JICA's Collaboration with NGO :: NGO-JICA Japan Desk(India)

1. JICA Partnership Programme (JPP)

In international cooperation, the role of NGOs has become increasingly important and therefore JICA Partnership Programme (JPP) was introduced in 2002. JPP is a technical cooperation programme implemented by JICA to contribute towards the social and economic development at the grass-roots level, in collaboration with partners in Japan, such as NGOs, universities, local governments and public interest corporations (hereinafter referred to as “Partners” in Japan).
Indian NGOs need to have a Japanese Partner to take part in this scheme. The Japanese Partner submits application written in Japanese language to a JICA domestic centre located in Japan.

2. Community Empowerment Programme (CEP)

CEP stands for Community Empowerment Program. This programme is to be formulated in partnership with JICA India Office and Indian NGOs, along with the on-going JICA-GOI (Government of India) project as core project, Therefore, the aims and objectives of activities of CEP is principally defined within the framework of core project. As per our policy JICA India Office is seeking collaboration with NGOs or Private Trusts, which can immediately serve as an integral part of our existing projects.

JICA's "NGO Partnership Programme" was a previous scheme for Japanese NGO's, Local Governments and Institutes. Under this scheme, a Japanese NGO – Asia Volunteer Centre (AVC) had implemented a development project in collaboration with an Indian NGO named Association for the Rural Poor (ARP), Chennai. The project title is "Promoting Women's Economic Independence though Assistance in Establishing a Sewing Workshop in Ambakkam, India".

Ambakkam is a village in Andhra Pradesh bordering Tamil Nadu where ARP has been working for the betterment of the poor and disadvantaged for the past 20 years. Under an earlier project, a Sewing Training Centre was constructed for dalit girls. This facility was set up for girls from poor families who are usually forced to work as low-income agricultural labourers, or are married off at an early age, are equipped to become economically and socially independent. However due to the lack of economic opportunities, the training in itself was found to be insufficient.

In order to overcome this problem, AVC, through JICA assistance, has constructed a workshop and provided technical assistance to upgrade sewing skills to marketing, workshop management and maintenance. An agreement for this project was signed between JICA and ARP on 14th March 2002. The construction of the new workshop was completed in March 2003.

A Follow-up Cooperation Programme was implemented in Uttar Pradesh to support the activities of a former JICA Trainee, who is working with the State Government at Lucknow. Under the programme, in FY 2004, JICA purchased benches and blackboards for rural schools in Etawah in collaboration with Centre for Social Research (CSR).