Knowledge Forum: “Exploring New Forms of Cooperation with Emerging Development Partners: From Knowledge Sharing to Knowledge Co-Creation”

Amid profound changes in the global development landscape, Official Development Assistance (ODA), particularly from OECD-DAC countries, is facing severe fiscal constraints. At the same time, the range of actors engaged in development cooperation has rapidly diversified, including emerging development partners, the private sector, and philanthropic organizations.

Of particular note is the growing presence of emerging development partners. Beyond major economies such as China and India, countries across Southeast Asia, the Middle East, Latin America, and Africa are increasingly engaging in development cooperation at regional and inter-regional levels. These initiatives often emphasize the core principles of South-South cooperation—such as horizontal partnership, mutual benefit, and ownership—and tend to be implemented in ways that respect local contexts rather than applying uniform rules.

Emerging partners, drawing on their dual experiences of both receiving and providing knowledge, are accumulating distinctive values and practical insights. These offer fresh perspectives and added value to development cooperation. At the same time, triangular cooperation—where international organizations or traditional donors support South-South collaboration—is increasingly being recognized not merely as a financing mechanism, but as a catalytic approach for fostering knowledge co-creation and scaling up development impact (UNOSSC 2025 ).

These developments carry important implications for Japan’s development cooperation, both in terms of enhancing development outcomes and generating learning and value that can be brought back into Japanese society. In regions such as Southeast Asia, Africa, and Latin America, examples are already emerging of network-based cooperation involving Japan, including initiatives that successfully engage private sector expertise.

Japan, once a developing country striving to catch up and later one of the few Asian donors within the OECD-DAC, possesses a “dual experience” as both a learner and a provider of development knowledge (Ohno et al. 2024 ). Its experience of building development cooperation institutions and practical know-how while adapting to OECD-DAC norms is a valuable asset to share with emerging development partners. Furthermore, many of Japan’s development philosophies—such as mutual benefit, ownership, and endogenous development—resonate with the approaches of emerging donors. Leveraging these commonalities, Japan is well positioned to play a bridging role among diverse values and norms in development cooperation.

Objectives and Key Questions

Building on the above context, this forum aims to explore the future of knowledge co-creation with emerging development partners, guided by the following questions:

・ What are the key considerations and potential challenges in fostering collaboration between emerging development partners and traditional donors?
・How can triangular cooperation evolve into a more dynamic mechanism for joint learning, co-creation of value, and circulation of knowledge and value?
・What roles can Japan play in facilitating such transformations?
・What lessons and policy implications from Asian development experiences can be shared with the international community?

To deepen the discussion, the forum will bring together scholars and practitioners from Japan, Thailand—one of Japan’s long-standing partners and an active emerging development partner—and the Republic of Korea, which, like Japan, has a “dual experience” and has actively shared its development knowledge internationally.

16:00 – 16:10 Opening Remarks
・ Haruko KAMEI , Director General, JICA Ogata Research Institute
16:10 – 17:30 Panel Discussion
Moderator:
・ Izumi OHNO, Professor Emeritus, National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies
Panelist：
・ Siriporn WAJJWALKU, Professor, Thammasat University
・ Jin SATO, Director and Professor, Institute for Advanced Studies on Asia, The University of Tokyo
・ Jungwook KIM, Executive Director, Center for International Development, Korea Development Institute
・ Other speakers TBA
17:30 – 18:00 Q&A Session

Please register by clicking here .
*Registration will be closed at noon June 30 (Japan time).
*We will provide accommodations such as sign language interpretation, real-time captioning, and advance access to text data. If you wish to request any of these services, please contact us at dritrp@jica.go.jp by June 17.

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