Japan's Participation of Indigenous Development in Latin America

• In Event: Human Rights, Governance and Indigenous Peoples

Abstract

After more than twenty years of discussion, the UN General Assembly finally adopted the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples in 2007. Due to a series of world-wide indigenous movements, “development” for indigenous peoples also emerged as a new theme for academia and international organizations in recent decades. Although Japan's Official Development Assistance (ODA) has been recognized a significant aid donor for Latin American countries, Japan's participation in Latin American development has not yet been studied. The proposed interdisciplinary research examines how the ODA's indigenous development has built up and what has been its focus by comparing the organization's efforts with those of other major donors. The methods of data collection include archival research of Japan International Cooperation Agency’s Annual Reports, other reports, and program evaluations; analysis of popular magazines; and semi-structured interviews with Japanese professionals and volunteers who were involved in the ODA's indigenous development in Latin America. The study concludes that since the late 1990s, Japan's ODA started getting involved in indigenous development through two different forms: (1) technical assistance, and (2) dispatch of Japanese volunteers into indigenous communities or related institutions. Japan's ODA has increased its attention on poverty of indigenous peoples and implemented projects targeting for improving indigenous communities economic and social situation since the mid-2000s. However, the ODA rarely applied the term “indigenous development” to the projects which targeted or included indigenous peoples as beneficiaries.

Author

• Kumiko Kawachi, Yokohama National University