Restoration of Agriculture in Post-conflict Timor-Leste
Publisher: Haruka Satoh, Toshiyasu Suzuki, and Naori Miyazawa
Date: 2011
Topics: Cooperation, Dispute Resolution/Mediation, Governance, Renewable Resources
Countries: Timor-Leste
This case study contrasts the differing approaches employed by the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) and Peace Winds Japan (PWJ) in the reconstruction of agricultural infrastructure in Timor-Leste. JICA launched a project to increase local rice production and took a top-down approach with limited citizen participation and strong mechanized farming. By contrast, PWJ worked on coffee production to gain more foreign currency through exports. It prioritized citizen participation, cooperation with the community, and marketing. Unfortunately, while each project achieved some of its objectives, each project faces challenges to its long-term sustainability that could be addressed by further building local capacity, developing business plans, and maximizing the number of beneficiaries. This is especially important for PWJ since it received its third grant of official development assistance (ODA) through JICA in 2009, and it needs to ensure that the coffee production project becomes sustainable in local hands after PWJ’s support through ODA ends in 2011.1 Table 1 details the funding that PWJ has received to date for the coffee project.