Past Research Projects

CSIS-JICA Joint Research Project on Transformative Innovation for Sustainable Development and Poverty Reduction

The Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS)and JICA Research Institute (JICA-RI) launched a two-year joint research project on transformative innovation in the summer of 2015. The past few years have seen the emergence of new industries and exploding technologies that are transforming the world. They are also changing the context for international development. In line with the fourth industrial revolution, “transformative innovation” refers to system-level innovation that shifts the existing system toward a totally new and sustainable way of operating.the Japanese government reinforced the importance of the technology innovation on the new development cooperation charter. For its part, the United States has also emphasized innovation through efforts. In the first year of the project, CSIS and JICA-RI identified two locations, the Philippines and Indonesia, for case studies and have explored the potential of transformative innovation for international development.