Knowledge Forum: Reconsidering the Role of ODA from the Perspective of Mutual Benefit

International cooperation—long seen as a foundation of global stability—is undergoing profound change. The world is shifting toward a more complex, multipolar landscape, often described as a multiplex international order.

These shifts are also reshaping the field of development cooperation. Official Development Assistance (ODA) has traditionally played a central role in reducing poverty and addressing global challenges. Yet ODA budgets are being cut in several major donor countries, not only in the United States—where the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) has been dismantled—but also across Europe. At the same time, emerging economies and private-sector actors are becoming increasingly influential in the development arena. As a result, debate is intensifying about the future of ODA.

Donor countries now face difficult choices about how to allocate limited resources among competing priorities: the development needs of partner countries, donors’ own national interests, and efforts to tackle global issues. In Europe, calls for ODA to align more closely with national priorities coexist with concerns that excessive politicization could erode the credibility of development cooperation. Meanwhile, as developing countries experience economic growth and global power dynamics shift, the traditional “donor–recipient” model of aid is gradually giving way to a more reciprocal, mutual-benefit approach.

Japan’s Development Cooperation Charter articulates two objectives: 1) contributing to global peace, stability, and prosperity through support for developing countries and solutions to global challenges; and 2) advancing Japan’s own national interests, including its peace, security, and prosperity. In this sense, the Charter can be seen as embracing a broad conception of “mutual benefit” that encompasses gains for Japan and for the international community.

What, then, does “mutual benefit” mean in practice for Japan’s ODA? How has Japan’s ODA contributed—and how can it contribute—to realizing mutual benefit? Which aspects of ODA should evolve with changing times, and which core values should remain constant? And what message should Japan convey to the international community as global discussions on the role of ODA continue?

This webinar will take these questions as its starting point. Bringing together experts from diplomacy and security, business and industry, and civil society, it will explore the future of ODA and the possibilities for development cooperation that delivers meaningful benefits for all.

16:00-16:05 Opening Remarks
Jimbo Ken, Managing Director (Representative Director),
International House of Japan; President, Asia Pacific Initiative (API)

16:05–16:15 Introduction & Key Issues
Harada Tetsuya , Chief Representative for Europe and the Head of JICA France Office; Principal Research Fellow, JICA Ogata Research Institute

16:15–17:55 Discussion and Q&A
Discussants:
Sagara Yoshiyuki, Senior Research Fellow, Institute of Geoeconomics, International House of Japan (IHJ-IOG)

Todo Yasuyuki, Professor, Waseda University

Ono Yoko, Head of Global Advocacy Policy, Advocacy and Campaigns, Save the Children Japan

Iwazawa Kana, Assistant Manager, External Relations Department, Daikin Industries, Ltd.

Moderator:
Kamei Haruko , Director General, JICA Ogata Research Institute

17:55–18:00 Closing Remarks
Yoshida Masahiro , Senior Vice President, JICA

Please register by clicking here .
*Registration will be closed at noon April 10 (Japan time).

JICA Ogata Sadako Research Institute for Peace and Development (Mr. Tanaka and Ms. Kajino)
E-mail：dritrp@jica.go.jp