先日前のパソコンを整理していたら、
HPAIRに応募した時のアプリケーションを見つけてついつい読み返してしまいました。
国際開発がテーマです。
応募したのが三月終わり頃なのでかれこれもう９ヶ月以上も前に書いたことになります。
以前の自分はこんなことを考えていたのかぁと懐かしくなると同時に、
この九ヶ月間の間にずいぶんと新たな視野を得る事ができたのかなと思ったりもします。
様々なソーシャルビジネスとの出会いやiLEAPでのインターン、
ケニヤでのNGOコンサルティング的な経験その他シアトルでの生活を通して
これを書いていた当時には思い描かなかった世界が見えるようになった、
このことを改めて実感できたことはよかったですね。
先日もGates Foundationにも勤めておられたこともある
開発コンサルタントの方とお話する機会を得て、
大変有意義な時間を過ごすことができました。
”いくら技術的な支援が整ったって
結局重要になってくるのは人間味。
その点で国際協力において教育の担う役割は大きい””
とおっしゃっていました。
さてまぁこの文章は選考通ったにしろ今読み返すと稚拙な箇所も多々ありますが、
そのへんはご了承ください。
設問は
Select your first choice panel topic from the drop-down list.
（僕はInternational Development/国際開発のパネルを選びました。 ）
What aspects of this panel topic specifically interest you and why? Please elaborate on any relevant academic, work, and/or personal experiences that testify to your ability to contribute substantively to the panel.(Limit: 5000 characters)
です。
懐かしい。
What I am most interested in is how each sector of international development can cooperate and realize efficient development. Through the experiences of several international volunteer work camps, I felt a necessity of cooperation of three sectors: NGOs, companies, and govt. When we think about the way of international development, structurally there are two important views: horizontal connection and vertical connection.
There are so many factors for development such as education, employment, infrastructure, and medical care, and these are tightly connected with each other. This is the horizontal connection. HIV problem in developing countries, for example, needs medical care and technology enough to cover all of the patients, but also needs better education on how HIV spoils children, how they can prevent HIV, and other recognitions about HIV. Here we need to improve both factors at the same time. Improvement of one segment has little impact on the matter. Bottom up of all of the factors is required in the field of development. At this point, I think that many NGOs contact with other fields of NGOs or one expands their field over some factors. An organization which I took part in in India also provided various kind of support with children. While we taught them English, math, and about HIV during the work camp, we promoted the infrastructure of the small institution where children study.
Then, how about vertical connection? In my opinion, this is what is now needed in the field of international development. Here, vertical connection means corporations among three important sectors of international development: NGOs, companies, and govt., and each sector has each capability.
NGOs stand on the closest place to local people. Most of the NGOs are always besides local people. They try to find the solution and change the situation for local people and sometimes with them. Therefore, they are of advantage about connection with local communities compared to other sectors. When we think about international development, we have to know that there are variety of cases in each country, each area, and each people. That is why each NGOs acts for specific area. This fact shows the importance of NGOs because other two sectors cannot specify narrow area.
Companies, the second sector, are basically involved in international development in the demand-supply structure. Some of them contribute somewhat to international development as CSR, but I think that it is non-essential and omissible here. Global companies were not so much interested in the market of developing counties in the past. Since the end of 90’s, however, noticing the future possibility of the market, they gradually forged ahead to developing countries and started BOP business. BOP business is a business which targets to low-income population (Bottom of the Pyramid). Companies can contribute to an amelioration of their standard of living by providing people in developing countries with products which suit their lives. For example, P&G(U.S) developed, as a part of Children’s Safe Drinking Water（CSDW）program, a purification powder which clean water, PUR(get rid of 99% of virus and bacteria, by P&G ), and enable people to get safe water easily in more than 40 countries.
Government, the third sector, can contribute to development in terms of systems, not only infrastructures, finance, and other bases. Some problems developing countries hold are caused of insufficient systems. It is said that in Cambodia highly capable teachers go overseas looking for a better-income job because salaries of public official are low. Therefore the improvement of their salaries prevents the loss of competent teacher, and this is the base of well-developed education system. By this means, by developing the systems, governments make the better bases of each factor of development. This should be done with the cooperation of other countries government of course.
These three sectors have each advantage and disadvantage. For instance, NGOs are familiar with the demand of local people, but they do not have business experience or skills. Therefore, what I am saying is if the knowledge about demands of local people and business know-how are combined, better development can be achieved. This is vertical connection I said above. PUR by P&G is also in this case. One of the reasons of the success of PUR is low cost of distribution and promotion. By cooperating with local NGOs and international institute, P&G achieved this and succeed in spreading PUR even to the lowest-income people. I think this case is great success, however this kind of cooperation is still few, in other words, vertical connection is not enough. I would like to participate substantively in the panel and discuss international development from this point of view.
