One Village—One Product: The Case of JICA’s Community Empowerment Project in Kyrgyzstan

Abstract

On par with assisting CA governments in achieving their developmental goals, Japanese assistance also aims to support local capacity development at a grassroots level. The logic behind Japanese assistance to local capacity development projects is that most CA countries are presently at the stage of implementing structural reforms as part of their transition to new forms of society-building over the last 20 years. These societies have been facing various challenges, such as preservation of peace, “de-ideologization,” democratization, and “marketization,” to list just a few. In assisting these states, the donor community often focuses on assisting governments of these states and extends grants that support governmental development initiatives. However, most of these countries follow the top-to-bottom scheme of decision making in their approaches to dealing with various issues in their societies. On many occasions, this type of public policy leaves the public disengaged and detached. This, in turn, results in ineffective and counterproductive policy outcomes with respect to the goals initially pursued. There are, however, local indigenous institutions and local actors in place, which play important roles and offer additional options in addressing social, economic, and political conundrums, primarily at the community level.