments of Urwick andBrech［1957］may be to some extent applicable.
Since JICA conducts Kaizen like most other activities based on government-togovernment assistance, it is presumed that there is almost no activity to disseminate

Kaizen to the informal sector by JICA or individual governments in any African country
and the authors cannot find training programs supported by aid in general and Japan’s

Kaizen-related aid projects in particular for sofa production in Cluster X in Nairobi.
As mentioned before, however, the ripple effect of activities by Japanese privatecompanies needs to be discussed from a different viewpoint. The authors met a
farmer, who had previously worked at a Japanese-owned formal factory in Nairobi, had
experience of working under Japanese staff, and then had owned land in a rural area in
Kenya. He led us to the field of an experienced farmer, who enthusiastically engaged in
improving land productivity and introducing new varieties and technology in the same
rural village. The first farmer told the authors that“This is Kaizen”while observing
the enthusiastic farmer’s activities. He said that he learned the word“Kaizen”from aJapanese staff member while working in Nairobi22.
Large Japanese firms, however, have made little headway in most of Africa.
Compared with Asia, the scope of Kaizen dissemination through Japanese firms has
been largely limited, which is the reason why JICA expects itself to take the lead ofpromotion of Kaizen in Africa. Thus, the fact that the word Kaizen was mentioned by aland-owning farmer is noteworthy.
In Ethiopia, the spread of Kaizen is the flagship initiative of Japan’s technicalcooperation for private industry assistance in Africa. The Ethiopian federal government
has even established the Kaizen Institute, which has been strongly supported bynational leaders such as the former Prime Minister Meles Zenawi. Ethiopia deserves
special mention for its government’s enthusiasm for Kaizen. Below, we examine cases ofsmall and large-sized formal Ethiopian firms as examples of dissemination of Kaizen andconsider how it has penetrated down to workers.

Poverty, Inclusive Development, and Human Resource Cultivation in Africa Revisited: A Critique of Japanese Assistance for Self-Reliance

772）Case of Kaizen in a small enterprise in Ethiopia
One small-sized enterprise surveyed by Matsubara has its factory in a governmentmanaged industrial cluster. The owner of the small firm has been receiving Kaizen
training and has been actively trying to incorporate the“5S”. This includes returning
tools to their original location after use and cleaning the factory workplace both in themorning and before going home. However, it is still usual during production for the top
part of finished shoes to be placed directly on the floor not clean during the working
time by workers. This example indicates that workers do not fully understand thereasons and necessity of upholding the 5S and how product quality is to be improved bythem.

3）Case of Kaizen in a large enterprise in Ethiopia
One large firm surveyed by Matsubara moved its factory to the present placein 2017. Thereafter, the position of an internal manager within the company wasestablished with the aim of introducing Kaizen practices. This manager sometimes
received training from the Ethiopian Kaizen Institute. In addition, Kaizen-like elements
are often encountered in factories, such as the hanging of posters on stairwell walls
indicating the seven wastes as the sub-section 1. However, even though Kaizen policies
and their meaning have been disseminated at the upper levels of the firm, they have notreached all the workers. As part of implementing the 5S, it was decided that workers
must clean their workplaces prior to closing up every day. However, sometimes theircollected garbage ended up under conveyor belts instead of waste bins. Matsubara’s
2019 survey found that workplace supervisors had to collect garbage after workers left
their workplaces.
In addition, in Ethiopia, people eat with their hands, but the company does not giveout soap to its workers. This means that they often do not use soap to wash their hands
after lunch, and sometimes not all of the scraps clinging to their hands are cleaned off.
Thus, occasionally, pieces of food clinging to hands after lunch stick to materials being
manufactured into shoes. Based on these evidences, it is presumed that workers at
the lower end of factory labor do not understand the need to maintain the 5S from theviewpoint of quality management and improvement.

