Japanese aid, One Village One Product (OVOP) and the UK's Big Society Idea Dr Fletcher Tembo and Dr Dirk Willem te Velde Overseas Development Institute TICAD Seminar: 12 th October, London
Outline Japanese aid Big Society OVOP (One Village One Product) What is it? Impact Conclusion 2
Japanese AID, TICAD and OVOP Japanese government policy: As part of the Aid for Trade initiative at WTO Hong Kong Ministerial Conference, Japanese government initiated the OVOP Campaign. In 2008, Japanese government announced strong commitment for African growth including supports for OVOP movement at TICAD IV and G8. JICA-ODI study: The Japanese government is expanding the OVOP movement toward Africa. However, critics argue that the sustainability of the movement is heavily depended on the government intervention under decentralisation movement. 3
JICA s assistance three distinguishing features Aid for Trade: Continued support for infrastructure (also in late 1990s when other donors were moving into social areas) Providing loans to governments the Asian experience. OVOP micro level support at community level Different from top-down Investment Climate Support Builds on co-operatives, groups A bundle of support not just resources, also TA 4
Features of Japanese aid Dual identity as donor and latecomer: growth aspiration, real sector concern Field-based, concrete thinking; pragmatism Weak political interest in ODA policymaking Modest stance in aid relations can contribute to fostering relationships of mutual trust? Thanks for GRIPS, Japan, for ideas in this slide 5
Big Society Premise: Big governments fails, Big business fail, develop society Give communities more powers; Encourage people to take an active role in their communities; Transfer power from central to local government; Support co-ops, charities and social enterprises. Publish government data - transparency BS not well defined in terms of the practicalities of where government meets society Could the OVOP be an example of how govt and society meets in a BS strategy. How does this work as a development strategy? 6
OVOP philosophy 7
Government and the BS 8
Integration with the social cultural system of society 9
Malawi OVOP background 10
Malawi OVOP 11
OVOP Malawi Technical assistance, training and grants/loans to local co-operatives Central govt OVOP agency provides labelling, standards, marketing services 114 groups: rice, bee keeping, honey making, furniture, etc Year 2003-04 2004-05 2005-06 2006-07 2007-08 2008-09 2009-10 Total Number of Projects 14 4 14 7 7 21 47 114 Number of group members at the beggining 1,273 3,151 7,785 505 229 3,894 16,837 Funded Amount(1000MK)* 9,891 1,176 14,259 14,993 18,302 59,540 118,161 Source OVOP Malawi 12
OVOP Malawi impact assessment Outreach - OVOP is a small programme in monetary size (US $ 1mn), but it reaches a large number of households Income effects OVOP support increase sales and evidence from sites that 1) sales increased (Kunthembwe peanuts), 2) efficiency increased (less processing time Bwumbwe vegtables), and 3) capacity was enhanced (doubling of capacity) Khumbo oil refinery. Value chain effects OVOP helped capture a larger part of the value chain (e.g. in the case of the Bvumbwe dairy co-operative) Standards and market access for OVOP products OVOP provided standards and labels securing market access for e.g. Mendulo honey and Kunthembwe peanuts; Governance : located in decentralised government systems Sustainability questions about the sustainability as 18 out of 50 OVOP supported sites (mid 2008) still in operation; also issues about scale 13
Capturing a larger part of the value chain in Bvumbwe dairy South Africa Curb global imbalances: e.g. IFIs to leverage surplus capital to LICs? 14
Increasing productivity in drying Bvumbwe vegetables South Africa Curb global imbalances: e.g. IFIs to leverage surplus capital to LICs? 15
Bookkeeping and labelling in peanut processing South Africa Curb global imbalances: e.g. IFIs to leverage surplus capital to LICs? 16
Marketing OVOP products in Lilongwe South Africa Curb global imbalances: e.g. IFIs to leverage surplus capital to LICs? 17
Conclusions JICA s support programme in Africa has a number of features currently being discussed in other donors; Its OVOP programme is similar to Big Society programme; OVOP has seen several successes, but questions on sustainability and transformational nature of the programme Complementary measures around OVOP are required 18
Thank you f.tembo@odi.org.uk OVOP and Big Society 19