Development Anthropology in Japan's ODA—Policy and Practice

Abstract

This paper examines the causes of lack of mutual understanding, or so-called “rupture,” between development assistance and anthropology as seen from the Japanese development agency's point of view. The focus on poverty reduction, participatory development and the “human security” approach in recent Japanese ODA policy engenders growing interest in the social and cultural aspects of development interventions rendered by the Japanese ODA programmes; hence the growing recognition and more frequent use of “social surveys,” including placement of development anthropologists. In practice, however, information and knowledge on the target societies seldom influence, in any meaningful way, the design and implementation of development interventions. How can this knowledge better inform development interventions?

First, on the aid side, the law of causality employed in the logical framework of development interventions requires that whatever information and knowledge is acquired through “social surveys” must be incorporated in the causality chain; this is not the case at present. In order for this to happen, efforts are necessary to make such knowledge as explicit and tangible as possible, so that they are counted as independent variables that constitute the subjective rationality of individuals. On the part of aid practitioners, it is equally important that understanding of people's lives is broadened. Aid practitioners ought to adopt a holistic view of people's livelihoods and an approach that views economic activities as “embedded” in the society in question.

Secondly, anthropologists need to know that one of the main concerns of development intervention is the management of resources, be it schools, clinics or water supply facilities, and the capacity of people involved in the use and maintenance of such. As Japan puts greater emphasis on capacity development as one of the main components of aid effectiveness, more can be done by anthropologists using their process-oriented and descriptive methods of research to generate information regarding change of cognition, norms and social relationships within the society in question.