Examining the Conceptual Frameworks of Aid Effectiveness and Development Effectiveness in the Context of Cambodia’s Agricultural Sector with a Special Reference to Japan’s Official Development Assistance

Abstract

The Busan Fourth High Level Forum on Aid Effectiveness in 2011 highlighted the shift from the symbolically unequal relationship of foreign aid providers and recipients, to more equal identities between them as development partners. Cambodia is not an exception of such an international trend. In this situation, one of the country’s traditional ‘development partners’, Japan, also emphasises its contribution to Cambodia’s socio-economic development while making it clear that it hopes Japanese private sector will also enjoy economic returns from such a partnership. However, this shift in identity does not guarantee that Cambodia will enjoy both economic growth and its wider population, socio-economic well-being. This study does not directly participate in the debate concerning development effectiveness as a better appraoch than aid effectiveness. It is understood in this study that the concept of aid effectiveness continues to exist, like the international aid regime, constantly shifting its own justifications for aid strategies. The primary research information comes from semi-structured interviews and was used to examine the understandings of those concepts at the policymaking level in comparison with their practical application on the ground. The interviews involved Japanese agents, Cambodian counterparts, and participants in Japan’s Official Development Assistance (ODA) projects in Cambodia’s agricultural sector. This study presents concrete examples of difficulties faced by the informants in the practice of Japan’s ODA projects and Cambodia’s development policy in the sector. It then explores two different types of disconnects in aid relations between Japan and Cambodia. One disconnect is between Cambodia’s market-oriented agricultural development policy and Japan’s ODA approach to the sector focusing on small-scale farmers. The other disconnect is between Japan’s market-oriented ODA appraoch to the Cambodian economy as a whole and its ODA appraoch to Cambodian agriculture in particular. The primary data will then be presented and analysed to illustrate how these disconnects characterise the aid relationship between the two countries.