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As implied in these examples, even if a firm has adopted Kaizen, workers do notnecessarily understand why they have to follow it. If they could be made to understandthat adopting Kaizen leads to shortened manufacturing times and improved quality for
products, then such cases would not occur.
As we have seen, there is a lot of turnover in Ethiopian leather-shoe manufacturing,and the retention rate of general workers by a single firm is low. Although there arecertainly workers who have paid to improve their skills by themselves, their number
is actually quite small. Consequently, when workers repeatedly change jobs within thesame industry or transfer over to another one, there may be less motivation to try
and improve the“collective skill”of a particular firm through Kaizen. Moreover, as towhy workers who actually hope to improve their skills do not adopt or practice Kaizen,
the true reasons remain unknown, although we must consider objective circumstantial
factors to explain them.
We think the roots of the factors, overall, are presumably found in general
workers’ lack of interest in the success of the whole firm, as mentioned by Urwick andBrech［1957］. It may also be related to the fact that management is solely privileged
to formulate conceptions, while general workers are left to execute them accordingly,
as mentioned by Braverman［1998］. Also, in the Ethiopian leather-shoe manufacturing,
low-level wages and high turnover rate of workers perhaps negatively impact theirinterest in the firm’s performance and thus motivation to practice Kaizen. Such case may
not be applicable to a few workers staying for a particular firm for long a time. These
are a topic for future research and we will keep it in mind that individual workers’
motivation for skill and performance improvement vary and probably the same in

Kaizen vary as well.
4. Poverty reduction and Kaizen in Africa
As examined in this section, the dissemination of Kaizen in Africa has not reached
the informal sector. Kaizen has been adopted in formal small-sized companies, although
the motivation and understanding of general workers is low. Consequently, it is difficult
to refer to this as a bottom-up, on-site participatory type Kaizen. In addition, wages
in the Ethiopian leather-shoe industry remain low, making it difficult to conclude that

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79

Kaizen has contributed to inclusive development and poverty reduction.
Thus, it is important to improve the objective circumstantial conditions of ordinary
workers, so they could have at least some interest in improving the quality andproductivity of their work, similar to the landowning farmers and managers of Japanese
workplaces.
Ⅵ. Discussion and tentative conclusion
Aid has been provided in almost every corner of African countries. If you drive
on a local highway for a day, you will see numerous signs for different aid projects. It iseven harder to find places not infuenced by development or aid in an African country.
It appears that aid projects serve in place of government action. Seeing this reality, it
may be understandable that aid officials desire to extol self-reliance over dependence.
Aid, foreign direct investment, and development through raw commodity booms
are characterized by too much external dependence on others, which should becertainly overcome. Thus, Africa’s“inclusive development from within”should focus on
local production activities in which most people including the poor should participate.
It is not appropriate to regard Africans’ livelihoods with the dichotomic view
between dependence and self-reliance, as the livelihoods should not be easily linked withexternal dependence at the national level. In the first place, however, any individual
person across continents are dependent. While residents in developed countries could
earn cash through market transactions, they depend much on the government’s
redistribution. African people may lack ability to earn income from markets but could
depend on resources obtained through network of acquaintance which are often
increasing by their own efforts, and redistribution by patrons. African people fabricate
their livelihoods by combining their own efforts of work and dependence on others. The
agenda of move away from dependence to self-reliance by aid pratitioners and other isirrelevant［Sato 2021］.
To promote local industries in Africa, vocational training has emerged as a majorarea of aid, and, as seen in section II, many ODA and NGO activities have been carriedout for vocational skill training to enhance peoples’ ability to earn cash in labor markets.
As confirmed in section III, however, to comprehensively grasp how people in Africa

