The roundtable discusses key issues concerning the 'sustainability' of development cooperation (hereafter DC) in the post-USAID global development landscape. While also being considered more broadly in terms of “results that will outlast the project cycle”, development policy debates concerning 'sustainability' have focused more prominently on the issue of the aid and development effectiveness in promoting sustainable development in the Global South, as evidenced by the MDGs and SDGs. However, in light of the recent developments, including mounting aid fatigue and rising calls for a 'return' to domestic issues in traditional donor countries, the sustainability of DC itself has become a critical matter. 

The post-1960 regime, on which the prevailing architecture, norms and principles of the present DC have been instituted, is currently experiencing an existential crisis. The latter's ripple effect is keenly felt in the former, since building the domestic base of political and public support has become critical for the very existence of DC and its legitimacy. Against this backdrop, we explore the potential for domestic operations of Japan’s DC as a (g)local solution to aforementioned challenges.

The roundtable focuses on the growing relevance of Japan’s domestic operations as part of its DC portfolio, with a view to elucidating 1) the efforts to further (g)local connections that have been instrumental in addressing Japan’s own domestic challenges; 2) the (im)possibility of reconfiguring DC as a ‘circuit’ to enhance sustainability in Japan and partner countries, thereby facilitating the circulation of ideas, resources, and people across various scales and directions.

The rationale for the Japan case is twofold: firstly, to employ a more decentralised and pluriversal approach to understanding the post-USAID landscape; secondly, to understand Japanese society’s response to the aforementioned challenges is important considering its 4th largest (in 2024) and the first non-western DAC donorship in the context of post-2030 process.

Speakers 

• Professor Soyeun Kim  - Sogang University, Korea
• Dr. Tomomi Orita  - Director of JICA Hokuriku Center & principal research fellow at JICA Ogata Research Institute　
• Mr. Hiroshi Sato  - Founder and Director of the Tokyo Institute for Development Socilogy; Former President of the Japan Society for International Development 2011-2014

Discussants

• Dr. Niels Keijzer - Project Lead & Senior Researcher at the German Institute of Development and Sustainability - IDOS
• Professor Emma Mawdsley - Cambridge University, UK