FASID Seminar on
Aid Relationships in Asia- Exploring Ownership in Japanese and Nordic Aid
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Date： May, 23rd, 2008, 14:00-17:30

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Venue：FASID Seminar Room #1 (5th Floor）

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Presenter:
Alf Morten Jerve
Izumi Ohno

(Senior Researcher, the Chr. Michelsen Institute, Norway)(Professor, GRIPS Development Forum, National Graduate Institutefor Policy Studies, Japan)
Marie Soderberg (Professor, European Institute of Japanese Studies at Stockholm
School of Economics, Sweden)
Yasutami Shimomura (Professor, Graduate School of Environmental Management,
Faculty of Humanity and Environment, Hosei University)
Annette Skovsted Hansen (Associate Professor, Japanese History at Aarhus
University, Denmark)4.

Issue：
Aid Relationships in Asia- Exploring Ownership in Japanese and Nordic Aid

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Brief content of Presentation“Fostering ownership in aid: comparing Nordic and Japanese lessons in Asia” by Mr.
Jerve
Lessons from Nordic and Japanese experiences indicate ownership cannot becreated by aid. Instead the role of aid is more modest and less instrumental, it can only
facilitate ownership.
“The East Asian Perspective of Ownership and a Case Study on Vietnam” by Prof. Ohno
Inspired by the Japanese understanding of self-help effort, ownership has to be
dealt with in two dimensions: (i) donor management; and (ii) the management of policy
ideas. Vietnam is often cited as one of the model countries in terms of strong ownership.
However the research finds that the Vietnamese government excels only in the first
aspect while there is much to be desired in the second aspect. Vietnam needs to go
beyond skillful donor management and strengthen its capacity for managing the entire
development process.
“Determinants of Ownership in Aid to China” by Prof.Soderberg

China has strong ownership in receiving foreign aid in general. When it comes to,
however, transferring new knowledge adopted and learned into institutional reform andpolicy action, Chinese ownership become ambiguous.
“Legitimate ownership of Thailand” by Prof.Shimomura
Thailand is one of the unique countries that succeed in securing recipient
ownership and graduating from aid recipient status in spite of strong pressure from twolargest donors in the country. Its experience shows that it is legitimacy of government
policy both towards domestic constituencies and foreign partners that is crucial.
“The Trust of History: Ownership in the Relationships of Nepal and Vietnam to TheirDonors” by Prof. Hansen
Both Nepal and Vietnam are donor darlings (although in different time) but two
countries developed differently in bilateral aid relationship based on their pastexperience with donors. In Nepal mistrust of donors lead the domonstrators to influenceon the country’s donor and development management. And in Vietnam Ministry ofPlanning and Investment does strong donor management.
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Q & A and Comments

Importance of plurality
Plurality of donors is important in terms of aid effectiveness because thatengenders competition among the donor and the competition of actors could be engine ofcreativity and growth. On the other hand, Uniform approach or one solution is notinterest for recipient country.
However, in reality, plural opinions among the domestic recipient leaders tend
to lead divided leadership. Pluralists have different projects even in the same field andthere is so many overlapping. In this regards, making up concerted action to utilize
plurality of domestic opinion is crucial. Plurality is important but utilizing that is very
difficult. To realize this, better coordination and better national planning andformulation of long term national policy is needed (Sometimes donors have no time towait for countries themselves to lead developed these plans, development mechanisms
and these coordination mechanisms, and donors push mechanisms of aid coordination
not allowing recipient to make decision).
Key partner of ownership on recipient side

Good way to provide development assistance is trying to establish relationshipin lower level, at more operational level.
In addition, importance of community should be recognized in terms ofownership of recipient side. In Africa, most country does not have ownership socommunity should be more respected. Community could be NPO, farmer organization,private company. If government has no capacity, utilization of community such as NPO
is needed.
Importance of Evaluation system
Evaluation process is the key in terms of aid effectiveness. Most of evaluation
design is made by donors and criteria, how to evaluate, and who evaluate are decided bydonors. Like participatory planning method, donors should hold workshop forevaluation inviting stakeholder and identify evaluation design.
However, host countries often have small motivation although donor countries
have strong motivation to evaluate because of strong pressure from tax payer.