A study of Japanese official development assistance (ODA) for educational development in post genocide Cambodia

Abstract

Foreign aid in war-torn societies is often significant for peace building after an early phase of urgent humanitarian military intervention. Numerous development organizations have been contributing to rebuild war-torn societies. The Kingdom of Cambodia is one of those countries which has been receiving a large number of development assistance since the end of the civil war and tragic genocide, which occurred during Pol Pot's communist period (1974-1979). During the genocide, approximately 80 per cent of Cambodian elite were killed, and national education system was destroyed for ideological control. Therefore, educational reconstruction has been one of significant sectors in Cambodian post-war reconstruction. Japan International Cooperation Agencies (JICA) is a Japanese Official Development Assistance (ODA) based bilateral aid agency. In post-war Cambodia, JICA has been contributing for post-war reconstruction as one of those numerous development assistance. Their contribution is broadly known as philanthropic peacebuilding practices. However, in the current situation of Cambodia, there seems to be several controversial issues which might be an indirect cause of the structural violence, such as aid-dependency, economic disparity between the urban rich and the rural and urban poor, and corruption of the Cambodian government. It is my contention that educational development assistance by JICA may have also negatively influenced peacebuilding and post-conflict reconstruction. Therefore, this study aims to explore and understand if Japanese foreign aid and JICA's support to Cambodian educational development is truly being positive peace or can it be said to be an indirect cause of structural violence. For this purpose, this study focuses JICA's motives for educational development in Cambodia.