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live, attention needs to be paid to not only market transactions but also other transfersof resources and knowledge. Despite strong expectation of vocational training bygovernments and aid officials, observing manufacturing sites in Kenya and Ethiopia, its
effects do not directly reach ordinary workers in general. On the other hand, we all should
know that even ordinary workers, often poor or in the informal sector, know how towork as elaborated in section Ⅳ. There are various forms of self-learning, voluntaryteaching, and active communication over skills. Some people share the results of their
vocational training to those around them free of charge. In this sense, people here workby combining self-reliance and interdependence or mutual cooperation. They are neither
totally dependent on somebody nor lack motivation for skill improvement. Aid activities
including vocational training that ignores this point are inefficient and inappropriate.
African general workers’ motivation for skill improvement, however, has notincorporated motivation to understand and practice Kaizen as seen in section IV.
Mutual cooperation of Africans, also varying up to circumstances, have not been easilytransformed into collective mobilization of them for Kaizen. Causes could be various andmulti-faceted, which is again our issue to be explored more in detail in the future.
We would like to stress that for achievement of inclusive development fromwithin, workers in informal firms, in small-sized enterprises, and at the bottom level offormal medium- and large-sized corporations in the manufacturing sector should neverbeen left behind. Aid through Japanese ODA and NGOs are minimal there. It would be
all the more difficult for support for Kaizen meaningful for them. UNIDO’s assistance for
Ethiopian small- and medium-sized leather-shoe manufacturers would be at least partly
here.
Notwithstanding a series of difficulties, we think that there is still what aid cancontribute to. Aid is functioning as a part of substitute for recipient government
activities. Supports for development of basic general education is one importantarea. From the cases of both Kenya’s informal manufacturing and Ethiopia’s formal
manufacturing, we have learned that general education is essential and meaningfulbasis for workers’ skill formation. Japan may have to reconsider its concern apparently
diverting from general education, especially primary education.
With regard to Kaizen, in the first place, it is not very successful in involvementof general workers in the manufacturing sector even in Japan. Then, it is not wise toPoverty, Inclusive Development, and Human Resource Cultivation in Africa Revisited: A Critique of Japanese Assistance for Self-Reliance81transfer Kaizen activities to Africa, without substantial reconsideration and perhaps
fundamental changes of approaches.
We would recommend again, first of all, redirection of aid resources to the general
education sector, which could lead to individual manufacturing workers’ basic skill
improvement and hopefully their potential ability to participate in the conception elementof works. Then, it would be recommended to concentrate Kaizen supports for high-level
workers in charge of planning, management and supervision.
If Japanese aid officials still attempt to pursue mobilize general workers for Kaizen,
at the starting point, their working conditions, such as low wages and high turnoverrate should be improved. While if retention rates are improved and may lead toreinforcement of entrepreneurs’ motivation to strengthen training efforts for general
workers to work in their factories, it may also bring about recovery of workers’ interestin the whole firms’ performance. Perhaps entrepreneurs’ mindset is to be changed at
first.

Kaizen may be by far most effective and necessary for entrepreneurs andmanagers leading manufacturing firms in Ethiopia and Africa. Aid could help create

Kaizen for them aiming at promotion of their actions to improve workers conditions andmotivations. To us, it seems to be very appropriate role for aid by Japan and JICA as
contribution to Africa’s inclusive development from within.
Aid should start from objective and thorough understanding of people’s livelihoods
and not from biased perception based on the donor’s own belief such as“move awayfrom dependence to self-reliance.”  
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Notes

