periods. Furthermore, the Yokohama Action Plan, which indicates concrete actions for the TICAD process in the ensuing five years, spelled out support for comprehensive community development utilizing experience from the aforementioned AVI and AMV projects. The action plan also included providing technical assistance, marketing skills, and microfinance in order to create a substantial degree of employment opportunities for the younger generation in particular, as well as expanding the One Village One Product project. Of these commitments, comprehensive community development includes provision of basic education, water, sanitation, school meals, first aid treatment, and referral services $ ^{3} $ at schools and other educational facilities within the community. Schools are therefore to provide comprehensive services encompassing literacy education and lifestyle improvement. Commitments also include promoting participation of community in school management for easier access to education achievements and for strengthened economic ties with the local communities including the supply of food for school meals.

## (3) Development of the One Village One Product Movement

Japan has a long experience of human and community development through the cultivation of local specialty goods called the One Village One Product movement. The movement, which respects the independent efforts of communities, is aimed at tapping their latent potential, where administrative authorities provide technical and other indirect support such as for marketing. Originated in Japan, it has spread mainly in Asian countries such as Thailand, Viet Nam, and Cambodia, and can be utilized in Africa to reduce poverty. Its objective is to combine community capacity building with income generation in order to link them to sustained economic growth based on community. In order to realize this objective, it is important to search the community's products and find promising items. It is also important to secure stable production and distribution, and, from the perspective of exporting what is exportable, to form partnerships with organizations that control trade. Moreover, for their smooth implementation, community development is necessary, as well as administrative capacity building and human resources development. In particular, since the One Village One Product movement does not stop with the development of a single community, but is possibly linked to the economic growth of the entire country, human resources development for the entire government will ultimately be necessary to facilitate partnerships with related government agencies.

In Africa, there are already cases where Japan has provided cooperation in Malawi and Ghana. In Malawi, the One Village One Product movement is positioned as a national project for reducing poverty through economic development. Through the One Village One Product Office established within the Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development, the central and regional governments join hands in selecting products, financing, spreading the campaign concepts, providing technical assistance, and promoting sales. JICA has provided technical cooperation for the Malawi Government's project since 2005. In Ghana, Japan Overseas Cooperation Volunteers partnered with NGOs to provide technical assistance to female farmers who make shea butter, and conducted studies to promote local industries. In addition, JICA works together with the Japan External Trade Organization (JETRO) to promote commercialization by private corporations, and the products have been exhibited and sold at markets run by JETRO at Narita and Kansai Airports. There are high expectations for these examples from other African countries as a new development strategy that can be applied in their own countries.

As a specific undertaking by Japan, JICA focused on community empowerment and created a model for the One Village One Product movement by establishing a One Village One Product Office within the government of the recipient country and thereby providing assistance for the production group. From the perspective of exportable products, JETRO focuses its cooperation on shea butter, coffee, tea, and cut flowers. In the future, JETRO plans to introduce a new type of project by soliciting proposals from Japanese import companies.

Japan will utilize its experience of developing the One Village One Product movement for creating community products in Malawi and making shea butter in Ghana to spread the movement in the future to other African countries while working together with multilateral organizations. As part of its plan, Japan held the One Village One Product International Seminar in Malawi on January 22-24, 2008, with the purpose of introducing the philosophy and framework of the movement along with actual examples from