State-Managed International Voluntary Service: The Case of Japan Overseas Cooperation Volunteers

  • #Books and Reports

Since its establishment in 1965, Japan Overseas Cooperation Volunteers (JOCVs) have believed that they should live and work together with people in host communities, listen humbly to them, respect their voices, and share their perspectives and sense of value. Therefore, when JOCVs realized they could not act in that way because of COVID-19, they found themselves powerless. The contributors to this book recognize the real power of JOCVs throughout its 60-year history: this is the power to contribute to downstream impacts (the development of host communities) and to upstream impacts (the volunteers’ own personal and professional development, contributions back to Japanese society, and international friendship and mutual understanding).

This Open Access book addresses the contributions by JOCVs and the advantages and disadvantages of the JOCV program, proposing a concept of state-managed international voluntary services (SMIVS). The book argues that owing to state management JOCVs can affect both downstream and upstream benefits, while state management gives JOCVs advantages and disadvantages. In a broader perspective, it explores the significance and possibilities that SMIVS has.

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Editor
OKABE Yasunobu
Date of issuance
October 2024
Publisher
Springer Singapore
Language
English
Number of pages
277
Related areas
  • #Asia
  • #Oceania
  • #Africa
  • #Latin America
Topics
  • #Education
  • #Politics and Governance
  • #Water Resources
  • #Agricultural / Rural Development
  • #Poverty Reduction
  • #Disaster Management
  • #Civil Participation
  • #Japan's Development Cooperation
  • #Health
Research area
Development Cooperation Strategies
ISBN
978-981-97-3614-0, eBook ISBN:978-981-97-3615-7
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-97-3615-7

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