1 This article is a modified English version of the paper presented by one of the authors（Takahashi）at the 2020 Autumn Conference Session Six of the Peace Studies Association ofJapan（PSAJ）（the host school: Yokohama City University）, which was substantially revised
and augment by Matsubara.
“Cooperation”
2 There are subtle differences between the terms of“Cooperation”and“Aid”
implies more equal relations between stakeholders and nowadays includes collaboration withbusiness, while“Aid”means more unilateral supports. In this article, however, both called“aid”
since they basically refer to the same ODA（Official Development Assistance）.
3 Among examples would be that the title of the 2020 Autumn Conference Session Six of the
PSAJ, which was mentioned in Note 1, entitled“‘bottom-up’assistance for self-reliance”inAfrica.
4 According to a former NGO staff featured in the White Paper article, the title was given by
the MOFA agent who interviewed the staff, not the staff or the NGO（interviewed by theauthors on January 31, 2021）.
5 Translated from the Wakachiai Project website（See References）.
6 According to our interviews with the former NGO staff on January 31, February 28, andMarch 1, 2021. It should be noted that what is mentioned here is the opinion of the former staff,
not of the NGO.
7 Please refer to Takahashi［1998］for the details on the nature and background of the idea of“support for self-help efforts,”and its relationship with Japan’s ODA. Besides, Udagawa［2017］
discusses this idea from the viewpoint of international politics and the characteristics of Japan’s
aid diplomacy.
8 ODA Charter（Official Development Assistance Charter or Development Cooperation
Charter）was first established in 1992, with the first revision in 2003 and the second revision in2015, when the title was changed to“Development Cooperation Charter, as mentioned in Note 2.
9 Economic conditionality is usually requested by international development institutions such as
the International Monetary Fund（IMF）and the World Bank rather than bilateral aid donors.
Moreover, these two institutions do not directly request political conditionality due to limitationof their mandates. Therefore, it would not be a very accurate expression that“the Western
donors”altogether are requesting them.
10 One of the latest examples is Cramer et al.［2020］. They repeatedly criticize not only theapproach of international organizations and mainstream economists which sticks to narrow
Neoclassical Economics, but also the approach of Dependency Theorists which often suggest
a uniform and thus unrealistic policy prescriptions in any situation. They suggest promoting
proactive government development policies be required, empirically based on the current
situation and the effects of past policies in Africa.
11 Refer to, for example, the New York Times on February 15th, 2007.
12 Similar criticism was made for Japan in the earlier high growth period in the 1960s,
which was emerging as a donor country, due to frequent adoption of aid modalities linked to
procurement by Japanese companies and contracts with them［White 1964］.
13 The Japan Bank for International Cooperation, one of the predecessors of JICA, formulated
and started to operate this guideline as relatively early as in 2002, and it has been taken overafter the integration of JICA in 2008 to this date.

Poverty, Inclusive Development, and Human Resource Cultivation in Africa Revisited: A Critique of Japanese Assistance for Self-Reliance85

14 JICA［2010］p.15.
15 It can also be inferred that government officials feel a scent of socialist movements in theword of“liberation”and opt for avoiding to use it.
16 This is obvious, for example, given the ideas of Denis Goulet, Amartya Sen, and others, who
had a great influence on today’s human-centered development thoughts. Goulet cited“life,“self-esteem”, and“freedom from servitude”as key elements of development
sustenance”［Goulet 1971］. It should be pointed out over again that the freedom of subordination,
suppression, and restraint of individuals underlies Sen’s capability and entitlement approaches
which seem to have been well-known［Sen 1987］.
17 One of the authors（Takahashi）, with academic colleagues, conducted four-time fieldresearches in Cluster X from 2018 to 2019. We made interviews and participatory observation
to obtain data on 39 shop owners including masters and 163 workers finally.
18 Cramer et al. ［2020］ state a similar view in discussing industrial human resource
development in Africa.
19 When a firm is assigned a building room by the government, they have no choice but
becoming a formal firm.
20 The separation of conception and execution in labor is based on the idea of the separation ofthought（pensée）and execution written in Friedman［1956］, a French sociologist. Braverman
focused on the history of the workplace up to 20 th century, especially the separation ofmanagement work from other processes. He regarded it as the essence of the problem in thecontemporary factory that, while conception and execution are divided between a manager andgeneral workers and the manager takes power through conception, the alienation situation iscaused in which the workers whose works are simplified into execution cannot find their job
meaningful［Braverman 1998］.
21 Here, a multi-skilled worker means a factory worker who has the ability to deal with multiple
processes and engages in them.
22 The authors’interview with Farmer O in a village in Nakuru, Kenya in September 2019.